Life-saving health messages reach Cambodia's rural communities
Years of conflict have made Cambodia’s healthcare system one of the weakest in the world. People living in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. That’s why VSO volunteers like Dr Suzanna van Schaick are making difficult journeys into remote communities to share knowledge and advice that will save lives.
At Thmey Health Centre in Kratie District, Cambodia, Suzanna has a captive audience. She holds two photographs aloft: the first features a toddler in nappies, the second a university graduate in his mortarboard and gown.
‘This is my son,’ Suzanna tells the crowd. ‘He was breastfed for six months – just like we tell you to do. Now he is a healthy 28-year-old man!’
The 25 women sitting in front of Suzanna laugh to each other and strain to see the pictures. The only male in attendance looks slightly bemused. Their wives do breastfeed, but they often start quite late and they often substitute breast milk for rice water.
The realities of rural Cambodia
Thmey Health Centre is some six kilometres from the nearest paved road. In the dry season the track to the centre is a dusty, bumpy ride. In the rainy season it’s practically impassable. Susanna and her colleagues Leang and Sony have travelled there for one of a series of 12 health education meetings funded by VSO.
Many local people from this very rural part of Cambodia are fishers or farmers scraping together a living. They’re trying to get by on less than two dollars a day. They are poorly educated and aren’t equipped with the basic health knowledge that we in the UK take for granted. They haven’t been told that smoking is bad for you, that you should wash your hands after using the toilet, that you should go to see the doctor if you’re sick.
That’s why these health education meetings are so vital. They cover topics such as basic hygiene and healthy living practises, the importance of accessing health facilities during pregnancy and the effects of smoking.
Nutrition brought to life
Suzanna brings her breastfeeding talk to a close and turns to nutrition. She produces a cooking pot and passes photos of cheap, locally available meat and vegetables around the group.
‘Can you tell me which food I should use to cook a dinner that will help me get iron, folic acid and lots of other nutrients?’ Suzanna asks. The women compare photos and place them in Suzanna’s pot, ready for a nutritious fictitious dinner.
Bringing issues to life like this is the best way to engage people and to get the message across in a way that is interesting and memorable. Suzanna is a dab hand at this: back in the UK she was a doctor with many years of experience in medical education.
Sharing skills with Cambodian colleagues
Here in Cambodia, Suzanna’s job title is Behaviour Change Communication Adviser. She is training Leang and Sony in health education and participatory techniques so that they’ll be able to continue running the health education meetings when she returns to the UK.
Leang is keen to adopt Suzanna’s style of teaching: ‘Suzanna has some good techniques for teaching people about health,’ she says. ‘Her methods show people what she means and help people to understand the subject better.’
Health education for hundreds
Thanks to meetings led by Leang, Sony and Suzanna, up to 350 women will receive basic health education. We may call it basic, but it has the potential to save lives. If a small boy washes his hands after going to the toilet, for example, he’s got a significantly reduced chance of getting diarrhoea, a disease that kills 1.5 million children every year.
Suzanna is realistic but upbeat about what she can achieve in her time in Cambodia: ‘If only two of the people we meet today go home and do something differently or say something to their families about what they’ve learnt, then we are achieving something.’
