A dentist with a passion for giving back to vulnerable communities is among the group of Australians recognised in this year's King's Birthday honours list. Dr Loc Lam came to Australia from Vietnam as a 16-year-old refugee. She regularly travels to remote areas of Vietnam and Nepal to provide dental services to those who would otherwise go without.
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00:00I came here in 1978 as a refugee and I know what it's like to go without, and the struggle
00:12to live without anything, and I always find that, you know, then I had a hole in my tooth
00:21and my mother had to save up for a while to be able to get me to go to the dentist and
00:27fix this up.
00:28I always remember those times, and then when I graduated, I worked, and then I again, you
00:37know, see the needs that the people that need to go and see the dentist but they can't afford
00:43it.
00:44Dental health's always been an area where you don't do it unless you have some spare
00:50cash.
00:51It's not, you know, to the normal people, it's not that important.
00:58You do your health first, if you're sick, you put food on the table, you put clothes
01:02on your kids, and then you can look after yourself if you've got something.
01:08So I always wanted to give back to the society what I have been given, the support that I've
01:16been given while I was at school and at uni, and help people who is in need to get them
01:23going.
01:24The way it's perceived by people that going to the dentist is expensive, and so the poorer
01:30class and especially in country where it's underdeveloped, you know, there's other areas
01:36that they develop, and like Nepal, for example, it's just extremely hard to get there, extremely
01:44hard to have a clinic there.
01:47Dentists who graduated from Nepal don't want to go to the mountain, why would I want to
01:51go up there?
01:53So, you know, I decided, okay, well, I'll go and do it for you, you know, once a year.