Community Health Development Changes Lives

Set Sokom has one of the most well-known faces in the village of ­­­­­­Lvea Sor in Kandal Province. The 49 year-old smiles as she recalls how generations of her family have made the this part of the Lvea Em flood-plain their home, growing plantation crops such as rice and soy beans on land owned by the family for many years.

Her smile is gentle but also resolute, hiding not only years of hard work but the pain of having lost her husband at a young age and the burden of having to raise their nine children without him.

“At first it was really difficult,” Sokom admits, recalling how her husband contracted malaria while working in altthe forests of Northern Kandal Province, a disease which eventually killed him. “During the three years that he was sick, everyone in the family had to work very hard because we didn’t even have enough money for his medicine.”

By the time her husband succumbed to his illness in 1993, Sokom’s situation was desperate – nine hungry children and no way of feeding them. She decided to move back to her homeland, relying on the help of her Mother to feed and raise her children as well as the income she made growing crops in the field in front of her house.

What Sokom did not expect on return to Lvea Sor was the support of AOC, which had begun to educate villagers on preventative healthcare as well as providing needy families with water filters, latrines and digging wells since Sokom left the village.

“I first heard of AOC when Sothea came to visit me,” she recalls. “When she said they were teaching people about health, I was really pleased and wanted to come along to one of their training sessions as soon as possible.”

When Sokom attended one of the AOC community health programmes in her village, she began to realise that for many years she had lived without vital information about healthcare, information that could make a big difference to both her and her family. She admits that, prior to attending the AOC training: “I didn’t really care about my health or the environment around my house. No one ever told me it was important.”

That has all changed now, along with the circumstances in which Sokom and the six children who still stay with her currently live. She explains how headaches, colds, flu and other illnesses were previously a regular feature of life in her home. Ignorant of the causes of many of these ailments, Sokom resorted to more traditional healing methods such as rubbing a burning coin on the back of her children in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms.

“We have not been sick for a long time now,” she exclaims, smiling confidently and explaining how she has reduced her rate of ‘coining’ from three times per month to about twice a year. But the new knowledge Sokom has gained has come with a price - the cost of knowing that she could have prevented her husband from dying.

“If I had known then what I know now, I don’t think he would have had to die,” she confesses. “But there was no AOC person there to teach us or help us.”

With the training she has received from AOC, Sokom is now able to pass on vital information about preventative healthcare to others in the village, information that may spare them the same fate that befell her husband.

Sokom is not just trying to teach others about preventive healthcare, she is making a success of it. She attracts between 20 – 30 people each week to her public seminars, covering topics as diverse as washing your hands, preparing food, cleaning the house and how to prevent diseases such as typhoid, dengue fever and malaria.

”I want to teach others what I know because I think it can make a real difference to their lives,” Sokom explains, detailing how around 70% of the villagers have attended at least one of her sessions. “It could even help save a life,” she adds.

Sokom’s circumstances have changed not only because of the training she has received, but also as a result of her decision to become a Christian four years ago. “I know that Jesus is real and that he has always been there for me,” she says, with conviction. “I know that he answers my prayers, both physical and spiritual.”

This holistic transformation of Sokom’s life has been infectious, with her children also choosing to believe in Jesus attend church with their mother. Sokom’s faith has also led her to become involved in an AOC special interest group, a group of Christian widows from the local area who are determined to bring hope to others – both physical and spiritual.

Her smile broadens as she expresses gratitude to the AOC staff who have committed to helping her become a helper of others. “I hope they keep working here for many years to come and that their activities keep growing, just like my family has.”