A Grandmother and Village Health Volunteer team up to help a toddler grow strong and healthy

Oeun E has a passion for helping people. He’s on a mission to protect and support the next generation in his Cambodian community of Sophy. “I want to see all the children in my village grow healthy, so having better hygiene will help. I especially want all mothers and caregivers to have a good understanding good nutrition practice and basic health protective behavior,” he says.

A few years ago, E and his family were in need of support themselves. He and his wife have four teenage children, two of whom are in secondary school and two of whom have dropped out and earn money for the family with farm work. E is committed to his own hard work as a farmer, but it wasn’t enough to make ends meet. That’s why he was nominated to join a CWS-organized program.

After some information sessions and training, E began work as the Village Health Volunteer, which enables him to earn extra income while using his passion to support his community. In his role, E supports mothers and other child caregivers in Sophy to learn about child health and nutrition, and he works with Health Center staff to support young child growth monitoring every quarter during nutrition promotion and supplemental feeding sessions. For E, the educational and practical (feeding) sessions come together when he shares recipes and advice about cooking nutrient-rich porridge from local ingredients, and during hygiene lessons where moms show they know how to feed their babies in a healthy, clean environment.

One of E’s “students” is Chib San, a 62-year-old grandmother who is the primary caregiver for her 2-year-old granddaughter while the baby’s parents work in another province.

When CWS staff first met her, San said that she had heard about the nutrition education and feeding sessions, and brought her granddaughter to one because, she said, “I learned that my granddaughter was severely underweight, and learned that the Rural Development Associate would support me to bring her to the Health Center for correct diagnosis and treatment. Now I bring her to the supplementary feeding sessions so she can eat nutrient-rich porridge to keep gaining weight and grow healthy, be active and not get sick.”

San added, “It is working! I am so happy as my granddaughter is healthier, which is good. Now I don’t need to worry about borrowing money to pay for treatment when she is ill, and I can spend the $40 her parents are able to send us each month to buy healthy food instead of medicine. I am so grateful
for the support that E and both organizations, CWS and Rural Development Association, have given us.”

It takes a village to raise a child, and in this case, that means a dedicated grandmother, a Village Health Volunteer and hardworking parents.