Thu, 30 Dec 2010
By Chris Morris
Otago Daily Times Online (New Zealand)
Dunedin dentist Gary Marks had good reason to savour his Christmas dinner this year, having experienced a taste of the squalid conditions of a French colonial-era prison in Cambodia.
Mr Marks (61) returned to Dunedin last month after about four weeks working as a volunteer for an international dental school in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
The assignment included a week on Cambodia's south coast, working inside Kampot Prison helping supervise 15 dental students treating the facility's inmates.
Mr Marks told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the inmates' dental problems included chronic decay requiring numerous tooth extractions, but the challenges did not stop there.
Cramped and "fairly squalid" conditions meant the inmates slept about 50 people to a room, on thin mattresses over concrete floors, and health problems - including HIV, scabies and conjunctivitis - were prevalent, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment