Most health care programmes in Cambodia are based around community centres in rural villages - our partners work with Treak Community Centre, a traditional Cambodia village about 4km to the south of Siem Reap. The centre is focused on meeting the needs of families who live on or just above the poverty line, and is all about creating opportunities for local people, rather than dependency. The project is ongoing and works to help people learn new skills, also increasing their own abilities, self-confidence and feelings of self-worth in the hope that these attributes will enable them to take control of their own futures.
As the centre operates in a poor village, they get people in real crisis coming to them for assistance: no money, no food, no baby milk, sickness, family bereavement etc.
Treak offers help through their Community Support programme, of which the main components are the garden programme - showing how people with little or no land can grow food for their families, the sewing programme - providing work for women of the village through the newly established social enterprise Treak Creations, and the brick-making and recycling programme - used to build useful structures in the village including the school itself, toilets for every home and even complete houses. Its most important function however is to enable people to receive help with dignity as anyone needing assistance pays for this through work on one of these community projects. The project manager, Salin, wants people to contribute in some way for the help they get by working at the centre etc. They also offer health care workshops when the opportunity arises, focusing on issues such as basic nutrition and health care practices.
Health care needs in the village of Treak are similar to those in most rural villages. In many of the villages there is no piped water supply, with all the water coming from community wells. Water has to be boiled or run through filters before it is safe to drink but 30% of families don't have water filters. Many villages have no sewage system - those families lucky enough to have a toilet have a simple collecting tank next to their toilet that has to be emptied out. In these circumstances basic health care practices that we would take for granted, such as washing hands after using the toilet, are often lacking. In addition, many families have never been taught good hygiene practices. Most children in Cambodia now attend school but this was not the case for their parents' generation, largely due to Cambodia's troubled political history. The community centre provides holistic support to those in the local community, including education programmes and vocational training for children and adults. A key part of this is health, first aid and nutrition training for children who attend classes at the centres and for the families in the local communities. They would welcome support in developing health and nutrition programmes, preparing resources and planning and helping to deliver workshops.
Treak Community Centre also operates the following programmes, all of which are free for the students:
School - focusing on teaching English, general studies and personal and social education (nearly 300 children)
Nursery - kindergarten education for 120 children, especially for the poorest families, encouraging engagement in education
Library - many families in the village don't own a single book and the children are hungry for the opportunity to read
These education programmes provide a structure for delivering health and first aid training to the children, and community training is often delivered first to the teachers who all speak fluent English and are able to access computer-based resources.
'I absolutely loved my experience at Treak Community Centre. I was welcomed by all and given all the support and information I needed to feel right at home straight away.' Volunteer, Sophie
Helping to improve health care by working alongside local people keen to develop their own skills and to help their communities is a really important way of enabling the people of Cambodia to break the cycle of poverty and take control of their own futures. If you have any of the skills listed at the top of this page, you can make a useful contribution here.
