Welcome, dear Jason

Jason will be joining our team in Cambodia in October 2025. The medical student will be working at our children's hospital in Siem Reap for two months. Here he introduces himself.

Jason Keller, 23, Erlenbach ZH

My decision to study medicine was, in a sense, a coincidence. Although I was particularly interested in the natural sciences during my time at high school, I didn't have any concrete plans to go into medicine at that time. But when I passed the entrance exam and started my studies, I quickly realized that I had come to the right place. In the years that followed, I was confronted with a wealth of learning material and information that often didn't seem directly related at first. But with each passing semester, I gained a better understanding of how complex and wonderfully interconnected all the processes in our bodies are. To this day, I am fascinated and sometimes even a little perplexed by the physiological miracles our bodies perform every day. It is precisely this feeling of learning something new and fascinating every day that keeps me in medicine. And even today, I am excited to see what I will discover tomorrow.

My work at Jayavarman VII Hospital is driven by my desire to learn about different medical systems outside Switzerland. I am convinced that experiences gained abroad contribute to becoming a more comprehensive doctor later on. Cambodia as a country has an incredibly difficult history behind it, and yet everything I heard and read before my trip was marked by the remarkable hospitality and warmth of the Cambodian people. I am very interested in getting to know the people better, despite the language barriers. People who, despite a recent past, look to the future with hope and strength.

I expect to encounter a different kind of medicine, adapted to the realities of life for a population that faces different challenges than we do in Switzerland. To my knowledge, the Kantha Bopha hospitals are the only children's hospitals of this size in the country, and a visit to the hospital means a considerably greater effort for many families – not only financially, but also in terms of organization. The mere fact that for some families this involves a long journey shows the importance and significance that medical care can have there.

I also expect to become more aware of the limitations of modern medicine. Not in terms of a lack of knowledge, but in terms of limited resources and infrastructure challenges. There will certainly be situations where you have to make do with what is available, and I see this as a great learning opportunity. I hope to develop a better sense of how to help effectively even with simple means, without losing sight of the dignity or needs of patients.

Quite selfishly, I am looking forward to exploring a country that is new to me as part of this project. Ancient temples like Angkor Wat are at the top of my to-do list, but I'm also very interested in the history and conflicts that are partly associated with them, and I would like to explore this in more depth while I'm there. I've also heard that there are opportunities to get out of the city for a few days and experience Cambodia's nature on trekking tours. As a medical student, you naturally think about certain risks and diseases that you would rather not catch, but with a little preparation, that shouldn't be a problem. It could be a bit more problematic when my sensitive stomach doesn't agree with Asian cuisine. But I hope that will settle down after the first few weeks at the latest.