The Journey of Service-Learning: Promoting Health and Quality of Life for Slum Residents in Cambodia

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) updates and enriches the accessible resources and measures, such as tools for well-being, the global index of happiness, and global quality of life. Seeing that health is a basic human right as well as a key indicator of quality of life, the School of Nursing in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed the Service-Learning (SL) programme namely “Healthy lifestyle challenges in developing communities”. Cambodia is the first service site, where access and resources on health care are limited and expensive. The teaching team believes that some of the risk factors leading to the top ten causes of death can be reduced through health promotion activities. Experiential learning and outcome assessments are the methods of teaching and learning in SL, putting emphasis on how students can learn to serve and serve to learn. The challenges of the SL programme are the sustainability of service and empowerment of local stakeholders for committing to developing their own SL programme in meeting the needs of Cambodians. Meanwhile, our vision is one of developing PolyU students in global citizenship and leadership through provision of scholarships with the necessary resources and support in real-world practice.