The health status of Cambodia’s population is very poor and amongst the lowest in Asia.  The health services of Cambodia were decimated during the 1970s, during the Khmer Rouge’s regime.  In 1979 there were only 50 doctors left in the country.

The table below shows key health indicators for Cambodia in comparison with other Asian countries:

(The number of doctors per 100,000 people in Australia is 247 and in the UK it is 230)

Source: The Fred Hollows Foundation http://www.hollows.org/Cambodia/Facts/

Helping Hands has a number of medical programmes:

OUR EYE CARE/TREATMENT PROGRAMME 

Helping Hands provides medical attention for people who suffer from eye problems.  Without our assistance they would not be able to access this treatment – the cost is simply out of their reach.  Many people in Cambodia who are blind do not need to be, but without help they simply cannot access or afford the necessary treatment.  Quite often they also are not aware that the majority of blindness is treatable.

Our medical coordinator visits the villages and speaks with the village leader and the villagers themselves to identify people who need treatment.  We then organise transport into the eye clinic in Siem Reap, provide them with meals while they are in Siem Reap and oversee their treatment.

Some examples of the types of eye problems the villagers suffer from include:  Pterygium*, cataracts, myopia, trichinosis, allergic conjunctivitis, fungal infections and congenital glaucoma.  The main ailments are cataracts and pterygium.  Many patients suffer from both.  Cataract surgery costs $US195.00 per eye and pterygium surgery costs $US85 per eye.

*Note:  A pterygium is a growth of the clear, thin tissue that lays over the white part of the eye.  The exact cause is not well understood but it seems that long-term exposure to sunlight and chronic eye irritation from dry, dusty conditions play a role.  Large pterygia can threaten sight and are therefore removed surgically.

GENERAL MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

We provides medical treatment for villagers suffering from serious illness.  In line with offering people a “hand up, not a hand out” the villagers are encouraged to seek medical attention by themselves first of all at the local provincial health centre.  We only step in and offer help in cases where the patient is extremely ill and has already sought help themselves.

If we meet or hear about seriously ill people we visit them and offer to get them medical care.  Children have very good options for medical care – there are two foreign run children’s hospitals in Siem Reap that provide very good quality care free of charge (though we still need to help them with transport and food costs for the stay in hospital).  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for adults and decent medical care for poor people is almost non-existent.  There is no free medical care.  The Provincial Hospital in Siem Reap requires everyone to pay, meaning that poor people often are simply not able to access treatment (or they go into serious debt to do so).  Further adding to the problem is the fact that the level of treatment is very, very basic. 

Our patients are taken to a private medical clinic which, unfortunately, is quite expensive, but it does provide very good quality medical care.  (Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of NGO run general medical clinics for adults in the Siem Reap area.)

EAR/HEARING CLINICS 

In conjunction with another local NGO, All Ears Cambodia, we continue to operate clinics for people with ear and hearing problems.  Congenital abnormalities, infectious disease, excessive noise, misuse of antibiotics, old age and chronic middle ear infection accounts for most of the deafness in Cambodia.  In some villages, chronic ear disease in children is so common it is considered normal. 

Many people have attended our ear clinics.  They suffer from a range of conditions such as; acute otitis media (an inflammation of the middle ear, or middle ear infection); glue ear (a condition in which thick, sticky fluid collects behind the eardrum); eustachian tube dysfunction (a narrow passageway connecting the middle ear with the nose, is blocked or malfunctions and fails to allow pressure to equalize on both sides of the ear drum). 

Occasionally, we are presented with a patient who requires treatment beyond the capabilities of All Ears Cambodia.  Accordingly we also partner with the Jesuits and another NGO called Metakarona.  They are able to organise operations in the city of Battambang (approximately 180 kms from Siem Reap).  This partnership also enables us to help people if they need immediate assistance for a serious problem.

This programme costs very little to run due to the fact that all the organisations we partner with are also NGO’s and therefore offer their services free of charge.  Our costs are confined to any medications required and associated logistical costs such as food, transport and accommodation for patients (and staff).