A malaria volunteer in Kirirom

by Katherine Parker

I just got back from a three day visit to a remote part of Kampong Speu province... actually one of the few "mountain" regions of the country. It was a lovely visit and the countryside is just gorgeous. This is the third month for us to be working with a new cluster of churches in this region. And so, on this visit I traveled out to actually meet with community members at their village - rather than just with church leaders at a central location for the cluster.

One of the joys of meeting people in their home place is finding out small ways that individuals are living out their Christian service to their community. As is true for church members in the US and around the world, people of faith in Cambodia are active in their communities and partnering with various local initiatives to improve lives. Many church members are very active in health care ministry, especially accompanying neighbors to the local clinic or farther afield to the provincial referral hospital. CHAD provides orientation to this kind of service through our Good Samaritan training program. But our training really just builds on what folks are already doing in their communities.

The first night of this trip I spent at the house of the pastor of the Kirirom church, and learned about an example of health outreach being done by the pastor's wife.  His wife is the local malaria control volunteer. This region has particularly high incidence of malaria because many people get their livlihood from going into the forest (mostly to cut wood) and this is breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Because it is cool and damp under the trees the malaria mosquitoes are also more active.

She has been trained by the government's Ministry of Health in partnership with USAID in a simple chemical-blood test for the malaria parasite and how to prescribe the correct dosage of medicine according to age, size, etc. for those who test positive.  She showed us her records over the last 2 years and the growing awareness of people in her village about malaria indicated by the increased number of people who come for testing each month.  The malaria medication is provided for free to those who test positive.  She has also had some training in women's reproductive health and provides birth control and/or iron supplements to women in the village who would like those options for about $0.25 per month.  She receives an honorarium of $17 per month for this work.

Flooding along the Mekong

Flood damage update. We've received several emails with questions and concerns about recent flood damage here in Cambodia. Thanks for your concern! There has been quite a bit of damage especially to many rice fields that were so close to being ready to harvest. Daneth Him just went up to visit Kampong Chhnang yesterday to assess the extent of damage to communities we work with there. The flood levels have not been as high as during the typhoon in 2009, but the water has been very slow to recede, which is why the crop damage has been extensive.

The Social Concerns Committee (SCC) of the Methodist Church in Cambodia (MMC) has already distributed some funds from UMCOR for immediate food aid to about 1150 families in 55 villages (in 9 provinces) who have lost their harvest, but this is still just a drop in the bucket so to say. The Water Festival has been canceled by the government this year in order to use those funds also to provide relief.

One of the difficulties is that this is the time of year when there is already seasonal hunger in Cambodia. Folks are stretching what little they have or have taken high interest rice loans to make it until the early rice is ready to harvest in November. It is often the fields that are most susceptible to flood damage that are planted early because they have more water, which is needed for those early crops. Therefore the "hungry season" will be extended this year. Additionally, many people have taken rice loans just to feed their families already and, with the reduced harvest, they may fall deeper into debt when they can't repay these loans. Many folks are already leaving their villages looking for alternative work. CHAD has been working for this past year with the Social Concerns Committee to establish "rice banks" in order to mitigate against these high interest loans, but many people will not even have rice to pay back to their low-interest community rice-banks either this year. This means that we anticipate an increase in the "hungry season" next year as well. Therefore, we hope to be able to shore up existing rice-banks and establish new ones in the effected area.

Thanks for your concern. If you would like to make a donation to be used by the Social Concerns Committee for the immediate relief effort, you can give online through The Advance and 100% will be delivered here. Please add a note/memo that this is for "flood relief" so that we will know how to channel your funds to SCC. Or, write a check to your local United Methodist Church and note in the memo "Advance #3020542 - flood relief."

CHAD will continue to fund rice banks through our ongoing development efforts. You can also give online to that effort.

by Katherine Parker 
pictures by Him Daneth

ALTERNATIVE GIVING: A Coordinator’s Guide

Christmas is a time of gift-giving. But all too often, the gifts we give and receive are trivial — books, neckties, jewelry, video games. How many of these do we need anyway? This Christmas, help your church congregation, or even just your family, focus on the gift that really matters, through the Methodist Mission in Cambodia’s Alternative Giving Campaign. Give a gift of LOVE this season, and in turn, find yourself and your church refreshed.

