A Samaritan’s Purse maternal and child health project is changing lives in an impoverished Cambodian village.
Sreymon was struggling to care for her baby and she didn’t know where to turn for help. In her remote village in Cambodia, she had never had an opportunity to learn certain essentials, such as recognizing the signs of malnutrition or how to practice healthy hygiene.
Sreymon and her family are healthier because of what they learned through our project.
Deeply-embedded cultural superstitions also contributed to Sreymon’s confusion and frustration.
“Don’t bathe at night, don’t sleep too much, don’t sit or stand in front of the door because it will make the baby fat,” she said. “In our culture, almost all pregnant women are told these things.”
Her life changed when Samaritan’s Purse came to her village and began a maternal and child health project. Our staff taught the mothers and pregnant women how to properly take care of their babies and children, with a special emphasis on the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life.
For the first time, Sreymon understood the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. She did not do that with her oldest child, and she believes that may have contributed to some of his health issues.
Strengthening Family and Community
Sreymon decided to breastfeed her second son, and, ever since, this baby boy has been growing healthy and strong. Her oldest son is drastically improving as well now that Sreymon has also learned through the program how to prepare nutritious meals for him. Additionally, Sreymon’s family is growing healthier overall as they practice what they learned about hygiene—taking extra care to clean their home.
And now Sreymon is teaching these practices to other women. Samaritan’s Purse teams trained her to be a Leader Mother in her community so that she can share her knowledge and help other mothers raise healthy children.
“I’m really happy that my family, especially my sons, are healthy after I applied the lessons that I learned with Samaritan’s Purse,” she said.
“I’m really happy that my sons are healthy.”
Because Sreymon is a Christian, she is also passionate about sharing the Gospel with families in her village. Through her mentorship of other mothers, she’s able to connect with them on a spiritual level as well. She hosts a weekly Bible study in her home with these mothers and is seeing them grow in their knowledge of God’s Word.
Please pray for Sreymon as she faithfully shares the Gospel. Pray that more people in her village will come to faith in Jesus Christ. Also pray for the mothers, that they will continue to be equipped to raise healthy families.
