A wine tasting and silent auction not to be missed.

Purchase tickets on line at ttwvan.com and fwab.org or mail your cheque payable to “Angkor Hospital for Children” Attention:Crystal to 2160-650 West Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6B 4N7

Taste the World Printable Flyer (PDF)

For many of you, it was volunteering your precious vacation time, for others it was bringing medicines, hygiene kits, toys and art supplies and for some it was holding dinner parties and presentations to raise awareness of the work of AHC in Siem Reap. To all of you we owe you a very special thank you. Your generous contributions of time and money go a long ways in Cambodia. We are so very appreciative of your participation and charity. You are truly making a difference.

Download the original pdf file here.

From sending shoe boxes full of toys and other goodies to give out to the Cambodian kids, to organizing fundraising events, to graciously hosting Cambodian staff visiting Canada, Canadians from all over the country have helped to make Angkor Hospital for Children the place that Cambodian families want to bring their children to for medical care.

And of course, many thanks to all the Canadians who made the very, very long journey over to Cambodia to support us in person, working alongside our Cambodian staff, kindly sharing their knowledge and experiences always with the goal of building up the skills of the health professionals here….and to get our staff in shape.

It was wonderful having other Canadians visit us in Siem Reap. I do hope that everyone who did, had fun. I encourage you to please extend my invitation to other Canadians to come spend some time with us at AHC. Our new fully donated visitor’s center offers a museum atmosphere providing the AHC story since inception in 1999.

Again from everyone here at Angkor Hospital for Children, thank you so much and have a wonderful Canada Day!

Sincerely,
David Shoemaker
Angkor Hospital for Children
Siem Reap, Kingdom of Cambodia

May 13th, 2010

UltraSONIX of Richmond ships a gift of life to the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap. This hospital provides comprehensive care to children on average of 400 arriving children and their families each day. Recognized as a teaching hospital, it serves as a training site for health professionals throughout Cambodia through its Medical Education Center. More importantly, please recognize the efforts of UltraSONIX having the foresight to give such an important lifesaving gift.

Many thanks to freight forwarders Mannix Freight Services and to Cathay Pacific for delivering the lifesaving machine to Cambodia. 

The Angkor Hospital for Children, founded by renowned Japanese photographer Kenro Izu in 1999, supported by Friends without a Border, provides comprehensive medical care to children in the Siem Reap area. On average, 400 children and their families arrive at the hospital each day.

Recognized by Cambodia’s Ministry of Health as an official teaching hospital, it serves as a training site for health professionals throughout Cambodia through its Medical Education Center. The Capacity Building and Health Education Program works to both strengthen the capacity and improves the quality of local health centers and works with community members to teach good public health practices. 
 
Charity Navigator, America’s leading independent charity evaluator, endorses Friends without a Border with four stars.

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!

The Angkor Hospital for Children, founded by renowned Japanese photographer Kenro Izu in 1999, supported by Friends Without A Border, provides comprehensive medical care to children in the Siem Reap area. On average, 400 children and their families arrive at the hospital each day. Recognized by Cambodia’s Ministry of Health as an official teaching hospital, it serves as a training site for health professionals throughout Cambodia through its Medical Education Center. The Capacity Building and Health Education Program works to both strengthen the capacity and improves the quality of local health centers and works with community members to teach good public health practices. 

Charity Navigator, America’s leading independent charity evaluator, endorses Friends Without A Border with four stars.

www.angkorhospital.org | www.fwab.org

As of September 30th, the building for the satellite project at Sotnikum is 80% complete. Due to some cost savings, the building has been extended to 17 x 17 meters and has a covered waiting area in front. In addition, the water tank for the entire Sotnikum hospital has been refurbished and a donated water purification system will be installed in December which will benefit the entire facility.

Overall, the project is a little ahead of schedule. Currently, the supplies and equipment for the facility are being purchased and training for new staff will begin in the next few months ahead. A combination of expatriate and Khmer Physician staffing will ensure both enough quantity and quality of staffing to make the venture successful.

We would again like to especially thank the donors who have made this possible. The contributions made by both the Planet Wheeler Foundation and the Cassils – Wettstein Fund will have a profound impact on the health of the children in Sotnikum District. Today, 1 out of 15 children in rural areas such as this continue to die of treatable illnesses. This project will profoundly help improve the lives of the children in this district and beyond as it serves as an example of what health care should be like in Cambodia – high quality, compassionate care.

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)

Ground was broken at the end of March and the Foundations of the building will be laid during April 2009. Status of construction on April 8, 2009:

Paul Hancock, Patricia Solar, John and I traveled 40 minutes outside of Siem Reap to visit a village school library. For anyone interested in funding child education Room to Read is well positioned in Laos and Cambodia as we know from personal experience.

In Cambodia the Room to Read team has chosen to focus on all of our core programs, except for the School Room Program. They have identified library construction, Khmer language children’s books, and girls’ scholarships as three of the most important improvements we can make to the educational system and have thus chosen to focus much of their work there. The following table highlights our Cambodia team’s success to date:

Room to Read is impacting lives! With over 3.1 million children accessing 763 schools, 7,022 bilingual libraries, 327 new local language children’s titles, and 6,817 girls in our education program we are providing opportunities that change children’s lives and communities throughout the developing world. With your help, we can reach our goal of establishing 11,000 libraries to impact more than 5 million children by 2010″

Source: Room to Read website

Helping Change the World for Children in Rural Cambodia

Children are the innocent victims of the most drastic consequences of poverty. In Cambodia, thousands of children die each year of preventable and treatable disease and it is not uncommon for a child to die of complications from respiratory infections, diarrhea, and diseases which are practically eradicated in the more developed countries.

In this impoverished and battered country, the mortality statistics are earthshaking:

• 15% of Cambodian children die before the age of 5
• 35% of Cambodian children are not immunized for polio, measles, or diphtheria
• 45% of Cambodian children under 5 are moderately to severely underweight
• 12,000 Cambodian children under the age of 15 live with HIV/AIDS

Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) will replicate the quality pediatric treatment and teaching programs that have earned its acclaim by building a new pediatric wing which will be a part of the government-operated Sot Nikum Referral Hospital. The presence of this new pediatric center will relieve families from taking the arduous journey to AHC to get proper care for their children thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality of delayed treatment and saving time, saving resources, and saving precious lives.

In the long term, the success of this model pediatric health care facility may lead to additional such centers, allowing AHC to extend its successful health care programs throughout the country, especially into poor rural farming regions. It is conceivable that this project may be the start of a dramatic improvement in Cambodian healthcare.

The AHC Satellite Program has been designed in collaboration with the staff at AHC to maximize efficiency of operation. It will include all the necessary accoutrements of a modern hospital. And, recognizing that properly trained, quality health professionals can mean the difference between life and death for many children in Cambodia, the Satellite will effïciently and effectively combine resources with AHC staff to provide the best training for all doctors, nurses, lab technicians and pharmacy staff.

In addition to basic treatment, healthcare education and medical training objectives, the pediatric center will:

• encourage admissions for emergency treatment for children referred from health centers and other referral hospitals
• engage relevant existing health agencies and NGOs to improve links within the community
• bring health education directly to communities in Siem Reap Province while working to strengthen the quality of services available at local government-run health center

The new Angkor Hospital for Children Satellite Program is ready to begin transforming the face of health-care in Cambodia! And, who knows, in the words of former President of the United States, William J. Clinton: “There is hope that Cambodia can be a model for the rest of Asia and perhaps the world… ”