This brief coordinator’s guide can help you run a successful Alternative Giving campaign at your church. Download a more in-depth PDF handbook here.

1. THE CATALOG: How to use it
We encourage churches to make the catalog available to their congregations in hardcopy. this helps members feel more connected to the campaign.

We understand many churches will not have the resources to print a batch of glossy, full-color catalogs, so we’ve made the catalog available in a wide range of formats (at www.scribd.com/altgiving/collections), from the margin-less color version to a catalog designed to print on an inkjet printer on normal 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Find the one that works best for your capabilities and resources.

There is also a PDF version of the catalog available that you can send out by email to your church members or friends. The resolution is too low for printing, but it looks nice when viewed on a computer screen. This catalog version has active links that takes you directly to the online giving. The link will direct you to a webpage of The Advance for the program here in Cambodia who will be responsible for following through on each of the different kinds of gifts listed in the catalog. The Advance is the designated giving arm of the United Methodist Church. Through other donations that support administration and fees, they are able to guarantee that 100% of your gift will arrive here in Cambodia to support the ministry program that you designate.

2. LOGISTICS: When and how
We have attempted to make this campaign as flexible as possible, giving you all the tools you may need, but leaving the logistical decisions up to you. You can run your campaign over one or more weeks between now and Christmas. We do recommend you distribute gift catalogs to church members at least one week in advance of the offering collection, to give them time to look over and pray about the available options.

Your campaign can be as simple as having congregation members drop order forms and checks into the offering plate one Sunday, or it can develop into something much bigger. Aldersgate UMC in Virginia has reported great success with their Giving Bazaar, wherein church members visit a “store” with tables showcasing different catalog items available for “purchase.” At each table, members can pick up a Christmas card insert, which will inform someone on their Christmas shopping list that a gift has been purchased in their honor. (These printable card inserts are available on scribd soon.) These inserts are then taken to a “check-out” counter, and the gifts are paid for.

3. PARTICIPATE: Promote awareness
The Alternative Giving campaign is about much more than fundraising. It’s about growing awareness of our programs here in Cambodia. We don’t just want your money this Christmas season. We want your thoughts, prayers and conversations.

We encourage you to find unique ways for different people groups in your congregation to participate in and own the project. One easy way is through the handouts (available on Scribd) aimed at specific groups within your congregation, including women, youth and sunday school children.

Mt. Tamalpais UMC in Mill Valley, Calif., gets its children involved in their campaign by asking Sunday School classes to create the Christmas cards that the “a gift in your honor” inserts can be glued to during the bazaar, so church members walk away with a very personalized card to give a loved one.

4. PUBLICITY: Get Attention
When you run an Alternative Giving campaign, you will have access to dozens of pre-fabricated and customizable publicity materials, including posters, bulletin inserts, PowerPoint slides, Sunday school and small group handouts, and short videos. Print materials, PowerPoint images, and logos for the alternative Giving campaign can be downloaded at www.Scribd.com/altgiving. All posters and handouts leave space for you to include the contact information of your local campaign coordinator or, if you prefer, just your church office.

Short videos can be viewed and downloaded from the Methodist Mission in Cambodia’s YouTube page, www.youtube.com/mmcambodia. (See full instruction manual for guidelines on downloading.) most videos are 3 to 5 minutes could easily be projected during a worship service or shown in a sunday school class or small group.

5. UPDATES: Campaign Support Online
Please notify us when you decide to participate in the Alternative Giving campaign by emailing us at altgiving.mmc@gmail.com. This way we can keep you up-to-date on campaign developments, answer frequently-asked questions and notify you when new resources become available. Also, periodically check our website (chad-cambodia.blogspot.com) for updates and tips on Alternative Giving.

6. DONATIONS: Online and Mail Options
There are two tactics for campaign coordinators or church administrators tasked with handling donations for an entire church. One is to fill out a summary order form (available on scribd soon) representing the entire church’s orders and mail it, along with a check, to your conference treasurer or directly to the General Board of Global Ministries, at Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068.

Individuals and entire churches can also donate online. To determine which advance number catalog items go, you must use the “Catalog Prefix to Advance Number Key” located in a grey box on the Order Forms and also on the Online Giving instruction sheet. This will show you how to match a catalog item’s 3-letter prefix with its corresponding Advance number. Or, follow the links provided in the email version of the catalog to go directly to the correct online giving page for each gift.

