Provide Health Support to Communities in Cambodia

Dear Supporters,

GVI Cambodia is proud to say we really did start off 2020 strong, by finalising a crucial project that will help support the health and wellbeing of many in the Kampong Cham community. 

The last quarter has been a very excited one for us, as after spending the previous quarter fundraising we were able to bring our projects to life! One of them was funded through our healthcare Trust fund which was to help renovate a counselling room space for our partner BSDA. We know that ensuring everyone is able to have good mental wellbeing is paramount for their health. This is why we ensured we conducted this project to the highest standard so that we could impact all the students who come to BSDA into the future. 

After meeting with BSDA to discuss ways in which we could best support them, they decided that instead of helping to renovate one of their classrooms, we could help impact more community members if we were to support them in renovating a counselling room for them. They already have a room that is called their counselling room but it has cracks in the walls, broken tiles, flaking paint, and only a few bits of old furniture which aren’t suitable for a counselling room. BSDA told us how no one ever uses the room, but it is such an important space for their students as a lot of them come from very difficult backgrounds. 

We absolutely loved the idea of helping to renovate the space, so set about making plans and pricing up initial repairs. BSDA were shown our plans, which they agreed would work well, so we set about the initial task of preparing and repairing the room. Groups of our volunteers went in to initially help scrub down the walls, which proved to be a very messy task as the material kept flaking off! When this was complete, cracks were repaired before we set about painting. Some many have got more paint on themselves than the walls...but the room was soon ready for the help of a professional!

We then had a builder come in to rip up all the tiles and level the floor, as previously it had been sinking in some areas. We chose a lovely wooden tile to go down, but ran into an issue when we were 1 tile short and the shop had discontinued the design...Luckily we overcame the hiccup and the room was ready to be furnished. As locally we couldn’t source the items we needed, we went to the capital city of Phnom Penh to buy sofas, armchairs, pillows, plants, picture frames and all sorts of different items to turn the room into an inviting space. 

We are incredibly proud of the result, and want to give the biggest thanks to the support and donations people so kindly gifted us when we fundraised. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without help, and couldn’t be more grateful to those who donated, shared the fundraising link, volunteered their time towards these goals and all other support we’ve had along the way. 

This project has definitely left our partner with a resource they can use long term, which has ensured that we have created something sustainable within the community. This project has also helped us work towards the  SDG’s; 3.Good Health & Wellbeing, 5. Gender Equality, 10. Reduced Inequalities. 

This quarter we have also continued to use our Trust fund to support our incredible staff member Kimyi. He has been an huge help with us as we started to finalise our time in Kampong Cham, and prepare to move to Siem Reap. As a staff member and friend he really does go above and beyond to help support us, and amongst our whole staff team we always say that Kimyi is someone we really feel blessed to work with! Unfortunately as Kimyi has his main job, family and home in Kampong Cham he won’t be moving with us to Siem Reap. Kimyi though has assured us it is not a goodbye at all, it is a see you soon as he will come to visit and we will stay in touch. He is also committed to helping GVI with anything we may need in the future, which just shows what an amazing person he is! Thank you to everyone who contributed to this fund, and directly helped support Kimyi.

As we look to the future we can reflect on all that this fund has achieved, and know that we can achieve similar greatness and more in Siem Reap! We will be back operating in Siem Reap soon, and know that now more than ever it is crucial that we use this fund to promote very high standards of healthcare within the community. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the generosity everyone has already given, but please do continue to support us as we can continue to achieve so much together!

With Gratitude,

Cambodia Healthcare