Primary Healthcare is the medical aid arm of New Life Fellowship in Cambodia. These ministries focus on helping others receive basic medical attention, loving care, and prayer. Click below to learn more about these ministries.
Many people of Cambodia live without an understanding of common medical knowledge or care. Small cuts turn into infectious wounds. Common illnesses like the flu develop into deadly emergencies. Poor hygiene and diet lead to general ill health. These are just a few of the many very preventable situations that drastically lower the quality of life for the Cambodian people. Sometimes it can become fatal. Our desire is to bring hope to the poor who lack health knowledge, basic medical facilities and finances to help them to become responsible for their own physical well being.
CEH is passionate about improving the health of the people in Cambodia. God has called CEH to dedicate our attention to preventative healthcare through:
Volunteer Health Care Assistant Program: CEH’s strategy is to train individuals called healthcare assistants to provide for the basic healthcare needs of their communities. New healthcare assistants complete one year of training in first aid and basic health. The assistants are then encouraged and empowered to share their knowledge with their communities by training others, providing grassroots growth. As of 2010, CEH has trained over 20 assistants who are improving the health in their own village. Healthcare assistants use medical supplies provided by CEH to meet the growing health needs of their community. CEH provides books and materials so they can start a health library within their communities.
Health Care Library: Our extensive library lines the wall of our city training room. Students and health care assistants are welcome to read or borrow books.
City Health Care Training Class: One afternoon a week a health care class is offered free in our training room. Topics such as basic first aid, pre and post natal care, communicable diseases, treatment of basic illnesses, basic hygiene and vaccinations are covered.
New Healthy Life Magazine: Published quarterly to educate Cambodians towards living healthy and balanced lives. It is bilingual (Khmer and English), illustrated (as only 40% of Cambodians are literate) and provided free of charge.
Primary Health Care and Medical Teams: We are grateful for the primary health care and medical teams that come to assist on a regular basis in training our health care workers and conducting clinics. For more information on teams see Short Term Mission Opportunities.
Seng studied the First Aid course in his village. One evening, a 35 year old woman had a heart attack in his village. The woman was unconscious when Seng was able to check her heartbeat and determine that she had no pulse. Seng immediately began to perform CPR. The woman then would regain and lose consciousness again. He continued CPR until she regained her consciousness, later to be transported to the hospital. The woman is alive today.
"We are so happy with this teaching. We are much healthier than we used to be. Before we just didn’t know, but now that we can have knowledge we can have better health." - Pastor Theng Porly of Kraing Yaov Village
'Compassion with Power' is a ministry within New Life Fellowship that is committed to establishing Healing Home Centers for the poor and the sick. Founded by Kim and Susan Bonnevie from New Zealand, Kim was the senior pastor of City Life Church in New Plymouth for 15 years and Susan was a registered nurse for 25 years. They moved to Cambodia in 2007. Their vision is to establish local church-based Healing Homes in Cambodia that represent Jesus in His compassion and His power to heal.
The first center, 'Wonderful Healing Home' opened in August 2008. The home has room for up to seven patients accompanied by one family member or friend. It is open to any person with any kind of sickness, wounds and or malnutrition. They will receive basic medical attention, loving care and prayer. However the emphasis is not on the medical healing but rather on the healing power of Jesus, the Healer. Patients stay from a few days to a few months or even longer, depending on their situation. 'Wonderful Healing Home' has a seven Khmer staff (3 full-time; 4 part-time), all who are members of New Life Fellowship Church.
A daily schedule includes staff prayer and worship and devotional Bible teaching and prayer with the patients. Many patients have become true believers while staying in the Healing Home and many others can testify to receiving the healing touch of Jesus.
In 2009, a total of 104 patients and about 60 family members came into the home. Currently Kim and Susan are working towards opening up a second home in Phnom Penh. Within the next few years they plan to see Healing Homes established
in other provinces of Cambodia.
"And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with
compassion for them, and healed their sick." - Matthew 14:14
Image:
Pictures Above:
Rin (left) and her mother at the Healing Home. Rin came to
the Healing Home curled up in a comatose state and very, very close to
starvation. Her lovely mum had been begging to get money to live for
years. At last report, Rin was eating 'four times a day and she is
fat now'!!
