The Center for Friends Without A Border at Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) receives and educates the many visitors to the Angkor Hospital for Children campus. In addition to viewing rotating exhibits from celebrated photographers worldwide, visitors have a unique opportunity to learn more about the impact of Cambodia’s recent history and the dramatic progress being made today through the medical care, education and outreach programs provided by AHC.
Angkor Hospital for Children provides free pediatric care to more than 300 children each day; trains thousands of healthcare professionals each year; and strives to restore Cambodia’s healthcare infrastructure. Every child has the right to a happy and healthy life!
Helping Change the World for Children in Rural Cambodia
Dr. John and Nina Cassils are co-founders of the Cassils Wettstein Asia Fund that advocates for clean water, healthcare, education and income generation in South East Asia. Having traveled extensively throughout South East Asia since the mid 1980’s the Cassils formally co-founded the Cassils Wettstein Asia Fund with Wieland and Susan Wettstein in 2005. Together with the Wettsteins, the Cassils are committed to projects in SE Asia including the Angkor Hospital for Children. Their philosophy is to work directly with those in the field. In 2003 Nina learned about a Canadian involved at Angkor Hospital for Children and their unwavering commitment to work with AHC began. The Cassils continue to visit all their projects in SE Asia annually.
“We are honoured to be part of the 10th anniversary of AHC and witness the groundbreaking ceremony for the new satellite program. We have great admiration for the personal achievements and sacrifices made by Kenro Izu, David Shoemaker and the 28 recipients working at AHC since its inception to make AHC a center of excellence in pediatrics. AHC has played a key role in rebuilding Cambodia’s health and medical educational system and is a model hospital for all of SE Asia.
The new satellite program in Sot Nikum is of great importance allowing swift access to medical treatment without the exhorbitant cost of transportation thus encouraging families to seek treatment before their child is seriously ill. With 30% of AHC patients coming from this area, the new facility will take some of the pressure off the already heavily tasked AHC in Siem Reap. We congratulate the staff of AHC, the volunteers and donors for making Kenro’s dream a reality.”
Dr. John and Nina Cassils on behalf of The Cassils Wettstein Asia Fund
Download a PDF describing the 10 year history of AHC (11mb)
At the Center for Friends Without A Border (Friends Center), visitors will have a unique opportunity to learn more about the impact of Cambodia’s recent history and the dramatic progress being made today through the medical care, education and outreach programs provided by Friends.
The Friends Center symbolizes a nexus of caring for the community and of ecological sustainability. The design of the center represents a gesture of openness that invites visitors to connect with the mission and learn about the projects of Friends, while allowing Angkor Hospital for Children to maintain the dignity and privacy of the children and their families.
The award-winning design of the Friends Center was developed by the internationally renowned architectural firm, Cook + Fox. The design and construction were grounded in the cultural belief that there is an inherent link between the health of Cambodia’s people and its environment. The Friends Center itself demonstrates an ethos of cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability, honoring the Khmer legacy of wise stewardship during the Angkor period. Rainwater is captured for reuse, bamboo louvers and roof overhangs are angled to the path of the sun for temperature control, and the roof is engineered for solar photovoltaic power. Renewable biofuel derived from the jatropha plant will be used to help generate the power necessary to operate the Friends Center.
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Five weeks passed very quickly at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We were tasked with producing a report on malnutrition, and thus sifted through about 150 patients’ charts to gather data. Our supervisor, David Shoemaker, also dispatched us often to follow-up on patients and, in the process, to see the ‘real Cambodia’: a conservative society revolving around the family and the field. It was a world apart from our native Canada; when we reported that a child, admitted to AHC in 2007 for malnutrition, had since been crushed to death by a cow, we were told that this happens frequently in Cambodia.
The chart review itself was equally fascinating. Written into the charts were family trees as large as they were complicated. The notes described murder, incomes below one dollar a month, fluctuating family sizes, appalling malnutrition, abandonment, and cases of HIV transmission via wet-nurses’ breast milk. And so, over five weeks, we were introduced to the private life of Cambodia.
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