Seila, aged 15, was born into a poor family in rural Cambodia. Both is parents are farmers who work hard to earn just money to provide for Seila and his younger brother. Like other boys his age, Seila is cheeky, curious and enjoys spending time outside playing with his friends.
When Seila was nine years old, he developed a cyst on hip that caused him lot of pain. His mother took him to the local hospital so they could remove it.
Seila pictured with his mother and younger brother.
After the surgery, he still experienced hip pain which radiated down his leg, weakening it and making it difficult for him to sleep and walk. For a while he used a crutch to help him walk but was too big and hurt his arm.
Because of this, Seila was unable to walk or ride his bike to school 10km away from his home. He relied on his friend to pick him up on his bike and take him to school. Over time his attendance dropped and, academically, he fell behind his classmates.
“It was unacceptable to me. I cried when the doctor told me that he would not be able to walk normally,” said Seila’s mother, Soksan, tearfully.
ChildFund Cambodia believes every child and young person has the right to equally participate in society and live with dignity and respect.
ChildFund provided financial support for an operation to correct his hip and leg pain. This was part of a project to support children living with disabilities to be able to access the healthcare they needed. Despite this, his leg never fully recovered.
“Knowing that one of my legs might not be able to function normally made me both afraid and sad. I experienced discrimination at school, my friends no longer want to play with me, and they act rudely when I ask them to buy me a snack at break time. They occasionally mimic me,” said Seila.
The Disability Empowerment and Education Project (DEEP) run by ChildFund advocates for children living with different types of disabilities. ChildFund uses a questionnaire as part of the project to identify children who live with either a physical or intellectual disability.
Then parents, teachers and community leaders take part in a training on how to best support those children through education and making sure the community has the infrastructure needed to make it accessible.
Seila walking to school with the aid of his leg brace.
The project also gave parents and kids with disabilities the chance to meet with local officials so they could talk about or request assistance from them directly.
“My son might not have been able to walk again without the project,” said Soksan. “Last year, through the project I joined a community forum, and they supported me to get the brace for Seila.”
“Now, there is far less discrimination against other people with a disability. My friends know more about my disability and how to support me. They even encourage me to attend class every day. They tell me not to give up because I can achieve anything anyone else can,” said Seila
With the aid of a brace, Seila can now walk on his own and feels more valued by his community and hopeful about the future.
“Now that I’m going to school more, I studied better and placed sixth out of 28 students this year. I want to be a teacher when I grow up so that future generations, especially those living with a disability, can benefit from education as I have,” said Seila with a bright smile.
Rosemary (pictured left) was born and raised in Kivori. She has been a ChildFund volunteer for almost six years. She is warm, kind and takes pride in being part of helping build a healthier community. “When people have a health emergency, they run to me. They recognise me as a community health volunteer – it gives me authority,” said Rosemary.
Four hours north of Port Moresby sits Kivori, a small coastal village. The road into the village is rough, rocky, and unreliable – often becoming impossible to drive on when it rains.
In remote villages like Kivori, timely health care is hard to find. ChildFund Papua New Guinea has worked in Kivori for more than six years and in 2021 opened a fully stocked health post. The Kivori Health Post is open one week every month, when district health professionals visit.
During this week, families visit the clinic for tuberculosis diagnosis, routine immunisations, and any other health concerns. In between these visits, Community Health Volunteers (CHV), like Rosemary, are the backbone of healthcare in the community.
As a CHV, Rosemary supports pregnant mothers in the community to access antenatal care. She also identifies possible tuberculosis (TB) cases and encourages children to be tested, diagnosed, and treated.
Before becoming a CHV, Rosemary worked with the village courts to respond to domestic and family violence to ensure that children were safe and protected.
She first heard about ChildFund Papua New Guinea through a TB prevention and treatment workshop. In the last few years though, her attention has shifted from TB to COVID-19. She attended a ChildFund workshop to learn about the symptoms and how families could protect themselves from the COVID-19 through hand hygiene and social distancing.
More recently Rosemary has been advocating to families to get the COVID-19 vaccine. After the training Rosemary went from door to door to talk about the vaccine.
“There are so many challenges. It is a lot of hard work. Sitting and having a conversation though, doing the explaining – that is how I encourage my friends and family. This is what encourages them to get the vaccine.”
Rosemary explained that many parents question whether the vaccine is safe for their children and if there are any long-term impacts. She says that widespread misinformation and lack of access to the vaccine is largely to blame for the low uptake. Only 3.5% of the country is fully vaccinated.
Rosemary and her one-year-old grandson.
“This is my community, and we are very far away from other health posts, so we must work as a team to keep people healthy.”
Once a month they host community information sessions at Kivori about the virus and the vaccine. Slowly, more people in Kivori are choosing to get vaccinated.
Rosemary is happiest when watching her community grow. When asked about her own family during the interview, her one-year-old grandson crawled over and grabbed for her. She smiled and picked him up. “This is my grandson; I call him my booboo.”
Rosemary is one of three volunteers working in antenatal care. “We do home visits to see the mothers and attend the clinics with them. We also support them with transport to and from the community.”
She says that she particularly enjoys the antenatal work and supporting expecting mothers; she loves talking to people in her community and seeing it thrive.
Looking to the future she hopes to see health care professionals stationed at Kivori on a full-time basis. This would mean the clinic could open every day and people in the community could access healthcare when they need it.
“Kivori needs an ambulance,” says Rosemary. “We do many referrals but the road in and out of the community is not very good and it is a long trip. Sometimes people sit in their sickness because they can’t get to the hospitals.”
CHVs like Rosemary are crucial to achieving better long-term health outcomes for the children and young people. ChildFund is committed to working with communities and medical professionals to ensure children and families can access basic healthcare so they can lead health lives.