Dtouch, our week-day cook, giving granny a shiny-head hair-do!
Bonna, one of the part time staff, in the kitchen. Bonna sleeps
six nights a week at the home. We always have two staff members
sleeping over.
Sopheap (right) leads a devotion for our patients in the afternoon.
Little Long came to the Healing Home with tiny crippled legs
that were scarred with disease. Today he can run and he bicycles to
school every day. His mother has become a believer and when she
returned to her village she threw out all the idol.
We are activated by our compassion and mercy for patients in their fight for life. Our focus is to follow-up with patients to make sure they are receiving the care that they need. We are committed to help fund and connect patients to places where they can get proper care. Our vision is to connect the church to medical facilities so that together they can bring physical and emotional healing to the people. PCM has a sense of urgency for the sick and because of our relentless determination to bring hope to the suffering, lives are actively being saved. We hope that our patients will see the love of Christ in us by our love and compassion towards them.
The Needs: Many of the sick from the rural areas of Cambodia do not know where to go to get help or they do not have the means to get the medical assistance that they need. Many sicknesses and wounds are left untreated until the person is seriously sick, resulting in permanent damage or death.
We are driven to meet these needs by taking patients to Health Centers that are specific for the need of each individual patient.
How We Help:
Our primary goal is to bring the sick to a proper health care facility in enough time to give them a chance to survive. We inform the local pastors, leaders, and health volunteers to contact us when a patient needs transportation and assistance. PCM volunteers will then go and pick up the patient and bring them to the proper facility.
We AIM to build relationships with healthcare facilities and ministries. As they become aware of our mission, we unite with them to care for the patient as best as possible.
We work closely with the Compassion with Power- Healing Home, also a ministry of New Life Foundation. We often refer our patients to the Healing Home.
We work heavily to help empower the rural church branches of New Life. Our vision is to hand-off responsibility to the church leaders and the health volunteers in each village. We do this by helping the churches become aware of the medical facilities that can treat beyond the capacity of their local care. We then empower them to create a relationship with the facilities. The goal is to motivate the churches to look out for the health needs of their members and the people in their village. Together, the church and the medical facilities can work together to take care of the spiritual and physical health of the people. Our hope for the future is that the churches will be able to access medical resources without our assistance and become respected for their love and concern for the sick and their families.
Most of our patients are living in poverty. Our Follow-Up-Fund is to assist patients who are unable to pay for their treatment. Treatment costs vary depending on the patients needs. We ideally plan to fund about $100 for each patient.
Testimonies:
From extreme malnourishment, Nan only weighed 1.2 Kilos at four months old. She was referred to us by a medical team, but Nan lived six hours away from proper medical care, and we were concerned she would not survive the trip; however, with many prayers, Nan was able to make it to the city but still with little time left. She was so close to dying that the hospital almost refused to treat her. With the grace of the Lord she was given IV and blood transfusions. We (PCM) were able to provide her with supplement milk. Her health continued to progress for the better. She is now nine months old and a healthy and happy miracle.
We found Touk with a wound that had been progressively worsening for the last ten years. A snake bite caused the wound and later he was bit by a dog that made it even worse. At 30 years old, the awful smell of the wound had left him with little companionship. Touk was not able to read or write and his family had no money to pay for treatment. After realizing his worsening condition, we were able to take him to a Hospital, where the decision was made to amputate his leg in order for him to live. It was a difficult decision but Touk agreed to the procedure. After the amputation he gained some weight and was full of so much more joy. Eventually he was fitted to a prosthetic leg. We helped place him in a rehabilitation center where he was learning how to read and write and develop other life skills. Touk’s testimony is one of hope. His story has touched our lives.
We met nine year old Leap Long who had been suffering from an incurable disease, Epidermolysis Bullosa. It was so difficult to see such a young boy suffering from bloody open wounds on his legs. He was unable to walk due to contractures that had been preventing his legs from straightening. We were able to instruct his parents on how to care for him. After he was able to spend some time at the Healing Home he was able to return to his family in the village. Upon our last visit, we were excited to find his legs healed, and as a nine year old boy should be, he was walking on his own. We give many praises to God and continue to pray that the disease would not return.
