By Fatin Nabihah Marzuki
PHNOM PENH: Some 60 boys watched curiously as a vehicle ferrying 27 volunteers from Malaysia entered the compound of the Istiqbal Al’Azim mosque in the impoverished fishing village of Takmo, a 30-minute drive from the Cambodian capital.
The boys, aged between seven and 15, looked unkempt and seemed anxious, their hands firmly holding onto the worn-out sarongs they were wearing.
Their trepidation was understandable as they were about to be circumcised by a volunteer medical team from the Humanitarian Malaysian Medical Aid Society (MedicAid).
For the Muslim folks of Takmo village, it was a new experience as it was the first time volunteers had come there to conduct the circumcision ritual for their children for free. Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin and in Islam, male children are required to undergo this procedure.
The circumcision programme was part of MedicAid’s medical and humanitarian mission to Cambodia from Aug 29 to Sept 3. About 200 boys from Takmo as well as Kouk Pou in Bourei Cholsar district, Takeo province – about 82.5 kilometres from Phnom Penh – were circumcised under the initiative.
Golden opportunity
As soon as they arrived at the Takmo village mosque, the MedicAid volunteers immediately set out to look for a suitable space to perform the circumcision. They found a small room, believed to be the mosque’s hall, with about 20 wooden tables and benches.
Fortunately, the tables were still sturdy and served as ideal “operating tables”.
“The tables here happen to be the best ones we had ever come across since we embarked on our (free circumcision) programme six years ago,” remarked MedicAid president Dr Syariz Izry Sehat.
While some of the volunteers arranged the medicines neatly on a table and sterilised and disinfected the medical equipment, others distributed colourful balloons and bags filled with snacks to the children. To momentarily allay their fears while awaiting their turn to be circumcised, the youngsters were treated to cartoons screened using a projector.
Approaching one of them, a 12-year-old named Salleh, this writer asked him how he felt. Unlike most of the other boys, Salleh seemed cheerful and mature and said, “I want to fulfil my responsibility as a good Muslim.”
Apparently, some of the boys were reluctant to undergo the circumcision ritual as they were too scared and their parents had to bring them to the mosque forcibly.
Outwardly, the parents’ actions seemed inappropriate but then the MedicAid programme may have been their only chance to get their young sons circumcised free of charge.
In Cambodia, circumcision procedures are rather costly, with the rates ranging from US$80 to US$100 (about RM376 to RM469) per person.
According to the World Bank’s 2022 statistics, Muslims comprised two to five percent of Cambodia’s population of 16.8 million. The Muslims here are mostly of Cham, Khmer and Javanese descent and reside in fishing villages around the Lake Tonlé Sap and Mekong River areas, as well as in other provinces such as Takeo and Kampot.
The Muslims here are an impoverished community, most of them earning a living as fishermen and farmers or running petty businesses and unable to afford medical services including circumcision. In the case of the latter, they rely heavily on the free services offered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
First time
Pointing to MedicAid’s circumcision programme, Masjid Istiqbal Al’Azim head Binyamin Yakkop, 60, said it was the first such service by an NGO in their village.
“We’ve had NGOs coming here to donate goods and clothes. But this is the first time an NGO is coming here to perform the circumcision ritual for free. When the villagers first heard about the programme, they were so happy,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the children from Bourei Cholsar district (in Takeo province) who were also involved in MedicAid’s circumcision programme hailed from 16 villages located on the nearby islands.
Accompanied by their parents who wanted to take advantage of the free circumcision service offered by the NGO, they travelled an hour by boat to get to the Dakhel Abdolah Othman Al-Dakhel Center in Kouk Pou where the procedure was carried out.
MedicAid’s Dr Syariz Izry, 47, who has taken part in humanitarian missions since 2015 including to Syria, Turkey and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, told Bernama there is vast scope and opportunities for him and his colleagues to assist Cambodia’s Muslim community.
“If we were to look at Cambodia’s demographics, it is a very ‘young’ country. It only became free (in 1979) after the rule of Pol Pot (and his brutal Khmer Rouge regime) ended. But they (Muslims) lead a hard life. Some are farmers, others are fishermen. It’s because of that we feel called to help them,” said Dr Syariz Izry, a paediatric surgeon.
Valuable experience
To date, MedicAid has provided free circumcision to over 1,000 children from various provinces in Cambodia.
Relating his past experiences, Dr Syariz Izry said he and his fellow volunteers have performed circumcision in all types of locations and situations – even on very old tables and dirt floors as well as in places bereft of electricity which is usually the case in the madrasah or Islamic religious schools located in remote areas.
In the absence of power supply, the team uses headlights and other gadgets to do the procedure.
“Regardless of their locations, we treat all the children the same way… we give them our best services,” he said.
He also said MedicAid has been offering free surgery to children at Hospital Beyond Boundaries (HBB) in Phnom Penh since 2017, adding that over 100 patients, mostly those with hernia issues, have been operated so far.
“The surgery costs are borne by us, including the cost for the use of surgical instruments, medicines and room at HBB. Even though we have our own surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses, we still pay around US$150-US$200 (about RM704-RM939) for each surgery to HBB,” he said, adding MedicAid is the only NGO that performs free surgeries in Cambodia.
HBB is a community hospital established by a Malaysian NGO in May 2022 to help needy groups in Cambodia obtain free medical treatment and care.
Recalling an unforgettable experience he and his colleagues had whilst operating on a 14-year-old religious school student who had hernia, Dr Syariz Izry said although the boy was under sedation, he kept on reciting verses from the al-Quran.
“It was (happening) at a very subconscious level. Ordinary people (in that situation) will not be conscious at all but this boy could still continue reciting the verses perfectly.
“Interestingly, when he made a mistake whilst reciting a certain verse, one of us corrected him and he corrected himself. From this, we all knew the al-Quran was deeply embedded in the boy’s heart and soul,” he said.
Transfer of skills
Dr Syariz Izry, meanwhile, expressed his desire to transfer medical knowledge and skills to Cambodian Muslims, saying the community has only recently started showing signs of progress.
“Six years ago when I came here, not a single person was good at performing circumcisions. Now that we have come here on our missions several times, we have trained some of them to do the procedure. We also assist by providing them with the medical instruments they need. This is what we call the transfer of simple skills.
“For higher level skills, for example, the skills needed to perform a surgery, I can train them (local medical students),” he said.
On the criteria to become a MedicAid volunteer, Dr Syariz Izry said they must have experience working in the medical field as only then will they know what to do when they are on duty during a mission.
“They will know the flow of things… for example, if we are going to circumcise 100 children, I will need at least four persons who can perform the procedure and four nurses to assist them. We will also need people to assist the nurses to ensure the whole process runs smoothly,” he explained.
MedicAid currently has 60 to 70 volunteers comprising both medical and non-medical personnel.
One of their volunteers Dr Anis Siham Zainal Abidin, who is a paediatric intensive care unit consultant at a private hospital in Subang Jaya, said since 2012, she has been taking part in voluntary activities in and outside the country and since 2017, she has been participating in MedicAid’s Cambodian circumcision programme.
“Most of the circumcision programmes are exhausting because we have to work from morning till our work ends. But the exciting part is when we go overseas, we don’t know what awaits us or what the people around us will be like… we don’t even know where we will stay as we go to different places each time. “But at MedicAid we have friends with whom we go through the same experiences. We just
