Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A volunteer's reflections: a welcoming community

by Laina Schneider
Individual volunteer from Virginia

On Sunday, I went with Katherine, the missionary I am working with, Teresa, a pastor from Singapore, and some students from the Methodist youth hostel to church in Prekormel. The service was great, it was comprised of mostly young people, and they were singing their hearts out.

Following worship, the church leaders met about the plans and location for a new church they would be building. I went with the students, three of which were from the village, to meet their families and see their homes and farms. The village was great, there were farmers harvesting eggplants, and all sorts of kids running about, very curious about me. Men rode by on horse drawn carts, bringing dirt and manure to their fields. One of the boys family prepared us a traditional Khmer lunch, and invited us into their home to dine. The food was delicious, and their house was impeccably clean, simple and sensible. I loved getting to experience exactly what they did on a normal day. They had made no preparations for me, and just invited me in like another student.

Following lunch we walked out to the fields where green things were growing as far as the eye could see. Squash, pumpkins, potatoes, eggplants, bananas, mangoes, rambutan, and much more. I was inspired by the students devotion to their farms even though they lived in the city to attend university. It was clearly engrained in their being, it’s normal and natural to live off the land, and I could sense how they missed the fresh open air.

Visiting this village was definitely my favorite part of my time here so far. They way they lived was truly beautiful. They all worked together and valued simplicity, effort and kindness. I hope that someday I can learn to be as welcoming and wonderful as they were to me.

Laina is a member of Aldersgate UMC in Alexandria, VA and a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech in the College of Agriculture. She is studying agronomy and civic agriculture and food systems and volunteering with the CHAD program for one month.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hallelujah Moment: Cancer Patient Receives New Hope

by Irene Mparutsa and Amanda King
In a country that is still rebuilding its health care system after years of war and genocide, running a grassroots health development program is often a frustrating undertaking. The lack of educated medical personnel coupled with the bureaucratic tangles and the disorganization abundant in Cambodia’s health system create frustrations that all too often outweigh the immediate rewards of work as a medical missionary, but it’s the small victories that provide the motivation to keep going — small victories that, however insignificant they may seem in light of the bigger picture, change at least one life forever and serve to give CHAD’s program staff hope for the future.

One such case came to CHAD in the form of cancer survivor Horm Tot. The 35-year-old housewife and rice farmer had been told by provincial health officials in Banteay Meanchey Province in northwestern Cambodia that she need not seek treatment after her debilitating diagnosis of cervical cancer last fall — that the likelihood of success was far too little and the costs of treatment much too high.

Horm and her young family, her husband and their 14-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, were understandably crushed by the doctors’ assessment.



“My family and I — we felt hopeless,” Horm said.

But help came to the family through their local Methodist pastor, who one day showed up at their home to see why Horm, usually a faithful church attendee, had missed services two weeks running. Where the doctors and family saw no hope, Pastor Kim Sean saw the potential for healing. Thanks in large part to his training in medical advocacy from CHAD, Kim was able to direct Horm to the program, which in turn referred her to an oncologist at a Phnom Penh hospital and to connect her with funding and transportation assistance.

Doctors at the capital’s Russian Hospital agreed with Kim’s optimistic lookout and immediately began an aggressive treatment regimen. Five months of chemotherapy later, a routine test showed Horm was in remission.

“God gave me hope,” Horm said of her pastor’s intervention. “Before, I was hopeless, but when I prayed to God, I felt better, and I had hope again. I stopped thinking about the bad things and didn’t worry anymore.”

Less than 24 hours after test results showed Horm was in the clear, she was already in CHAD’s office in Phnom Penh, recounting her story. Upon hearing the test results, Horm said she was “so happy” and excited but conceded, “my husband is the most happy.”

Horm’s whole community has reason to celebrate, really. Like many stories of cancer survivors, Horm’s entails a network of supporters, from her family and friends to church members and neighbors. And it took all of them to get her through a rather bumpy road to recovery.

One of the biggest obstacles on that road was evident from the time of Horm’s diagnosis: How would her family, poor farmers that they were, be able to afford the treatment?

The answer proved difficult. Doctors originally projected the cost of Horm’s treatment at $4,000 — well over the annual income of a typical Cambodian family.

CHAD was able to assist with transportation costs for Horm’s frequent trips to and from Phnom Penh for treatment, and the program also pitched in $50 toward her treatment, the maximum allowed under program guidelines. The family would have to come up with the rest on their own, and it would require a sacrifice, as they turned to the only resource available: Their land.

Horm’s husband, So Lyhuo, eventually made the difficult decision to sell the half-hectare family farm, a move that brought in roughly $3,700 toward his wife’s medical expenses. With no land left for them to grow rice, Lyhuo turned to fulltime construction work as an alternative source of income, and the new job often kept him away from his sick wife.

Despite the hardships Horm and her family faced, the cancer patient made the decision early on in her treatment to keep a smile on her face.

“Before, I was so sad. But then, I decided I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I accepted it,” she said. “I was worried about my husband and children. If I felt sad, it would affect them.”

Instead, her drive to endure the treatment with a smile brought hope to more than just her family. Just seeing her bravery was a source of inspiration to CHAD staff member and United Methodist missionary Irene Mparutsa.

“She was a remarkable patient. She was smiling right through,” Mparutsa said after learning of Horm’s successful treatment. “I don’t know anyone who’s had cancer and kept a smile like that. And the treatment was very aggressive, making her very sick, but she kept smiling every time she came.

It’s something in her spirit.”



Pray that patients like Horm will not be deterred from seeking the treatment they need because of the costs associated with it or because of outdated fears of hospitals and medical care that are prevalent among many villagers. Pray also that God will continue His work in Cambodia through health care programs like CHAD and the Ministry of Health as they work to change attitudes and improve the quality of care available in the country.