Teuk Phos District, Cambodia — May 1, 2009 — Pon Team is a 25-year-old mother in Cambodia’s Teuk Phos district. When her daughter, Thairy, was one year old, she was frequently sick with diarrhea. Mother and daughter spent a great deal of time and, more importantly, money for treatment at the local private clinic.

Touch Sokya is a 24-year-old farmer’s wife, also in Teuk Phos, who struggled to keep her first-born healthy.

Team and Sokya’s cases are not unusual. More than 10 million children under five years old die every year worldwide, two out of three of these from easily preventable diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, measles, and tetanus, and from the conditions like malnutrition.

IRD, with a child survival health grant from USAID, is sending trainers into rural Cambodian villages to teach families the essentials of health and hygiene. Mothers, and some fathers, learn about the importance of early breastfeeding starting within half an hour after delivery; the value of exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months of age; nutrition; the importance of using clean water and how obtain it; and methods of proper hygiene.

Team reports that following IRD’s child health campaigns, there have been few cases of diarrhea in her village, and that her own child is healthy. Sokya began applying the lessons she learned from IRD prior to the birth of her second child. She completed her own tetanus vaccination schedule and had two antenatal checks at the local health center during her last pregnancy. She proudly reports that she initiated breastfeeding 30 minutes after delivery. Her family now only consumes boiled and filtered water. She and her children wash their hands with soap, especially before eating and breastfeeding, and after using the toilet. Her children have received all of their scheduled immunizations, regular vitamin A supplements, and deworming tablets at the local health center’s outreach campaigns. As a result, her younger child, now 14 months old, has never experienced diarrhea or vomiting.