Since 2004 we have been in Cambodia with the Christian mission agency OMF International.By God's grace we long to see communities of disciples who are following
Christ in every aspect of life and multiplying throughout Cambodia and
beyond. Our mission is to glorify God by the urgent evangelization and discipleship of the peoples of Cambodia.
In support of the church-planting and church-strengthening ministry of OMF Cambodia, our development work is focused around three ministry areas: health, education and social care. We aim to help build capacity in our Cambodian colleagues and their institutions, and having spent 2 years learning the Cambodian language, Alastair and Juliet have been involved in training roles since 2006. Since 2010 we have been coordinating OMF's team of approximately 25 expat development workers, as well as continuing work in our professions as volunteers. Read below to find out more ...
Alastair at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP)
During the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, the Cambodian
education system was totally destroyed. Every school and university in the
country was closed, books were burnt, and many of the country’s intellectuals,
teachers and students lost their lives. But today, demand for education is growing fast, and the
need to train a new generation of teachers, leaders and intellectuals is
immense.
Alastair is part of OMF’s team of people working with students. Since
2006 he has worked as a volunteer lecturer in the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).
Founded in 1960, and re-opened in 1980 after the 1975-79 genocide, RUPP is Cambodia's oldest, largest and arguably most prestigious university. In 2009 there were approximately 9,000 students studying across a diverse range of sciences and humanities, one-quarter of whom have received government scholarships. Traditionally, many RUPP graduates have gone on to train as high-school teachers, and still today, many graduates enter the education sector.
Alastair has been
working as a volunteer in RUPP's Department of Geography and Land Management, where more
than 100 students study towards BA degree in Geography.
Among other
things, Alastair has helped develop an undergraduate course in geomorphology (the scientific study of landforms and landscapes). Teaching in Khmer with a Cambodian colleague, he authored
the first Cambodian geomorphology textbook, 'Fundamentals of Geomorphology'. Several students completed
the first undergraduate research in physical geography since 1975. Three graduates have received full scholarships to study Masters degrees overseas in their disciplines, with a view to strengthening the Department of Geography staff resources in the future.
Juliet at the National Centre for Tuberculosis Control (CENAT)
From 2006-09 Juliet worked as an advisor to the Culture Laboratory at the National Centre for Tuberculosis Control, Phnom Penh. She conducted a training course for CENAT and provincial culture laboratory technical staff, funded by TB-CAP/JATA.
Cambodia ranks 21st on the list of 22 high-burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the
world. An estimated 64% of Cambodians are infected with TB, and a substantial
number of cases remain undetected. As of 2007, around 13,000 Cambodians die
annually from the disease. There were almost 71,000 new TB cases in Cambodia in
2006, with an estimated incidence rate of 495 cases per 100,000 population. Although
there is a high burden of disease, the TB situation in Cambodia
has remained relatively stable over the past five years. The country has maintained a
TB case detection rate of around 60% and a treatment success rate of more
than 90%, although cure rates vary dramatically across provinces. Case
detection has fallen after reaching 68% in 2005. It is not clear if the decline is
due to a drop in incidence or problems with case finding. Increasing the participation of
community members to refer and supervise TB patients and collaborating with the
private sector will likely improve case finding.
The
2
009 World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Report estimated that there
were only 94 cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, although preliminary results from
the ongoing second National Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey show that cases of
MDR-TB have appeared and around 60 patients are being treated for MDR-TB.
HIV
prevalence among new TB cases is 7.8%, very high compared with the national
HIV prevalence of 0.7%. HIV co-infection among new cases is also high
compared with the WHO regional average but just below the average of 11.0%
for the high-burden countries.
(Data source: USAid Health)
Juliet at the Royal University of Phnom Penh
Since 2010 Juliet has joined Alastair working as a volunteer lecturer at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. She is helping develop the laboratory practical teaching of microbiology in the Department of Chemistry.
Please click on these links to find out about Alastair and Juliet's other academic and scientific work in the UK.
