Church planting colleagues in Cambodia write:
Medical care (and "Drug Abuse") in Cambodia...
Health care and medicine in rural Cambodia are a discouraging complex web of limited training, self-training, folk-medicine, and plain taking advantage of people. An OMF colleague & physician once told us there is an equal chance of being either helped, or harmed, by visiting a Khmer doctor. We are not doctors, but people are constantly asking our advice just because we come from a Western country. They are often desperate and at their wits end.
This last month, Om Vet was desperate for help. She is unable to walk and has spreading tremors. She heard on the radio of a powerful medicine and convinced Srey Lieng to take her an hour and a half away to buy it. She spent about $170 USD on the “medicine” pictured here, along with a case of bottled water. She received Spirulina vitamins, wheatgrass powder, and drops of some kind and they told her people have taken this and been able to walk again. As I (Brianna) sat with her and looked these things over I really had to fight tears. I feel so angry to see her taken advantage of like that. $170 is a LOT of money for her. And yet, on the other hand, at least these medicines probably won’t do her harm. Khmer pharmacies “prescribe” all kinds of drugs without a doctor’s input. Another friend, Baby David’s mother, has spent $400 trying to resolve an issue I know could be resolved back home, with no results. Please pray we have wisdom and for God to raise up trained medical professionals to help push Cambodia forward in this huge area of need.
Note for lead picture: In this picture you can see some of the “Khmer forest medicine" she [Om Vet] has purchased in the pink bag hanging to the left, and some other bottles of “medicine" in the white bag.
Medical care (and "Drug Abuse") in Cambodia...
Health care and medicine in rural Cambodia are a discouraging complex web of limited training, self-training, folk-medicine, and plain taking advantage of people. An OMF colleague & physician once told us there is an equal chance of being either helped, or harmed, by visiting a Khmer doctor. We are not doctors, but people are constantly asking our advice just because we come from a Western country. They are often desperate and at their wits end.
This last month, Om Vet was desperate for help. She is unable to walk and has spreading tremors. She heard on the radio of a powerful medicine and convinced Srey Lieng to take her an hour and a half away to buy it. She spent about $170 USD on the “medicine” pictured here, along with a case of bottled water. She received Spirulina vitamins, wheatgrass powder, and drops of some kind and they told her people have taken this and been able to walk again. As I (Brianna) sat with her and looked these things over I really had to fight tears. I feel so angry to see her taken advantage of like that. $170 is a LOT of money for her. And yet, on the other hand, at least these medicines probably won’t do her harm. Khmer pharmacies “prescribe” all kinds of drugs without a doctor’s input. Another friend, Baby David’s mother, has spent $400 trying to resolve an issue I know could be resolved back home, with no results. Please pray we have wisdom and for God to raise up trained medical professionals to help push Cambodia forward in this huge area of need.
Note for lead picture: In this picture you can see some of the “Khmer forest medicine" she [Om Vet] has purchased in the pink bag hanging to the left, and some other bottles of “medicine" in the white bag.
