Last week it was yet another public holiday for the water festival where normally the wonderful boat races are held on the Tonle Sap river which runs through the centre of Phnom Penh well they got cancelled by the Prime Minister understandably because of the flooding and the money saved was to be diverted to bring relief to those most affected and although clearly not as bad as in Thailand there are still thousands of families badly affected.
I witnessed a little of this on the road to Siem Reap where travelling through some provinces notably Kandal and Kampong Thom there were still many temporary shelters lining the road with cattle taking refuge in whatever dry land they could manage to find. These stoical people doing their best to carry on normal life.
Many schools and health centres seemed badly affected too even though the water was clearly subsiding the play grounds were a sea of mud but still the children were going to school and in their pristine white shirts and blue skirts/trousers amazing
Many of the houses now have tiny long and very precarious bridges on stilts running from their homes to the road how they balance across these I do not know but they do
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| Water as far as the eye can see these should be lush green rice paddies! |
The AGM was held in Kampong Cham where I did my language training so it was very nostalgic to go back there it is the third largest town in Cambodia and situated on the Mekong river which was very high.
The event was well attended and the provincial council members gave an update on their progress in registering all midwives working in Cambodia over 2,000 now and growing The star Council member and province was Preah Vihear also one of the most remote has registered all 99 midwives working there she was an inspiration and was able to give other members good advice on how to develop good relationships with health departments and encourage midwives to register.
I ran a session which was an introduction to investigating complaints I needed to do a lot of preparation using real life case studies and role play as dealing with complaints and disciplinary issues will be a key role for the 5 Regional Midwives Councils
I have to say it went very well and the President was very pleased there was great engagemnt and participation and the midwives showed a lot of insight into this aspect of the Council's function.
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| 35 Council midwife members gather for the second AGM for CMC |
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| Council members get to grips with the case studies |
Work on a midwives handbook is also nearly complete and is just awaiting ministerial approval for the Council's standards which are an essential component.
On the last evening of the AGM the president took several of us out for a 5 course meal it was wonderful see below
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| Just to let you see that I am earning my keep here! |
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| From left to right Sochea, me and Ing rada (CMC president) |
The valuing life clinic continues its valuable work it was a quiet clinic last week as many of the women would have returned to their provinces for the public holiday.
However we did see some sick babies one very sick who was only two days old and could not have been examined properly before he was discharged from the health centre as he had a pulsating mass in his chest was not feeding was blue and cold so he was taken to the free hospital for sick children with all due speed but I fear that his chances are pretty poor.
Little Jinnie is doing well despite her disabilities and her mum is now being helped to set up her own rug making business.
The wonderful students there are an inspiration and I really admire them they were all looking forward to the holiday and excited to be going home
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| Jinnie and her mum |
Next time I will report on my trip to Singapore
Lee Howie!!!
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