Since its opening, the AHC has provided over 600,000 free paediatric treatments and performed over 12,000 surgeries. On average, around 350 children reach the steps of AHC every day to receive much needed medical care. AHC is also the first institution outside the country’s capital, Phnom Penh, to offer anti-retroviral treatment to children afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
AHC doctors and nurses also conduct homecare visits to children who are too fragile to travel. For so many children, AHC is their last chance. The AHC Satellite Project (SP) at Sotr Nikum Referral Hospital has opened new portals of hope for an additional community of 270,000 people. This 10-year programme, endorsed by Cambodia’s Ministry of Health, includes a physical extension of a paediatric unit at an existing government hospital and the replication of the successful paradigm of care, education and outreach employed by the programmes of Friends.
Often, the time and distance it takes for a family to travel, along with the rigours associated with such travel, can exacerbate the already delicate condition of the child. The new paediatric unit will be approximately 32 kilometres closer to AHC’s target community, which means 32 kilometres less for the children and their families to travel.
Yet today’s statistics are still staggering. At 57 per 1,000 children, Cambodia’s mortality rate of children under the age of five is the highest in the region; the figure goes up to 111 per 1,000 in rural parts of the country. In 2006 alone, 50 percent of Cambodia’s children died before they reached the age of five. Clearly, there is still much more work to be done for the country’s children. Every child has the right to a healthy and loving life.
Another prong to Izu’s credo is that healing need not necessarily be limited to medicine and science, but also includes that of the spirit. Thus, AHC’s staff has espoused in their heads and hearts to treat each child as though she or he were their own. Besides, the goal of AHC’s education and outreach programmes, both current and future, is to help rebuild Cambodia’s healthcare infrastructure to the extent that is self-sustaining. To that end, Friends continues to expand the depths and breadths of its programmes, extending its reach to those in need, and to those who can help.
