Cambodia

Axes of intervention

Care and surgery
Training and skills transfer
Building and equipping hospitals

Start of mission: 1998

Present in Cambodia since the 1990s, La Chaîne de l'Espoir supports the development of cardiac, orthopedic and neurosurgery, as well as children's access to this care.

Background

Humanitarian emergency in Cambodia

0.79 nurse

per 1,000 inhabitants (compared with 10 per 1,000 in Europe)

161 women

die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth for every 100,000 births.

Cambodia is ranked 146th

out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2021.

Sources: WHO, UNDP

Cambodia has enjoyed rapid economic growth for over twenty years (averaging over 7% from 2000 to 2019). The country has benefited from the dynamism of Southeast Asia, which has translated into an influx of international investment. Cambodia’s health and social situation remains precarious, however, as the country has been weakened by the Covid-19 crisis and the consequences of violent weather phenomena (floods, droughts, etc.).

With only 55% of its population covered in 2018, the country is still a long way from the goal of universal health coverage (UHC), which implies equitable access to and use of quality healthcare services by all those who need them. A growing proportion of Cambodia’s population is thus unable to access quality healthcare.

According to Unicef, nearly half of all children aged 0-17 have difficulty accessing healthcare, education or their standard of living. And while infant, child and neonatal mortality has fallen in Cambodia in recent years, newborn deaths still account for almost half of all deaths among children under five.

Against this backdrop, La Chaîne de l’Espoir is working with the Cambodian Kantha Bopha Foundation to provide cardiac, neurosurgical and orthopedic surgery in Cambodia.

Our humanitarian action in Cambodia

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is helping to develop medical specialties in Cambodia by training local teams at two Kantha Bopha Foundation hospitals, in Phnom Penh (the capital) and Siem Reap, in the north of the country.

Improving care for complex cardiac pathologies and infants

Doctors in the operating room at Jayavarman VII Children's Hospital

Trained by La Chaîne de l’Espoir medical teams, staff at the Calmette hospital now perform heart surgery on adults and teenagers on their own.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is committed to continuing to provide care for the most vulnerable children, and is helping to develop pediatric cardiac surgery. Following the opening by La Chaîne de l’Espoir teams in 2011 in Siem Reap, then in 2019 in Phnom Penh, of pediatric cardiac units within Kantha Bopha hospitals, La Chaîne de l’Espoir volunteer healthcare professionals carried out two missions to Cambodia per year to train their colleagues. Here, too, the staff are mostly autonomous, and support continues via a single annual mission to evaluate and upgrade their skills.

“ In particular, there is a need for the management of open-heart surgery in infants, as well as rheumatic valvulopathy. Children can develop this life-threatening heart condition as a result of untreated infection. Their care requires specialized expertise and equipment. “explains Dr Gérard Babatasi.

“It all began in Cambodia. This is where we initiated surgical missions in 1998, performing the country’s first open-heart operations.”

Dr Gérard Babatasi, Head of Cardiac Surgery at Caen University Hospital and Vice-President of La Chaîne de l’Espoir

Training young neurosurgeons

Since 1998, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has also been involved in the development of neurosurgery through its humanitarian missions in Cambodia. In 2004, we opened a specialized unit at the Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh, which quickly became insufficient to meet the country’s needs, and then a dedicated center in 2014.

Since then, we have been working alongside the Kantha Bopha Foundation to train local teams at its Phnom Penh and Siem Reap hospitals in child neurosurgery. Today, local senior neurosurgeons have acquired the skills to handle the most common cases, and training is currently focusing on new recruits and on anesthesia in pediatric intensive care.

Thanks to the operation, Leakhena can walk

Born with a ganglion in her spine that could render her disabled, Leakhena, just a few months old, underwent surgery during a La Chaîne de l’Espoir neurosurgery training mission.

Empowering orthopedic teams for the most complex cases

Every year, the Kantha Bopha Foundation carries out two humanitarian orthopedic surgery missions in Cambodia, at its Phnom Penh and Siem Reap hospitals. These missions enable the surgical management of increasingly complex cases, such as scoliosis. By continuing these regular missions, we can help to make local orthopaedic teams self-sufficient in the years to come.