Healthcare & Train-the-Trainer

In 2011, we completed new clean water systems in all 3 major provincial hospitals & continued to improve safe water access in remote health centres. As WAH gained the trust of the Provincial Health Department, our relationship with Dr Prak Vonn, director of PHD, grew. Dr. Prak Vonn told us about the high incidence of deaths in mothers giving birth and the numbers were disheartening. We came back to Singapore and were immediately in contact with KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Two recce trips later, and WAH partnered with KK Hospital to provide on the ground emergency medical training and a train-the-trainer program.

Emergency Medical Training

Midwife Training

Having researched the medical statistics in KC, with the help of WAH and PHD, KKH identified three main reasons for the deaths, PPH, (excessive bleeding), eclampsia, (high blood pressure fitting), and general hygiene. By running regular programs, in collaboration with WAH and PHD in Cambodia, KKH believed we could drop the mortality rates for mothers in birth. Over six years of training and train-the-trainer, the mortality rate for mothers in birth dropped by 90%.

Pediatric Training

In 2015, KKH added the Paediatric Emergency Training Program using our certified trainers. KKH suggested we carry out paediatric emergency programs because in some cases, young children, mainly under five years old, were not surviving. The mortality rate for children under five in Kampong Chhnang was around 8%. The training programs helped nurses improve their skills so they could save more childrens’ lives. In 2017 Mount Alvernia hospital started training in respiratory issues.

Emergency Kits

An important part of the training includes use of emergency kits, designed by KKH. These boxes include all the necessary medical equipment needed in an emergency. We created five different boxes for different medical needs, for instance PPH and eclampsia. WAH distributed these boxes to all health centres and hospitals. During training programs, medical staff use these boxes and train with them, so that in a real emergency they can quickly administer treatment.

Train-the-Trainer Program

Training the core trainers

WAH and KKH frequently discussed the need to create long term sustainability so that midwives, nurses and doctors can pass on their skills to younger generations of medical staff, perpetuating the training, raising standards, and providing long term benefits to the community. Once KKH had completed a number of training programs, Prof Kenneth Kwek, CEO of KKH, suggested we start a “train-the-trainer” program in Cambodia, where the most promising midwives, nurses, and doctors are identified and trained by KKH to become CORE trainers (Common Obstetric Resuscitation Emergencies) . This program was implemented in 2014 and has been a great success. We now have 20 trainers in the province. The trainers carry out regular refresher training, both in the hospital training centre in the city, and in health centres around the province. This training in health centres also allows WAH to check emergency kits and hygiene standards in the centre. We also check the clean water systems installed by WAH at the same time, to make sure they all have clean water available.

Core trainers training local nurses

The Train-the-trainer program has proved to be vital in the sustainability of our medical programs. The program has been vital to keep our training going during Covid-19, because KKH and Mount Alvernia are not able to travel to Cambodia. Having 20 CORE trainers in Kampong Chhnang has enabled us to continue our training and refresher training. This is a sustainable model, and decreases our reliance on overseas help over the long term. It has raised the standard of training and medical services in the communities. We are seeing a big improvement in the quality of medical services, and the staff are empowered to learn more so they can save lives every day. One example of this impact is a 90% drop in maternal mortality since we started the program.

 Cataract Removal

Through The Good Exchange, WAH was introduced to A New Vision (ANV), a not-for-profit organisation based in Singapore, who run cataract missions in the region. ANV works with Tilganga hospital in Nepal. WAH, ANV, Tilganga and PHDKC decided to run mission in June 2019, to carry out 347 cataract operations on 285v people, all who had been pre screened before the mission started. Within 20 hours of the operation, all patients were able to get their eye sight back. We plan to arrange more missions in future, and to increase our expertise through training in identifying cataract. In 2020 we will be unable to have a cataract mission, but hope to run our next one in 2021.

PHDKC Community Programs

With our new synergistic partnership with The Good Exchange in 2017, and the incredible addition of Dr. Rany to our team in 2019, WAH has developed an even stronger relationship with the Provincial Health Department of Kampong Chhnang (PHDKC). 2019 and 2020 has seen the execution of a number of important programs, including de-worming for children, mosquito net distribution during a dengue outbreak, and a cover-19 response program to help PHDKC.

Future of Healthcare

WAH continues to reach out to the communities in KC province, to help local communities to improve their lives and conditions. We will continue to follow our vision of providing good healthcare, hygiene and education. This must be sustainable, and too that end we will keep the Trim-the-trainer program running so the local medical trainers are able to train independently, using skills taught them by KKH and Mount Alvernia. We will continue our scholarship program to help young woman climb the career ladder, and will continue to install clean water systems and hygiene programs in schools, to drop the diarrhoea rate for children. Finally we will continue to help the local government orphanage, and look after extreme medical cases we come across in our daily work.