Medical aid - Sidney Tan will visit Cambodia with a dental team to provide care to orphans
Thursday, January 17, 2008
MAYA BLACKMUN
The Oregonian Staff
TIGARD -- Sidney Tan, a Tigard High School sophomore, wants to help orphans in need of dental care, see his ancestral land of Cambodia and visit its world renowned Angkor Wat temple.
He will get that chance when he leaves today for Cambodia as part of a dental service mission with Tigard-based Medical Teams International.
"I've heard so much about it from my parents," said Tan, 15, who speaks Khmer. "You can't get the experience until you see it for yourself."
He will join about one dozen other team members from Oregon and Washington on the two-week trip. Dr. Dale Canfield of Lake Oswego started the almost annual missions in 2002 and has delivered dental supplies that he and other dentists, along with local companies, donated. The nonprofit international relief and development agency, originally called Northwest Medical Teams, started in 1979 with its first medical mission to assist Cambodian refugees escaping the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.
Donations from members of the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon are covering the costs of the trip for Tan and Davin Mao, a junior at Sunset High School in the Beaverton School District.
R.S. Tang, president of the Cambodian group whose members paid for a student to go on the trip last year, said the organization wants Cambodian American youths to maintain a sense of their heritage, culture and identity. He said the teens will get a chance to help others and get a glimpse into a profession they might pursue.
The teens will clean dental utensils, help escort patients and otherwise assist the team of dental professionals in providing care to more than 500 orphans in the region near Pursat.
Tan looks forward to going to the area, where a maternal aunt was held in a camp by the Khmer Rouge: "Maybe to see, 'Here was where my aunt was standing 30 years ago.' "
The trip includes time for sightseeing. Tan hopes to get to know the country on his first visit. He wants to see its rural areas, with the many miles of rice fields. He wants a fuller understanding of its people and the struggles of the poor.
His mother, Koann, was sent at his age to a Khmer Rouge labor camp and later witnessed five executions. She came to the United States after the genocide.
His father, Simsundareth, a colonel in the Oregon Army National Guard who served as a combat adviser in Afghanistan, immigrated to the United States as a teenager with his family. Even today in Cambodia, he advises his son to be careful with minefields.
The teenager said he feels lucky, like other generations who benefit from the suffering and sacrifices of immigrants. He can navigate his world to get involved in school and the community, serving as secretary of Tigard High's sophomore class and also the Tigard Youth Advisory Council. He can pursue interests such as Tien Tae Jitsu, a combination of martial arts.
"But still, I have ties to Cambodia," Tan said.
He is secretary of the Cambodian American organization's youth group and a member of its dance team.
And yet there is still so much to learn. His parents and brother, Andy, 11, hope someday to go to Cambodia as a family.
Understanding Cambodia cannot come in a single trip, Tan said: "It will definitely take more than once."
Thursday, January 17, 2008
MAYA BLACKMUN
The Oregonian Staff
TIGARD -- Sidney Tan, a Tigard High School sophomore, wants to help orphans in need of dental care, see his ancestral land of Cambodia and visit its world renowned Angkor Wat temple.
He will get that chance when he leaves today for Cambodia as part of a dental service mission with Tigard-based Medical Teams International.
"I've heard so much about it from my parents," said Tan, 15, who speaks Khmer. "You can't get the experience until you see it for yourself."
He will join about one dozen other team members from Oregon and Washington on the two-week trip. Dr. Dale Canfield of Lake Oswego started the almost annual missions in 2002 and has delivered dental supplies that he and other dentists, along with local companies, donated. The nonprofit international relief and development agency, originally called Northwest Medical Teams, started in 1979 with its first medical mission to assist Cambodian refugees escaping the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.
Donations from members of the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon are covering the costs of the trip for Tan and Davin Mao, a junior at Sunset High School in the Beaverton School District.
R.S. Tang, president of the Cambodian group whose members paid for a student to go on the trip last year, said the organization wants Cambodian American youths to maintain a sense of their heritage, culture and identity. He said the teens will get a chance to help others and get a glimpse into a profession they might pursue.
The teens will clean dental utensils, help escort patients and otherwise assist the team of dental professionals in providing care to more than 500 orphans in the region near Pursat.
Tan looks forward to going to the area, where a maternal aunt was held in a camp by the Khmer Rouge: "Maybe to see, 'Here was where my aunt was standing 30 years ago.' "
The trip includes time for sightseeing. Tan hopes to get to know the country on his first visit. He wants to see its rural areas, with the many miles of rice fields. He wants a fuller understanding of its people and the struggles of the poor.
His mother, Koann, was sent at his age to a Khmer Rouge labor camp and later witnessed five executions. She came to the United States after the genocide.
His father, Simsundareth, a colonel in the Oregon Army National Guard who served as a combat adviser in Afghanistan, immigrated to the United States as a teenager with his family. Even today in Cambodia, he advises his son to be careful with minefields.
The teenager said he feels lucky, like other generations who benefit from the suffering and sacrifices of immigrants. He can navigate his world to get involved in school and the community, serving as secretary of Tigard High's sophomore class and also the Tigard Youth Advisory Council. He can pursue interests such as Tien Tae Jitsu, a combination of martial arts.
"But still, I have ties to Cambodia," Tan said.
He is secretary of the Cambodian American organization's youth group and a member of its dance team.
And yet there is still so much to learn. His parents and brother, Andy, 11, hope someday to go to Cambodia as a family.
Understanding Cambodia cannot come in a single trip, Tan said: "It will definitely take more than once."
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