A Mother Died

On 8th December, early in the morning, a mother who gave birth in a public health center bled to death, in spite of the staff’s efforts to stop her bleeding. They couldn’t transport her to a better-equipped hospital because, even though they had a vehicle, there was no driver available… They contacted us and we rushed to the health center with our community ambulance. Sadly, it was too late to save her. It was her 3rd or 4th child and she left behind a grieving husband and other children.
This year, we had provided assistance in at least 5 maternity emergency cases, and this was the only case in which we couldn’t save a life.
High maternal mortality in Cambodia’s remote rural areas is a crucial issue that we are trying to tackle. We implemented our mobile maternity clinic in January, after hearing that many expectant women in Cambodia do not receive any antenatal care at all despite the urgings from health centers staff. When complications occur, they are rushed to the public center at the last minute. Often, it is too late to save their lives.
The reasons are varied, from financial barriers or difficult access to health care facilities, to lack of education or reluctance from their family to act promptly.
Once our Health Center is open, we plan to concentrate on this crucial issue, and we will do our utmost to locate expectant mothers in impoverished rural areas and provide the best possible delivery services to these vulnerable women.

Health Center’s Construction Update

The roof has dried properly and we are now working on water-proofing it.

[The roof top part, photo was taken from the back side]

Are you wondering why our roof is so thick? You would surely understand once you have experienced one of the heavy rains falling in our area. Once it starts raining, you can’t even hear what the person next to you is saying! We have planned our roof to be thick enough so as to minimize the huge noise from the rain.

[Even after putting roof, we still have enough sun light ]

We have also started to extend our road up to the mountain where there is a stream with flowing water year-round. We plan to install a pico hydropower turbine there, with the funds generously provided by Family Care Foundation. We already have a solar power generator and we will soon install some more. Our plan is to use all forms of renewable energy from natural resources, in order to provide enough power to meet the electricity needs of our Health Center. We are also planning to install windmills in the future.

[ The Health Center roof top. We will install more solar panel on it]

[Road construction up to the mountain]

Construction update: roofing is completed

Finally we have finished pouring cement on the roof. Right now we are waiting for the cement to dry. Next, we will work on waterproofing the roof and then, we will install the glass door.
Slowly but surely we are moving forward…

Stranded in the middle of Phnom Penh!!

Today, we needed to visit a government office in Phnom Penh. Just before we reached our destination, it started raining heavily. When our car arrived at the office, all the area was flooded! Our driver tried to park the car as close to the entrance as possible, but it was really difficult… Those among us wearing sandals decided to step out of the car, except Sally, our volunteer, who was hesitating as she was wearing sneakers… At the end, she went with us, crouch walking perilously on the narrow protruding edge of the wall…

When we talk in our blog about our Health Center’s construction delay due to heavy rains, it may not be easy to understand, but look at those photos! Even in the center of the capital, we are sometimes pretty much controlled by the weather.

Sally from Taiwan is Volunteering with Us

Sally is our new volunteer from Taiwan; she joined us on 4th October and is going to stay with us until 2nd November. She has a lot of experience in fund raising and is willing to share her know-how in this crucial field.
She is already planning to come back next year, to work with us in the long term.
She is very active and so helpful that we cannot believe she has been with us for only 3 weeks! What she needs to overcome is how to cope with the nature…. Mice, insects of all kinds, crawling and flying invaders… Sally, we believe you will get used to those things.

Health Center Construction Update

We have started working on the remaining part of the roof. As the yellow arrows indicate on the picture here below, the slope of the roof on the building front will be angled so as to let in as much natural light as possible, both sunlight and moonlight.

[Can you now visualize our roof design a little better?]

Meanwhile, it is with great gratitude that we received a donation from the Taipei Yunfu Rotary Club, to help cover the costs of the Health Center construction. Thank you from the bottom of our heart for your generosity!

[Rehabilitation Pool is also under construction]

Our House for Visitors

Our house is built in an energy-efficient way, with all the necessary facilities to ensure that our visitors are as comfortable as possible.

