Home Based Care

When I first came here in 2007, I used to go on a lot of home based care visits (see glossary!) as part of my work in the HIV clinic in a local hospital. Living out in the village meant that I have never really been on many since, so the other day I organised to accompany one of the field workers on his daily rounds. Each field worker goes out on his motorbike to visit his allocated children each week, and so I hopped on the back to go along for the ride. I love going on them as you start in the hustle and bustle of the city in the early morning, and then after a while end up out in the middle of nowhere in the countryside- it does get pretty uncomfortable sitting on the back of the bike for that long though! Most of the families that we visit are very poor living in houses similar to the ones in the picture. Now that I can speak Khmer it is so interesting to hear what is being talked about. While the field worker checks the child’s medicine to make sure it is being administered properly he also takes their temperature to check that they aren't getting ill. My field worker had a nutrition book with him and I could see him discussing with the children what they eat during the week. Each family receives 10,000 riel per week (about £1.60) to help with the cost of food. The older boy in the picture is actually Vietnamese and the one with HIV, and he lives with his grandma (next to him) as both his parents are dead. The other boy is also her grandchild, although I couldn’t help but notice that he is definitely not completely Vietnamese (especially compared to his older brother). His hair is light brown and his eyebrows were blonde, and I was fascinated by him. It doesn’t take a genius to work out in which line of work his mother must have been in, but it is just so odd to think that there is someone out there who has no idea that he has a son living in poverty in a shack in the back end of nowhere. Hopefully I will get the chance to go out again and visit some more families before I leave.