She kept holding her finger wrapped in blue cloth. As I spoke with her parents, she stood near her house watching me. Again, I saw her hold her finger and the look in her eyes told me that this cloth was not simply something to look pretty, it was covering something that was causing her pain.
Srey Leak was cutting the palm fronds off of the cane that morning. She showed me the tree. It was nearly 15 feet tall. I pictured this small, eleven-year-old girl climbing the tree. While working she had cut her finger. I asked if I could see the wound. Quickly unwinding the blue cloth, she showed me a deep cut that was caked with black dirt. I asked if there was water to wash her finger with. Immediately, her mother took her over to a small plastic basin filled with water and began scrubbing the finger vigorously. It was evident that this was causing Srey Leak great pain. With tears in her eyes, she ran behind the house not wanting me to see her emotion.
What can I do for her? I wondered. Suddenly I remembered the small medicine kit that ADRA workers are issued and that it was in my suitcase in the back of the truck we were traveling in. Digging through my clothes, I found what little I had — an antiseptic wash, antibiotic cream and three Band-Aids. I returned to the house and asked the mother if I could look at her daughter’s finger. Srey Leak came close and held up her finger to me. Hers was a hand covered in scars. I explained that I was going to wash the wound, a deep inch-long cut running beside her nail, with the antiseptic wash. As we tried to let the wound dry, blood oozed out. I opened the antibiotic ointment, realizing there was enough in the packet for several days. Applying a small line of it on the cut, I quickly wrapped the bandage around it. I gave her the ointment and two Band-Aids explaining that she needed to keep the finger clean and use the ointment and the other Band-Aids over the next two days. Srey Leak’s eyes glowed with excitement and I thought that this was perhaps the first time she had ever had a Band-Aid on a cut. Smiling, she said it felt better already. I had not done much, however, I had done what I could to help ease her pain.
Srey Leak lives in the Kompong Cham province near the Mekong River in Cambodia. This is an area where roads are few and there is no real industry. Rich in historical culture you will find the Nokor Bachey Temple ruins built in the 11th century. It is also home to the Peah Theatteuk Chha Resort built by King Sorya Varman I, which contains 551 temples telling the story of Buddhism and Brahmanism. However, this is not the Cambodia that I came to see. I was there to visit the people that ADRA serves.
Those who can afford it own a few cows, others a few chickens, however most of the homes I visited did not have the means to own any animals. Most children are not attending school. The families live in small stilt houses ranging anywhere from three to six feet above the ground. As I entered these homes again and again, I found the barest essentials—a hammock, a knife, a cooking pot, and some rice.
Everywhere I went I was greeted by an abundance of small children. Some were grinning and laughing, others peeked around trees. In every home that I visited I was heartbroken to learn that every family had suffered the death of at least one child. Yet as I looked around the villages, I realized that there was something else that had been lost, the elderly. The great- aunties and uncles, the grandparents, they were not here.
In the 1970s Cambodia suffered the effects of both war and famine. During this time the country was often referred to as a place of “blood and tears, a hell on earth.” There are killing fields all over Cambodia, skull and bone cairns that stand as reminders of the time of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Today it is a country of 12 million in a land half the size of Italy. A hot and humid place, it was 105 degrees while I was there. It is estimated that 40 percent of the population is illiterate and Buddhism, once annihilated under the Khmer Rouge, is the national religion.
Since 1988, ADRA has been working throughout Cambodia. Water and sanitation, mother-child health, food security, stop smoking campaigns, adventure therapy, training village health workers and birth attendants are just a few of the current projects. ADRA needs your help to continue this work.
