Another wonderful chance to visit our sponsored children in Cambodia: Part 2

Following on from Friday’s post, here’s part 2 of Steve and Carolyne’s trip to Cambodia. You can read Part 1 here.

Today they get the chance to see another of their sponsored children and learn a little more about the facilities World Vision have helped install and meet just one of the lucky recipients of care and support from the health centre. Watch out for ‘Mighty Mouse’.

Here’s Steve again:

On day two, on the way to the ADP office, Dinna took us to a primary school, where we met the Head Teacher and his committee. One of the roles of the committee is to monitor attendance and meet with families where the children have been absent or withdrawn from school. The committee then works with World Vision to help get these kids back into education.

There are 510 children enrolled in the school, where the children attend classes either in the morning, or the afternoon, with each “shift” lasting for four hours. There are 10 teachers, most of whom work both shifts. On any given day there are about 15 absences and typically 25 drop outs. We also got to spend some time in a classroom of 7-8 year olds where we taught them to count in English and the kids taught us to count in Khmer. Needless to say there was lots of laughter!

Meeting Thyda

Then at last, we arrived at the ADP office and we hardly got out of the truck before receiving a big hug from Thyda, who was quick to point out that he is now taller – by some 2 inches – than Carolyne! Thyda is now almost 20 and we have been sponsoring him for about 11 years. His elder brother, who works for World Vision, was also there to greet us.

Thyda’s English has come on leaps and bounds since we last saw him and he was keen to practice on us. He told us about his school work and that he will graduate from High School this October and is very keen to go to university, where he wants to learn journalism and politics. We talked about the particular university he wanted to attend and how much a four year degree course would cost (approximately US$2,000). With a very serious straight face he told us that his ultimate goal is to become Prime Minister!

Lunch with Thyda

Then it was off to lunch, where the conversation dried up as Thyda ate enough for three people! After lunch it was present-giving time. From letter exchanges we had with Thyda, over the past year, we realized that he had very little insight into world geography, so we brought him an Atlas. He was fascinated with this and we must have spent thirty minutes going through it with him. We also brought soccer and volleyballs (with a pump) for his youth group, and some clothing and toiletries for him.

Then it was time for us to go back to Battambang, so we said our goodbyes, promised to write to each other soon and gave and received lots of hugs.

The community health centre

Two years ago, when we were last in Cambodia, we visited a health centre in an ADP, which is also in the North West, in one of the poorest areas of Cambodia. A couple of years ago, Carolyne and I had led a fund raising drive to raise money to support the centre.

The aim of the centre is to reduce the mortality rate, which at the time was running at 10% for children under the age of 5. Through a programme of pre and post natal care which focuses on hygiene, nutrition, immunization and birthing, the centre is already showing signs of success. It’s run by an incredibly dedicated, skilled and passionate team of 11 nurses, 5 of whom are volunteers. In 2012, 99% of all births took place at the centre and 85% of children are now immunized against all the relevant diseases.

All mothers (and their children) are invited to attend nutrition/cooking classes, where they are taught to cook nutritious meals for their families, using the ingredients they have access to, as opposed to what they might like to have!

‘Mighty Mouse’

While at the centre two years ago, we met a child that we nicknamed ‘Mighty Mouse’. He was just one day old and had been born at the centre. We took a photo of him as he was being held by his proud Grandmother. Sometime after we had returned home, we couldn’t get him out of our minds and kept wondering whether he would be a survivor and really benefit from the new health centre. We shared our concern with World Vision and they were able to trace him from his date of birth. We learned that his name is Brosthean, and his Mum’s name is Sdeoung.

On this trip, a follow-up visit to the centre was part of our itinerary and the coordinator at the ADP was able to set up a visit to meet Sdeoung, Brosthean, his little brother of 9 months and Cherup, their Grandmother.

Brosthean is as healthy and sturdy as any two year old that you’ll find anywhere. He’s into everything, chasing chickens and tearing around all the time. He runs his poor Gran ragged and by the end of the visit we had decided that ‘Road Runner’ was probably a more appropriate nickname for him!

We were able to have a good conversation with Sdeoung about her life. She told us that her husband had to go to Thailand (about 80 miles away) to work as there is no work where the family lives. He wires money to her every month and comes home to visit every six months, especially to plant rice for the wet season. She maintains a vegetable garden, for family consumption and keeps some chickens.

Our visit to the centre concluded our Cambodia visit with World Vision and we returned to Siem Reap, for a few days of tourist stuff. We left very impressed with all that World Vision do in Cambodia and the way in which they do it. All their programmes are designed to be self-sustaining. I could go on and on… but I’ll stop now.

Hopefully, in two years we’ll be back for more!

Thanks for reading,

Steve & Carolyne

Thanks so much to Steve and Carolyne for sharing their stories with us. We love the number of tales that our sponsors come back from the field with when they go out to visit.

It’s good to see that they thought of taking a pump along with the balls they gave Thyda and it got us wondering what is your favourite gift you’ve sent over to your sponsored child? Share your ideas and inspiration with other child sponsors over on our Facebook page here, where you can find what others like to give.