Cobra Gold 18: Cooperative health engages the community as a whole

THAILAND

02.15.2018

Story by Staff Sgt. Jodi Eastham 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

LOPBURI, Thailand – Medical and dental professionals from the United States Navy educated students and parents of Bankhaotien School on dental hygiene and basic preventive medicine Feb. 15, 2018 at Bankhaotien School, Lopburi, Kingdom of Thailand as part of Exercise Cobra Gold 2018.
The cooperative health engagement (CHE) is a change from the medical symposium from past exercises. Community leaders wanted more involvement to better help their communities in small achievable ways.
“This started last year,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Nickita Brown, from Richmond, Virginia, who is an environmental health officer with Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit 5. “We had medical symposiums at schools and there were requests to set up for medical and dental visits.”
A classroom full of students paid attention to a Navy hospital corpsman who gave a demonstration with fake dentures on how to better clean their teeth. In another classroom parents were shown how and why washing hands is important.
“This health part has more to do with us integrating with the population itself,” said U.S. Navy HM1 Nathaniel Haven, from Salt Lake City, Utah, who is a dental hygienist with 1st Dental Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group. “The schools, the teachers, the families and the students; making an impact in their life so maybe they can trust the United States more, trust our military more.”
The CHE team travels around to several locations in the Kingdom of Thailand to educate communities in ways they can better care for themselves and increase their quality of life, said Brown. It’s a part of the global health engagement at the lower level.
“Learning is exponential,” said Haven. “You teach one person something and they teach somebody else. Parents teach children. Siblings teach each other.”
Working together to build up education amongst our partner nation’s communities supports growing knowledge and builds stronger bonds with the future who will remember and pass it on.

• Date Taken: 02.15.2018
• Date Posted: 02.18.2018 03:19
• Story ID: 266417
• Location: TH