ll Twenty-five year old vi y Saving Lives Through Improving Childrens Nutrition age volunteer teaches healthy child-rearing in Cambodia S
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r Kim Yeng is a twenty-five-year old who lives in
Cambodia. She was forced to leave school
after the third grade because her parents could
no longer afford to pay for her education. She
had to help her parents by doing housework,
farm chores, and taking care of her siblings.
Yeng married her husband at age 20, and the
couple soon started a family. Last year, the eldest child died at the age of 4
after several bouts of high fever. Yeng recalls,
The nurse said our child had krun sonthom
(cerebral malaria) and said we had waited too
long to take her to the hospital. I was so
careless with my kids. My child would have
survived if we had given her better care. After losing one child due to lack of knowledge
about proper health care, Yeng was asked to
take part in a community assessment
conducted by the Partners for Development
(PFD) community health team. She
participated in focus group discussions and
helped to gather village children for height,
weight, and age measurements. This lead to
more discussions on malnutrition, malaria, and
other common childhood illnesses. Yengs motivation and interest in helping to
improve the health of children in her
community made her a natural fit for selection
by the community for the village health
volunteers program. Photo: Partners for Development/ War Samnang Through USAID, PFD provides support for training
in the community. While discussing malnutrition,
the community health team talks about the Hearth
model - a community-based approach to reducing
malnutrition developed as an alternative to more
costly rehabilitation efforts that require use of a
health facility. Mothers of well-nourished children
set a positive example for mothers of
malnourished children by teaching them to
improve the nutritional content of meals using
affordable foods available in the market, or which
can be grown or gathered locally. Mothers gain the knowledge, skills, and
confidence needed to significantly improve their
childrens health and nutritional well-being through
workshops facilitated by government health
workers, PFD staff, and local women trained in the
Hearth method. By introducing these messages
directly in the community, mothers are more likely
to permanently adopt the new behaviors and
continue providing nutritious food after the
program is completed. Nearly 200 mothers and others
who take care of children in
southern Kracheh Province now
participate in bimonthly growth
monitoring and nutrition
education rehabilitation program
efforts. Over 100 moderately to severely malnourished
children in twelve rural villages have recovered
from this life-threatening condition during 2003
due to this program. Yeng is well respected in
her village due to her work as a Village Health
Volunteer, which has been officially recognized
by the Provincial Health Department. Yeng proudly displays her training certificate in
her home and says, I was elected as a Village
Health Volunteer. I received strong
encouragement from the PFD staff and wanted to
learn everything I could about my new tasks. I
have learned the importance of good health and USAID l . United States Agency for International Development
www.usaid.gov what parents and the community need to do
every day in order to improve the
health of our families. Kim Yeng is a Village Hea th Volunteer in USAID-
supported Partners for Development Nutrition
Education and Rehabilitation Program