Speaking Up for Maternal & Child Health
24 March 2017, Takeo Province – The Improving Maternal Child Health (IMCH) Project was launched in Koah Andaet and Kirivong Operational Districts in Takeo province, with the purpose of having district governors, operational district directors and World Vision work together to contribute to the reduction of maternal and child health issue
During the event, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Dr. Mech Sambo, director for Kirivong Health Center; Mr. Takuya Matsuoka, representative of World Vision Japan; and Mr. Try Kong, Senior Operations Manager at World Vision Cambodia. Proceedings were presided over by Her Excellency Sovanny Nou, Provincial Deputy Governor of Takeo.
We stand ready to work with local authorities to educate mothers about the importance of breast-feeding and nutrition.
The MOU ensures all parties have strong and close collaboration to implement IMCH at the targeted areas, and hold each other accountable and responsible for achieving set targets in the improvement of maternal and child health. Furthermore, it will also improve staff capacity from community to provincial levels. “It’s a great project which has the potential to do a lot of good and improve children’s well-being through working with the Government of Cambodia,” said Mr. Try Kong, senior operations manager at World Vision.
“I will try my best to strengthen the capacity of my staff so that we could achieve our goals,” said Dr. Mech Sambo.
Vith Chamreun, a team leader for IMCH project based in Takeo Operations further enthused: “The IMCH project is good and benefits the poor community especially women and children. We stand ready to work with local authorities to educate mothers about the importance of breast-feeding and nutrition. We hope that the problem will be alleviated through better education.”
On March 1, the Government of Japan had agreed to provide US$ 466,431 to World Vision Japan for the three-year project. In the first year, World Vision Japan will provide training for health workers and volunteers as well as health education for mothers, aiming to improve the quality of, and accessibility to, health services as well as reduce the rate of malnourished children and water-borne diseases.