Reflections
WONG ZHI YING
I was interested in joining Sothea because I knew I wanted to live my med school life to the fullest and wanted to impact a community greater than myself. I think it is incredibly meaningful to use my skills and knowledge to uplift and help the villagers in rural Battambang and carrying out education and health screenings. When I attended the different tea sessions, Sothea stood out to me the most as it really felt like a big family made up of passionate and capable individuals who genuinely wanted to make a change in the community, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of Sothea. Looking back now, this cannot be more true. I had the opportunity to work with 14 other amazing people, and after going through so many ups and downs with them - from making adjustments to our plans due to last minute changes, to bonding with our Camby Wing till late at night - I think I have really found a family within Sothea.
In Ops, we do the behind the scenes logistics work such as booking of flights & hotel, catering for food & water, ordering of drugs from pharmacies and much more! I would consider myself a rather organised and structured person, and I wanted to be a comm where I could contribute to the best of my abilities. Although we may not be directly planning the health screening, we do really meaningful work like making sure everyone is well fed, well hydrated and that everyone can sleep comfortably on the way to the villages! 🔨💊🛏 My Ops team, Jai and Victoria are one of the most amazing people to work with and Ops will be a great fit for you if you enjoy planning behind the scenes logistics, want to have a committee who is very open to one another, and even have late night heart to heart talks at our hotel rooftop ❤️
My favourite memory in Sothea has got to be bonding with our Camby Wing. During this May trip, we managed to form really strong bonds with all of them and they really helped us so much in executing the project. Some of us spent many late nights in the hotel room crocheting Sothea flowers/coasters for all of them, and we even hand painted personalised cards with their faces on them. Seeing them guess who was drawn on each card and reading our notes was truly an invaluable memory :”) During our 3 day R&R in Phnom Penh, our amazing Camby Wing even took the time out of their busy schedules to drive us around Phnom Penh with their motorbikes and visit places such as the Royal Palace, carnivals, thrift shops and so on! All of us are really close to our Camby Wing and we can’t wait to meet them with the M1s in Dec! 🇰🇭👫
My biggest takeaway from Sothea has to be how small actions can make a big impact on others. Sometimes I do wonder if our 3 day long health screening can really make a long term impact on the villagers. However, after going back for a second time in May, I realised that many villagers are still taking the medication we give them, and the children still remember the education lessons we teach them, such as learning how to brush their teeth. During our Dec trip, I got really close to a boy, Nara. When we left after our health screening, he started crying because of how much he’ll miss us, and a couple of us started tearing up too. One of my project mates Yuh Wen gave him a cat pin for him to remember us. To our surprise, he recognised us when we returned in May and even came up to hug me and cried in my arms, and he was also holding the pin we gave him 5 months ago!! I realised that no matter how small our actions may seem, we actually do leave a big impact on the villagers we help, and that to me is exactly why I love Sothea 🌼❤️
CLAIRE CHEW
After attending Sotheats, I truly felt that it was such a well-planned event, and I thought to myself, if our seniors can make such a simple event so memorable, imagine what we can do as a whole committee when we work together 😆😆 Collaborating with my friends in both SG and Cambodia is also such a rewarding experience, and every memory we have together only strengthens my #whysothea 🌼🤍
As our project has a clear end-goal and exit plan in mind, joining Health has enabled me to carry out our work with foresight and take more deliberate steps into building sustainable local health networks in the villages that we serve. Being a part of Health is so much more than leading health screenings — we get to connect with the local villagers, interact with health professionals and bring the necessary screening services to improve and serve the health needs of our partner villages.
I’ve also learnt more about clear and efficient communication while liaising with our external partner clinics, and I’m glad that our work in Health is able to set apart our health screening from the rest :”) It’s heartwarming to see everyone putting in their best effort for Sothea <3 To be honest, there are some areas of improvement that Project Sothea can work on, and to have everyone working alongside each other to overcome our struggles/limitations is what we strive to do! Truly small things with great love, and we make every little bit count 😌🫶🏼 I hope that our time in Project Sothea will inspire us to continue serving those in need, and I’m glad that this experience has challenged me to explore further into community service beyond our local community. Put your hard work and heart work into Project Sothea!! We’re looking forward for you to join us 🫵🏼🩵💛
ANDRE LIM
As a freshie I was also very overwhelmed and slightly confused by the many OCIPs which seemed to be going to the same country and doing the same kind of work. However I finally made up my mind on Sothea for a few reasons.
Firstly, I really liked our project’s emphasis on sustainability. Project Sothea is the only OCIP with a dual comm structure, with each member being a part of a main committee and a RnD committee. This unique feature of our project helps us to better achieve our goal of making a lasting impact on these villages and exiting them after ensuring they are well equipped with adequate knowledge of how to take care of their health.
Secondly, I really liked the Sothea “vibe” HAHAHA. Interacting with my Sothea seniors at CommServe and at Sothea’s Tea Session, the members of the project just felt really wholesome and I really enjoyed myself talking to them! Lastly, Sothea’s motto “Small Things with Great Love” really resonated with me. I’m sure you will here this phrase on the tip of every Sothean’s tongue, and it was just a motto that I felt strongly for, doing everything we do, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, with all the love and effort we can afford it 🙂 Being in line with Sothea’s focus on sustainability, I believe education is one of the most powerful tools in instilling a long lasting impact in people, and I wanted to be a part of that! Being able to come up with education packages on issues that i feel the most for (we crafted a education package on dental hygiene for our second trip after seeing all the kids with caries on our first trip…) is such a cool and rewarding experience. Being in education also allows for many opportunities to interact with lots of new people!! Idk why when I came into Sothea I thought that it will be only all fun and crazy exciting experiences. NOT SAYING that my experience has been anything short of that but only when I was a member of Sothea did I fully grasp the amount of work and effort that goes into the project behind the scenes that I wasn’t exposed to when I was applying for the project. It can get busy at times but if you feel strongly enough for our mission, seeing the work we put in come to fruition on the trips is so very rewarding!!
I think my biggest takeaway from Sothea is how eye-opening the experience has been. Being in these villages in person, learning about their healthcare scene, witnessing how welcoming and endearing the children are, and experiencing how simply the villagers lead their lives, really puts into perspective how fortunate we are and reminds me not to take what i have for granted when i return back home 🙂