Svay Rompea commune is a small village located far away from the Kampong Chhnang town. There is a small health center in the village, providing all kinds of health services to hundreds of villagers. To reach the center from Kampong Chhnang, it would first take a 30-minute ferry along the Tole Sap River and another 30-minute ride among mountains and paddy rice fields...

Svay Rompea commune is a small village located far away from the Kampong Chhnang town. There is a small health center in the village, providing all kinds of health services to hundreds of villagers.  To reach the center from Kampong Chhnang, it would first take a 30-minute ferry along the Tole Sap River and another 30-minute ride among mountains and paddy rice fields. Because of its remoteness, it is difficult for the health center to keep experienced medical professionals and equipment in good shape, especially when handling emergency medical conditions.

One kind of such medical emergency is child delivery. Most pregnant women in the village lack knowledge on maternal and childcare health. Combined with the deficiency of clean water in the village, this has often prompted serious hygiene, sanitation and health problems, especially for pregnant women and newborn babies.   

Oul Mai, is six-month pregnant and has a three-year old daughter. During her first pregnancy, she really knew very little on how to take herself and her baby. She only learns a bit knowledge on maternal and child health when she visited the health center once every three months for medical check-up. Apparently, this is far from enough. The case of Oul is prevalent in Svay Rompea, which has seriously affected health conditions of women and their children.

Things started to change from October 2018. A group of young volunteers of 7 to 8 members organized by the United Nation Volunteer (UNV) Cambodia came to this small town, delivering trainings to 70 pregnant women on maternal and neonatal health. Harnessing their medical knowledge, the volunteers also helped nurses in the health center check health status of pregnant women participating the training.

Oul is one of the participants. She was really impressed by the knowledge she learnt from the young volunteers. Before the training, it is hard for her to believe that young people could really possess such professional knowledge on maternal and child health. She found the knowledge shared by volunteers very useful to improve health conditions of pregnant women and the newborn babies. Through the training, she also came to realize that volunteers could actually do really much, providing tremendous social services complementary to those provided by the government.

At the same time of expecting the return of the young volunteers, she also told that “how the future of Cambodia would be, if every young person is able to volunteer, lending a helping hand to those in need in their communities”