KATE SAUNDERS - Taranaki Daily News
Last updated 05:00 23/12/2010
ANDY JACKSON/Taranaki Daily News
VOLUNTEERING ABROAD: Occupational therapist Tara Morrison is heading to Cambodia to do voluntary rehabilitation work with those with disabilities.
Tara Morrison is packing insect repellent and sunscreen this summer – but not for a trip to the beach.
Instead, Ms Morrison is travelling to Cambodia to volunteer her services as an occupational therapist.
The 22-year-old has just finished her honours thesis while working at Taranaki Base Hospital, and is ready for a new challenge.
The trip to Cambodia became a reality when she got in touch with Projects Abroad, a volunteering organisation.
She will work with Veterans International, a non-government organisation which assists in the rehabilitation of Cambodian war victims living with disabilities.
"The focus will be on getting individuals mobile again, completing daily activities and using compensatory strategies," Ms Morrison said.
The work will include sorting wheelchair settings, working with amputees and prosthetics. "Disability has a huge stigma over there, so it's about educating the families, and making sure individuals can engage back into society."
Occupational therapy is a vocation she feels passionately about. Her father suffered brain injury after a bitumen explosion at Port Taranaki eight years ago and is a paraplegic. "I've seen how [occupational therapy] has transformed his life and ours as a family."
She also hoped the experience would provide her with more skills and shape her occupational therapy career. "I haven't had lots of experience working with amputees and they don't have the resources that we do in New Zealand, so it should extend my knowledge."
She will spend four weeks working, before travelling through Vietnam and returning to a job at the hospital. "I've been really fortunate that the hospital has rehired me and given me two months off to do this."
She was also grateful for the support she had received from friends and family, as well as donations from New Plymouth businesses.
She returned to Taranaki this year after completing a bachelor of health at Otago Polytechnic.
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