Long before I became a surgeon, I was drawn to humanitarian work.
As a dental student filled with idealism, I began volunteering in remote communities. My first experience was providing dental care in the mountains of northern Thailand. Looking back, I did not realize then that this journey would shape the rest of my career.
In the years that followed, I joined senior mentors in Cambodia, where we participated in rural water resource projects and established computer classes for children in underserved communities.
Later, I traveled with a humanitarian medical team to Timor-Leste shortly after the United Nations withdrawal, helping establish treatment facilities for the newly founded medical school at the National University of Timor-Leste.