The roof is put in an angle that allows a constant air circulation inside the house, keeping the temperature indoors cool. The roof also has 2 layers, the outside layer is made with locally available grass, that ensure good heat insulation. There is a gap between the layers so that the under layer’ surface is kept dry, in order to prevent humidity build up inside.

The house is still on the way to be developed. We will soon put a mosquito screen at the entrance, in order to keep the bugs out. While the good air circulation keeps us comfortable inside, it also carries in a lot of mosquitoes; luckily, the constant air flow prevents them from feasting on us. For the moment, our open environment is also an open invitation to a wide variety of insects, and we are sleeping inside mosquito nets.

Water is no problem for us, as we are blessed with pure water running from the uphill mountain 8km away. We searched for a long time for an uncontaminated water resource that would be available year-round. Our major problem now is the naughty elephants which destroy our water pipes from time to time, stopping our water supply. This is the ups and downs of a life in the middle of nature.
Building such a house is a kind of experiment as well. We are testing new techniques and see how they work, in order to apply the successful ones for our Health Center under construction.

Pay or Stay Here

On September 25th at night, there was an accident near Phnom Penh International Airport and 3 people were injured, a couple and their 16 year-old son. The boy was seriously injured and, when a public ambulance arrived on the scene, he had already been taken by a private ambulance to a clinic, even though it is prohibited by the Cambodian government.
According to his parents, they were asked by the clinic to pay money upfront for their son’s treatment otherwise the clinic would not release him. The clinic was not equipped to treat him properly, and the boy risked losing his life if he were not transferred to a national hospital as quickly as possible.
International experts from Side By Side International went to the clinic in order to support the negotiation process. The clinic staff didn’t expect we would intervene, and they finally agreed to release the boy who was then transferred to the national hospital.Though it’s prohibited, there are still many unscrupulous private ambulance operators who try to profit from traffic accidents. This boy was only one of many who are mistreated in such circumstances. Cambodia’s government is making a lot of efforts to put an end to such practices, but it will take time to change people’s behavior.

Ambulance activity in Phnom Penh

Side-By-Side International (SBSI), one of our donor NGOs from Japan, is involved in the implementation of an effective public Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in Phnom Penh, under the umbrella of Cambodia’s Ministry of Health. With Cambodia having a high rate of traffic accidents, it is crucial to put in place and develop such system throughout the Kingdom, and this what SBSI is planning to do as the project progresses. CDEP is collaborating with SBSI’s Cambodia office for this project, by providing technical assistance and sharing our expertise and know-how in this field.

Thanks to the strong leadership of the Ministry of Health, a number of agencies and ministries are now cooperating in this undertaking. There are many difficulties to overcome but we are convinced that, with the joint efforts of all, the project will succeed.

Dr. Tsuchiya Visited Us Again

We were delighted to welcome for the second time this year Dr. Tsuchiya, a Japanese psychiatrist who is supporting us. She arrived in Cambodia on September 21st and spent a full week with us.
She donated a cardiac electronic monitor, splints and lots of medical consumables in June. As our Health Center is not operational yet, these are kept in storage for the time being. We very much hope that, on her next visit, she will see them being in use once our Health Center opens its doors.
Dr. Tsuchiya generously gave us fund donation this time, to help us cover our activities for the Health Center. Thank you so much, Dr Tsuchiya, for your generosity. Hope to see you again soon!!!

Alex is gone, 4 Malaysian volunteers arrived

On 15th September, Alex, who came from Taiwan to volunteer with us as electronic engineer for four weeks, has returned home. He worked magic with all the electronic devices donated to us that needed to be tuned in order to be operational. We are so grateful to him! It was a worthwhile experience for him as well, and he may come back in January or February next year. We are looking forward to seeing him again!

[Photo 1; Alex working at Phnom Penh Office]

[Photo 2; One of Alex's Products during his volunteer]

On 18th September, 4 Malaysian volunteers, Jazz, Huei, Shiang and Ming Kang arrived at our site. They gave an arts class at the Prey Proseth Primary School, and students enjoyed painting, drawing and watching a movie. It was at the time of Pchum Ben, a Cambodian Buddhist Festival to honor the ancestors, during which most of the students returned to their parents’ hometown to meet with their relatives and celebrate the festival. Some of them however remained here, as their family home is too far away, and it was for them that our Malaysian volunteers organized an arts class. It was a most enjoyable time for these 20 students who couldn’t be with their family. Thank you so much, Jazz, Huei, Shiang and Ming Kang!

