In the Bible reveals God’s attitude toward orphans and widows: He cares very deeply for them. God commands us to protect and care for orphans and widows (Psalm 82:3).

Recently, Serve Cambodia has helped a boy from Harvest of Hope Centre who is living with a single mother and two brothers. He has joined HOH since he was 7 years old. He is a mature, kind, industrial with his study and never being lazy, he keeps coming to school even he gets sick as he could. Since he was 5, while he was playing around with other boys in the village, he crushed the nail into his left upper eyelid. When the mother returned from work she only applied tiger balm on it and will never note that it is a severe injury. Until the boy turned to 7 years old the scar has been developing as a tumour on the skin of his eyelid.

Husbands and fathers play an irreplaceable role in a family. When the man is not there, the wife and child can suffer in many ways. Sadly, because the mother is so poor and won’t be able to bring her boy to the hospital for any checkup or treatment. Likewise, she has no job because of getting older with blurry vision and won’t be able to sew a good clothe like before, so she was halted from the work.

We concern about this and we share this news to our partners finding the supporters to cover on his eyes operation. We are really thankful for our friends in Australia for their generous support, care and pray for this boy.

Finally, from 25^th of February 2019, we assisted this boy to get a good treatment in one government hospital, called: Preah Ong Doung Hospital.  After blood testing, CT scan and diagnosis from the specialist Doctors, his eye was found that there was a tumour which needs the operation immediately. Until on 28^th  of Feb 2019, he got the surgery successfully.

Then the tumour was researched whether it is the cancerous tumour or non-cancerous tumour. And on 20^th of March 2019, we brought him to the hospital again for the finalized result. Fortunately, there is no evidence of malignancy.

All things considered, this is our pleasure to look around who need help and attention like this. Significantly, Serve Cambodia found that there is a tremendous blessing in serving and standing up for orphans and widows as well.

by Nineaka “Nika” Sim (Serve Cambodia’s School Nurse)

First Aid · HOH · Medical · Nineaka · Praise Point

In order to help people in the remote and poor areas is what Serve Cambodia have tried our best and seek for many ways to assist people both children and adults in the health sector and other as well as giving education. Most Cambodians who are living in slum or dump areas and remote villages are getting hard to learn about healthcare education. Understanding of prevention often can be hard for them to take time to learn beside spending their whole daily life for picking up rubbishes, etc. to earn a tiny income.

Recently, the Medical Outreach project of Serve Cambodia has collaborated with Medical Mission Direct to provide a short clinic service in purpose to see they have a better health. Moreover, we do the short training during clinic service as relevant hypertension, diabetes, skin care, acknowledge taking medication correctly. Surely, they will be hardly alleviated if they don’t understand the prevention. We examined their blood pressure, blood sugar and advise them to take bath properly, regularly and hygiene living which could help them to evade any diseases.

Furthermore, for the people in Bakou village (it is called dump area because it is located at a rubbish dump) are getting many skin infections and allergies.  Likewise, they are working daily in the whole day with rubbishes for their livelihood so most of them get a skin infection, dry skin, rash, itching, and allergy. Despite their toil, they do not even have sufficient time or money for their health or medication. We cleaned and put some cream or gave some basic medications and bandage the wound for the children as well. Another key thing to remember is that the people do not have time for exercise outside of their work all day which effects to their muscle and causes physical problems such as get pain or hard to move for some parts of their bodies. Consequently, we taught them some physical exercise instructions which is a helpful and short time in just 5 minutes so they can do every day.

As we had a short time for each place we spent half a day for the community around TLC centre, half a day for the community around HOH centre plus one full day for Bakou village. There are 49 children and 37 adults got this medical checkup during that time.

Above all, we are so exhilarated to give this service to such needy people and get to know their situation. We believe that we still can further opportunities to help these people in further cooperation. Thank you so much to Mission Direct for their help, and also to the other people who donate money for Serve Cambodia’s medical outreach work in our community. Without your help we would be unable to do these things.

by Nineaka Sim (Serve Cambodia’s School Nurse)

First Aid · Happy Village · HOH · Medical · TLC

In Serve Cambodia’s Medical Outreach project, we pay close attention to all children in our centers and our communities as well. We have a number of strategies for providing support.

Most Cambodians in remote villages in the province or on the outskirts of the city have difficulty obtaining or getting healthcare education. Their financial circumstance compel them to focus on earning an income rather than taking time to absorb healthcare education. However hard people work, when someone in their family gets sick their money quickly disappears because of the cost of medical care. We are trying to educate people to realize that prevention is better than treatment.

We provide all the children and community with basic healthcare training, a dental care checkup twice a year, and BMI screening for the children every trimester. (BMI is a ratio of a person’s height and weight and while it does not specifically measure body fat but can be an indicator of body fatness). Every student needs some body fat but having too much body fat can put them at risk of health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Having too little body fat is also unhealthy. Thus, every trimester all students have their BMI measured to ensure that their health is cared for and those with diet issues are given support and advice.

Thus we are working on how we can fix this problem by providing basic healthcare training for both children and community.

Another important strand of our work is to work on basic hygiene. Hygiene is a term for various practices that help preserve a person’s well-being and health through acts of cleanliness. In short, proper hygiene is important for children in order to keep them healthy. To practice preserving one’s health through acts of cleanliness is very important for children. By brushing their teeth, washing their hands, and cutting their fingernails, children help preserve their health and that of others around them. All the children in Serve Cambodia’s three centers are taught how to brush their teeth properly, to eat a balanced diet and how to recover from the flu or common cold. This also lets them know the consequences of poor hygiene and what constitutes good personal hygiene.

Additionally the community are invited to join training on healthcare knowledge every trimester in order for them to know how to protect themselves and their families. We have provided them some training in; first aid, hypertension, diabetes, dehydration and updated them on any current health issues. The community are also made aware that drinking plenty of water can treat some sickness without the use of medicine and they are also shown how to help people in an emergency. Feedback from the community is very positive and we found it encouraging to see how the community is sharing their knowledge with their family and community.

We see it as important that the community not only obtain medical care but also get education at the same time.

However, we are constantly looking for the next opportunity to help our community to improve its health care and for us to show Jesus’ love through our work.

By Nineaka Sim (Serve Cambodia’s School Nurse)

First Aid · Happy Village · HOH · Light of Hope · Medical · TLC

The Health of teeth and mouth are very important for everybody no matter how old you are. If you don’t take care of it well, it will be affect to all of your whole body and affect the relationship with other people or reduce down your beauty too.

So it is very important to take care your teeth during you are young in order you will have healthy teeth when you are growing bigger and bigger. More than that, we should visit the dentist one or two times a year, just like we have brought our Serve Cambodia students to the dentist because their families can’t afford to do that due to being poor with low income.

The dentist has showed us what is the right way to brush our teeth and told us how many times should we brush our teeth and when will we brush our teeth. They also gave fluoride to our teeth to make it stay strong.

They had all the materials to fix our teeth if they found out the problem. They will tell us whether our are teeth good or bad that we shouldn’t keep it.

The students are happy after they have met the dentist because they have learned a lesson, checked out their teeth health, got their teeth fixed and have right to make the decision for their own self. And this can help their confidence and their health too.

We would love to say thank you so much to all the dentists that work so hard for them to have happy smile.

by Phanna Hun (Manager of Tarsha’s Legacy Centre)

First Aid · HOH · Light of Hope · Phanna · Sponsorships · TLC