Out on the Lake

March 2009

Thanks to a donation from the ROTARY Club in Greentown Malaysia we have been able to begin the development of a network of Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) to help us in a number of ways. After undergoing a period of training, each VHV will be assigned to monitor the health and health needs of 30 to 35 families. They will also be trained in providing basic health education to these families as well as acting as our eyes and ears within the community.

Our aim is to address what we know to be a root cause of disease--ignorance--and to be sure that those who need our care know that we are there for them.

16 March, 2009

The first group of VHVs is to be organized in the village of Moat Klas. With the TLC-1 in dry dock, the staff took a more common means of river and lake transport with TLC's Rem at the helm.

Lower water levels in the Tonle Sap Lake means that many migrant families can set up temporary homes and farm what will be mostly dry land for 2-3 months.

It also means that the floating homes are crowding together more near the mouth of the river.

45 potential volunteers (and on-lookers) were on hand for the first of three sessions that would ultimately see 140 men and women participating in a selection process that would involve an election of the VHVs by their village peers.
Simple, but obviously fun games were played to break the ice and to elicit participation from otherwise (politely) shy people.

And with some encouragement from Aly and Sakhem.

Sakhem explains the work and the place of the VHVs in the overall mission of both TLC and the Ministry of Health.


At the end of the second day, there were 8 young women selected--two Vietnamese speakers--to become VHVs for TLC. When their training is complete they will be responsible for providing a broad range of health teachings that will include: the importance of immunizations for children; tetnus prevention for expectant mothers; family planning/birth spacing; danger signs of serious illness; household hygiene and more.


They are young, from 18 to 24 years old, and though in many other areas of Cambodia (and the world) the "typical VHV" is an older woman, that model doesn't hold in these floating villages where the consensus is that older woman and mothers must fully participate in fishing everyday.
If one considers their life experience, and understands the true nature of their day to day life, you will understand that though chronologically young, they are more deeply involved and aware of the realities that face them than are their counterparts in other lands.


Thank you.