[Photo 3&4; Students dancing with 4 volunteers]

[Photo 5,6&7; Students enjoying paintings]

[Photo 8; One of the products from Arts Class]

We also distributed to the students the clothes generously donated by Ariele from the Rotary Club of Taipei Yungfu.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Cambodia is now celebrating Pchum Ben, a 15-day long Buddhist festival to honor ancestors. People visit pagodas, offer prayers and prepare meals for the monks. We can hear the monks chanting all day long, from very early in the morning!
These days, we have lots of rain; during heavy precipitations, there is so much water flowing from the mountains that the access bridge to our Health Center is completely submerged one meter deep. When this happens, we have no choice but to use a boat instead of a car to move in and out.
We took this problem into consideration when building our road, by digging ditches along both sides of the road behind the access bridge, for water control and rainwater storage. It was not enough however and right now, we are digging additional ditches before the bridge as well. The ditches will be built at different elevations, each with a gate so as to secure proper water flow and minimize the impact of heavy rainfall. Furthermore, the water retained will be used for agriculture whenever needed, and will be channeled back into the stream, so as to secure a steady water supply throughout the year.

An Electronic Engineer from Taiwan is Volunteering with Us

Alex, from Taiwan, arrived in Cambodia on 19th August and he is going to stay here for 4 weeks.
He is helping us to test all the donated electronic devices, modify our solar power generation system and install some new techniques that will greatly facilitate our operations in Cambodia.
Alex is also assisting us with the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Development activities that we are conducting in Phnom Penh, in collaboration with the NGO Side-by-Side International, one of our partner organizations. He is applying his expertise to improve our radio communication system for EMS.

Re-Design on our Blog

We would like to introduce in this blog not only our innovative health center in Kompong Seila Province, but also all the activities that our organization is conducting in Cambodia.

The Value of a Life

On 9th July 2009, a villager from nearby Obak Rote Commune was hit by a big truck. Our community ambulance rushed him to a hospital in Phnom Penh but he died on the way.


The case was handled by the local authorities, and the company owner of this truck agreed to pay $500 to the villager’s family as compensation for his death. $500! You may be shocked to know how cheap a life is valued in Cambodia, particularly in the countryside. Most of the time, powerless villagers have no choice but to compromise over the death of a family member with a few hundred dollars. If the deceased was the breadwinner, the household will inevitably fall into extreme poverty. In the case of this accident, we put our weight during the negotiation process and, somehow the company agreed to pay this amount of money. But we heard that the company owner commented that even $100 would have been enough. This is one of the sad facts in Cambodia.

Slowly but Surely

Sorry for the long silence on this blog. Life sometime brings unpredictable changes, and that’s what happened to us these past months.

Two volunteer experts who had been working with us on the development of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in Phnom Penh needed to leave Cambodia in April, for family reasons. They were key players in our endeavor, and it was a big loss for us. As a result, we had our hands fully occupied in Phnom Penh to keep the operation running while reorganizing it with other collaborators.

We didn’t forget about the ongoing construction of our Health Center however. We needed to slow down the preparations for a while but our work for the Health Center has continued without interruption.

We have just completed the concrete roofing works. As it takes a month for the cement to dry, we were anxious about the process, as Cambodia had entered into the rainy season in May. Heavy rains may cause the cement to loose density before it dries, making it too porous to provide effective insulation.

Thanks God! Rain was kept at bay! One month later, the cement had cured completely without problem. From the photo, you may think: “the roof is only half done!” Well, yes… Now that the concrete has set nicely, we are going to put translucent plastic sheets on the rest of the roof, in addition to solar panels. A key point of our Health Center is that it will be environment friendly and energy efficient, using as many natural resources as possible. The transparent plastic sheets will allow more sunlight inside the Center in daytime, as well as moonlight at nighttime. You cannot imagine it? You will see it soon!

