Celebrating Change: A Heartwarming Letter from Cambodia

Rey Buenaventura, CEF Social Media Manager As part of our ongoing Celebrating Change campaign, CEF is happy to share the following email update from Kids International Development Society (K.I.D.S.) co-founders’ Adrianne & Rick Dartnell.  It appears that their Cambodia Mobile Health Clinic project is starting to take shape.  As a proud and enthusiastic supporter of the Dartnell’s efforts to provide basic medical care to isolated villages in the Cambodian countryside, CEF couldn’t be more thrilled to hear such wonderful news.  The following is an edited excerpt of the Dartnell’s project update to CEF.

Hello Everyone,

[A]s is the way here in Siem Reap, [Cambodia,] the crowing roosters and the monks chanting from the temple nearby got [us] off to a very early start. To add to the early [morning] symphony of sound there was a funeral going on down the street with loud amplified music. The owners of the apartment are also adding on to the building, short story...hammering, drills and clanging adding to the [chaos].

Despite the chanting, crowing, dust and disarray we respectfully realised our fate could be outside of our thin walls rather than within. We watch as heavy piles of clay tiles and sacks of cement are carried on the shoulders of youth labourers, both males and females; who trudge barefoot up and down three flights of stairs throughout the day in 30 degree heat. We also hear their laughter and bantering throughout the day as they hammer, drill and mix concrete. We learn daily from the people here about their amazing resiliency against adversity and sometimes great odds and their ability to accept their situations with courage, grace, humour and patience.

We have made our connections with friends and projects and it will be a busy season. The Lake Clinic (TLC), who we have worked with for years, is partnering with K.I.D.S. and the Compassionate Eye Foundation to build a mini mobile floating clinic. This project, thanks to the preliminary ground work from TLC is now moving quickly, the steel for the floatation has been delivered and the welding sparks are flying. Work has also begun on the structure that will be put on the floatation to house the clinic. We are very pleased to be able to coordinate and work in partnership to make this project possible. It will be permanently stationed in a region that has an estimated population of somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 people who would otherwise have no health care at all, so this will be a great new year for the people living in this area.

We also see that our own resilience comes from our community of friends and family who continue to come together and give us such great support. We thank you all and wish you and yours much happiness, health and meaning for the new year.

Love,

Adrianne and Rick