Stuck in the mud

by Katherine Parker
I was really humbled about 2 weeks ago when I went to visit with a new cluster of churches in the hills near Kirirom (Kampong Speu province).

I got the truck stuck in the mud and it was the one where the 4 wheel drive is busted, so I couldn't get it out on my own. This was only my second time to meet with these folks so they didn't really know me yet nor I them, but they got straight to work pulling out hoes to try and dig out the stuck wheel and machete to cut branches to try and get some traction, all to no avail.

Finally someone went off by moto and came back with a winch which they tied to a small papaya tree and took turns cranking until they had pulled the truck out. I was humbled by the entire experience but not least because one of the most active men out there digging out the tires was an amputee who had lost his leg in the war.

This man is now the leader of the men's group at his nearby church and quite a charismatic guy. While I am still just getting to know him, I heard in his sharing during the workshop that he has faced a lot of difficulty and discrimination and depression. I spent more time chatting with his wife who is a new Christian believer. I can see that she has joined the church in large part because she is inspired by the transformation it has made for her husband. She told me about her job collecting lotus plants and bringing them to market (they live on an island), and how most of the burden of supporting the family falls to her because her husband can't work as hard as other men (which is likely true although he is by no means lazy and was very active with the truck rescue).

Being there and part of the two day workshop and fellowship was very inspiring to the wife. She asked for prayers to strengthen her new faith, which I took also to be about prayers for how she could continue to help her husband in his transformation towards the inspiration for life he has found through his faith and with his leadership roll in the church.

The main focus for the first day of the workshop was studying the story of the Good Samaritan and talking about the question of "who is my neighbor" and "how do we work together." Yet as the facilitator, I was humbled that the group members acted out the story as they rescued my truck even before we started the lesson.

The dialogue was rich. We told the story of the Good Samaritan many times in several ways. Participants talked about the challenges of supporting friends and neighbors with drug and alcohol problems and encouraged each other to continue in this work. One participant commented that as members of a minority religious group, Christians in Cambodia are also outsiders like the Samaritans were. Others were interested when in a modern re-enactment I asked the narrator to substitute Khmer for Jew and Vietnamese for Samaritan. One participant commented that they now knew that anyone, even a Vietnamese, can show compassion and help someone in need. And even I, with my fancy truck, was in need of help.

A volunteer's reflections: Rice Banks

by Amanda King
Individual volunteer from Illinois

It's amazing how one crop can so define a culture the way rice defines Cambodia — and all of Southeast Asia, for that matter.

Rice is not just a food (that happens to be consumed at least two times a day by the entire populace). It's so much more than that. It's the livelihood for millions of Cambodians. In actuality, it's a way of life.

The crop's sphere of influence reaches far beyond the rice paddies or even the dinner table and into everyday life. So strong is this country's tie to the grain that it is often used as currency to buy goods or services. Loans can be taken out in terms of kilos of rice. Even the Methodist Bible School in Phnom Penh accepts tuition payments in rice (50kg per semester, to be exact).

But Cambodia's standing as a single-crop country also makes it particularly vulnerable to droughts, floods and disease — anything that could adversely affect the rice harvest.

This is especially true of the rural population. Typically, peasant farmers can only afford to raise enough rice to sustain their own families. In this situation, a bad harvest can be devastating.

That's where rice banks come into play. These initiatives, funded by loans through the church's Community Health and Agricultural Development program, help communities build and maintain a rice storage facility, which is filled in times of plenty, then borrowed from when families run out of their own harvest.

These rice loans, given out to needy families in the community, are then scheduled to be repaid in-kind at the next harvest (usually in December). The committee in charge of the bank has the authority to set the interest rate on the loans, but it is usually just enough to help grow the supply in order to help more families the next year.

And that, my friends, is a rice bank.

Microfinance: The Women of Chheur Teal Village

A potato farmer, a grocery store owner, a pastor's wife and a banana seller, all united by one cause: To fund their children's education.

Most of the women of Chheur Teal Village in Cambodia's Kandal Province never had a chance to complete their own schooling. Now, as mothers, they're taking out loans and starting small businesses in hopes that they will be able to give their children opportunities they never had. Here are their stories:

Moung Pov

At 30 years of age, Moung Pov is already a small business owner. After much saving, she and her husband managed to scrape together enough money from their annual banana harvest to set up a small grocery store in their home village of Chheur Teal.