Main Donors Gathered!

On 23rd March, we had a ceremony with our main donors, GRAPHIS, the Japanese student volunteer group, as well as the Japanese NGO, Side by Side Inernational.

It was supposed to be an "Opening Ceremony" Unfortunately, the construction work couldn’t be completed on time, for various reasons. So... it was rather a "Launching Ceremony".

Anyway, about 20 students from GRAPHIS, Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki, President of Side by Side International visited our site and we also invited 200 villegers to the ceremony.

An Accident on National Road No.4

On March 22nd, at around 2pm, a severe accident occurred on the National Road No. 4, only 10 minutes drive from our site.

A sedan-type car was smashed by a big truck. We rushed to the scene with our community ambulance and a command car, but it was already too late, the driver of the sedan was crushed to death. There were no other passengers in the car.





What happened? It seems that the sedan first hit a tanker running in front of it, and that the sedan’s bumper was trapped. The sedan probably then detached itself from the back of the tanker but lost control. It was then smashed by a big truck running fast behind the car.

This is not a unique case. Such tragic accidents are happening all the time on National Road No.4. It would have been even worse if the big truck had hit the tanker, as it would have caused a huge explosion.

This is one of the many tragedies occurring on the roads in Cambodia…

Vegetable Garden for the Health Center

We have started growing vegetables, which will be served at the health center.

In this remote area of Cambodia, people rarely grow vegetables at home. The reason is that either they lack water to grow plants, or they are not aware of the nutritional benefit of vegetables, focusing instead on getting any food to fill their stomach. They mostly eat a lot of rice with a salty fish paste. Since they don’t grow vegetables themselves, they need to buy them at the market, and it is costly. They thus tend to give up eating vegetables.


We grow vegetables not only for the health center meals, but at the same time we want to use our garden as a demonstration farm for the community people. They will see how vegetables are grown, how to take care of them and how they can be cooked.

We are also planning to provide cooking classes for nursing mothers and pregnant women, and to give them a kind of starter package to help them start their own vegetables garden in the near future.

Children malnutrition is a critical problem in this area. We very much anticipate that this kind of programme will contribute to improving the current poor nutritional status of the local people in the long term.

We often obtain seeds from the existing vegetables and fruits. Tomato, paw paw, mango etc.. All grown from the seeds remaining when we eat those things. It works quite well!

Construction Up-Date 2

The father of one of our workers passed away in the beginning of February. Since all our workers belong to the same community, they all left the construction site, in order to help with the funeral. We had no choice but to leave the building site idle for an entire week.The work has now resumed and we are about to put on the roof.


We are planning to organize an opening ceremony on March 23rd, 2009 with GRAPHIS and SIDE-BY-SIDE INTERNATIONAL, the main donors of the health center. We have only one month left…..

The Road Branch to the Health Center is opened!

At the end of January 2009, the repair works on the road branching out from Road No. 4 to the Graphis Health Center were completed. It was a very rough rock littered dirt road overgrown with grass, which made access to the Health Center difficult and dangerous.

Thanks to the support from the local authorities and from the main donor, GRAPHIS, a Japanese students group, we could manage to repair this road section in three weeks!

The local authorities contributed heavy machinery and workforce for 3 weeks. GRAPHIS provided the funds needed to cover all the costs, including fuel, food for the works and other costs.

It now takes just 5 minutes to access the health center from National Road No. 4, instead of half an hour.



There is still more work to do in order to keep the road smooth throughout the year. As it is not paved, we are planning to cover it with tiny red stones that will act as gravel to prevent it from becoming slippery when wet.



We dug a ditch on both sides of the road. During the rainy season, the ditch will work as drainage. In the dry season, we will fill the ditches with water, to be used by the villagers.
We also plan to raise fish in the ditches. It will be a valuable source of proteins for the people of this area who rarely have opportunity to obtain it.
The ditches will be connected, to keep water moving and prevent it from becoming a breeding ground for malaria-spreading mosquitoes.