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.