SHARE

Community Health Project in Svay Anthor District - Phase Three (2015 - 2017)

For the third and final phase, we focused on inter-sectorial work to make of child health promotion activity sustainable. To do this, we coordinated with key government officials, collaborating with Svay Anthor district health officials, officials from multiple Commune Women and Children's Committees, and local authorities to support programs. At this point, we began to see a bud of financial independency. SHARE completed the project in Prey Veng in 2017, to move our programming to Preah Vihear province. However, when we returned to Prey Veng last year, we discovered the district committee where our programming took place continued to fund the social program for health promotion SHARE supported. In all of Prey Veng province, only in Svay Anthor district, where SHARE helped to support health-related programming services, is a portion of the district budget spent on social projects. In contrast, other districts use their budget only for infrastructure. With this local government funding, the health programs supported by SHARE were able to become sustainable, even after our departure. We hope to replicate this success in the current program site.

Community Health Project in Svay Anthor District - Phase Two (2011 - 2015)

In continuation of our Prey Veng project, during our second phase, SHARE promoted child health with a strong emphasis on the nutritional condition of children under 2 years old. SHARE worked with the health centers and VHSG (Village Health Support Group) in Svay Anthor district to implement "*(1)Integrated Growth Monitoring Services (IGMS)" . IGMS is a service that a health center should provide in their outreach per the Ministry of Health's guidelines. Offering regular IGMS workshops at the community level, children's nutrition condition could be monitored regularly. Also, together with IGMS, mother support groups from Baby Friendly Community Initiatives were integrated. These support groups promoted Infant and Young Children's Feeding, providing workshops for mothers on appropriate complementary age-specific feedings. Through supporting these activities, by the end of the second phase, we achieved almost 10% reduction of the underweight children, and the caregivers' displayed important behavior changes in their feeding practices and childcare. We also helped foster sustainable intellectual and technical skills in health center staff and VHSGs in child health promotion activities.

*(1)Integrated Growth Monitoring Services (IGMS) is activity comprised of physical growth monitoring, basic health check, vaccination, distribution of micro-nutrient and de-worming tablets, and health education.


Photo (left): Study tour to learn about cooperation with Health Volunteers
Photo (center): Health Center staff consulting SHARE staff about nutrition needed for growth of children
Photo (right): Health Center staff learning about nutrition necessary for child growth

Photo (left): Health Center staff acting as a facilitator for Health Volunteers at infant health examinationｖ
Photo (right): Conference with District Health Office for strengthening Health Center management.

Community Health Project in Svay Anthor District - Phase One (2007 - 2011)

In 2007, SHARE moved to work in a province called Prey Veng, which is about halfway to Vietnam from Phnom Penh. In 2008, Prey Veng was one of the poorest provinces and so too was its health indices. Beginning with one district, Svay Anthor, SHARE conducted a maternal child health program in 5 health centers and its 79 villages in Prey Veng. During the first phase, we tried to improve both maternal and child health by strengthening the community level health system. We did so by intervening and facilitating community level networks, building the relationships and coordinating work with the health center staff and their *(2)Village Health Volunteers. We also introduced new and improved management skills, developing the capacity of the health center personnel and the volunteers. Finally, to improve rural maternal and child health, health services needed to be upgraded and broadened so that villagers could access some clinical services that were not available before. We believe that a health center that is in a physical building is essential as a place where health professionals can work. So, SHARE also contributed to the construction of two health center buildings, the Samrong Health Center and the Tulk Thla Health Center.

*(2)Village Health Volunteer: MOH have revised the guideline and called Village Health Supporting Group, (VHSG)


Photo (left) Field supervision by county health department
Photo (center): Health education
Photo (right): Infant medical examination

Photo (left)State of baby food classroom
Photo (right) State of baby food classroom2

Community Health Project in Srey Santhor-Kang Meas Operational District (1998 - 2007)

Moving our programming to a new district in Kampong Cham province, at this time SHARE worked to address community health, HIV prevention, and awareness with cooperation from SHARE trained mother groups. These groups gave unique health education and acted as 'Care Volunteers' to support chronically ill patients. In addition, we supported the 'Public Health Volunteers' system introduced by the Ministry of Health through our activities for reinforcing the public health system. As for HIV prevention and awareness, we focused on the training of peer educators in middle schools in the district. Peer educators were students who received training on HIV/AIDS to teach other students about the correct attitude and knowledge about AIDS. SHARE's support for improving the knowledge/awareness about HIV/AIDS for students and community people was made through these peer educators.


Photo (left): Practice in body weight measurement
Photo (center): Training of Health Volunteers. Their understanding is assessed by flagging.
Photo (right): Health Volunteers learning about health education.


Photo (left): Health Volunteers working for health examinations at a Health Center
Photo (center): Body weight is noted in children's health record, or Yellow Card.
Photo (right): Health Volunteers reading about their activities, which were reported in a newsletter (in Khmer) published twice a year.

Community Health Project at Khsach Kandal Operational District (Feb. 1992 - June 1998)

SHARE has a long history of working on community health programs in Cambodia. Just after the Paris Peace Agreement ended civil war in Cambodia in 1991, SHARE starts implementing community health activities with an emphasis on maternal and child health and medical care support in Kandal province. We provided training for a district hospital, clinic and its staff, supporting prenatal examination and health education. At this time, SHARE also supported a maternity ward, health center and equipment in order to improve the functions of medical care facilities and systems.

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