Their small stand carries the most basic staples — sugar, flour and eggs — but with the help of a loan from CHAD’s new credit and savings group in her village, Moung hopes to expand into the bigger-ticket items that will produce the revenue she needs to send her three children to school at a cost of about $30 each month.



Nut Silim
Fifty-year-old single mother of three Nut Silim never had the chance to attend college, having come of age in a time when Cambodians with higher-education degrees were singled out for persecution by the murderous Khmer Rouge.

But now she sees an opportunity to give her two daughters the education she never received. A micro-loan of just $100 is all she says she needs to start a banana stand at the local market, which she has confidence will giver her the returns to pay for her 18-year-old daughter's English studies at a university in Phnom Penh. The tuition costs about $400 per year — well over the profit from the average family's rice harvest in Nut's native Kandal Province.

If Nut's business venture proves successful, she anticipates being able to fund her second daughter's college studies when she graduates from high school in two years.

Chheung Reth
This mother of six doesn't mind getting her hands dirty if it means providing a good education for her four school-age children. In fact, if she has things her way, she'll be getting even dirtier in the near future, when an anticipated loan from CHAD's credit and savings group will allow her to expand her potato farming business.

Though she is not a church member, Chheung appreciates the value of the church's latest investment in her community and looks forward to receiving a loan of $200 to $300, which she will use to expand her harvest by renting additional land and purchasing extra seeds. With the profits from her expanded business, Chheung will make yet another investment — in her 18-year-old daughter's education, opening the door to send the teen to a private high school where she will pursue her love of linguistics, studying English and Chinese in preparation for the university education her mother dreams of one day providing her with.


Chea Sophal
As the pastor's wife at Chheur Teal Methodist Church, Chea Sophal is proud of the initiative the women in her husband's congregation have shown in starting a credit and savings group, and she looks forward to the day when she can invest her own savings into the group — a gesture she sees as an important vote of confidence in the women.

Chea says the group is both an economic and a spiritual tool.

"It helps group members improve their standard of living, and it helps bring (non-Christians) to God," in a very physical sense, through group meetings held in the church building, she said.

And though Chea sees her role in the group as more of a cheerleader and investor, all the entrepreneurial dreams being floated in group meetings seem to have caught her own imagination, and she now hopes that one day she will be able to take out a small loan of $100 to turn her domestic chicken-raising efforts into a small, for-profit operation, by building a chicken house and purchasing additional chicks.

Like her fellow groups members, Chea too, plans to put away profits from her business toward her youngest son's college education.

Living water

by Irene Mparutsa

Oum Pak

The Samaritan woman at the well gives the stranger a drink of water and in return she receives the Living Water; freed from bondage, she is the one who proclaims the Christ, the coming of the Kingdom.

Last month, we went to Kampong Thom Province (3 hours north of Phnom Penh, in the interior of Cambodia), to see people who had come to the HIV/AIDS workshop held last October. Oum Pak, one of the participants shared her testimony:

“When I returned from the workshop to my church, I shared what I had learned. I told them how AIDS is not spread. I told them that we cannot catch AIDS by touching people or by sharing food. I told them that it is ok to live together with people with AIDS. Before I went to the workshop, I could not tell anyone that my husband had died of AIDS and that I and my two children are HIV positive; I was afraid that people would not like me. Now my two children and I get monthly HIV medicines at the Kampong Thom Provincial Hospital. World Vision helps us with transportation money to go to the hospital, organizes a support group we go to and gives us school fees so my children can go to school. My life has changed; I find that people are loving and caring; I have hope and I can bring hope to others.”

Like the woman at the well, Pak has received the Living Water. She has gained new freedom, a new life for her and her family. She is becoming a leader in her community; she leads a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS. Like the Samaritan woman, she could not keep the Good News to herself either; she had to share it with her family, her church, others in her village sick with HIV/AIDS, everybody!

This story tells why I am passionate about community-based health care ministries: It shows how we helped just this one Pak and she is going out and helping these many others.

This understanding that we women have in UMW about multiplying our gifts by all working together is one of our great strengths, I think; and Pak shows us practically how our gifts of prayers and support are taken and given over and over throughout a village.