A Cambodian Organisation
assisted by Friends of interPART
Social Services of Cambodia (SSC) has worked
in Cambodia since 1992. It operates under a memorandum
of understanding with the Ministry of Social Affairs,
Labour, Vocational Training, and Youth Rehabilitation
(MoSALVY). SSC’s mission is to help vulnerable
Cambodians to become participating and contributing members
of their communities. To that end, it provides direct
social and mental health services in Kompong Speu Province
(and by the end of 2003, in Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap
provinces as well). In addition it is the leading provider
of training in counseling skills in Cambodia. By the
end of 2003 it will have opened a small institute to
train paraprofessional social workers in the helping
skills, in cooperation with GTZ. SSC has a staff of 35,
of whom 34 are full time Cambodian staff.
Clients of SSC’s Social and Mental Health Services
program have a variety of problems, ranging from natural
disasters, to severe mental illness, to domestic violence,
to a physical illnesses, including HIV/AIDS, malaria,
and tuberculosis. The services they receive from SSC
include a full psychosocial assessment, followed by interventions
such as counseling, referral to other service providers,
community and family education, advocacy, referral to
traditional providers, and use of the Client Assistance
Fund. The latter is a small fund started in 1993 to help
clients who were hospitalized or sick at home with no
one to look after them. Cambodian hospitals, in contrast
with hospitals in the developed world, do not provide
meals, bathing, or any other personal care for their
patients, and family members are expected to do that.
If a person has no family, or the family member must
take care of other obligations, such as earning an income
to sustain the family, the patient often suffers, or
in most cases is not allowed to be admitted to the hospital.
SSC’s small fund was used originally for this purpose.
As the services of SSC have developed, the fund’s
use expanded to paying for medications and medical tests
for impoverished patients, for transportation to specialists
or competent providers. More recently, the more creative
of the social workers have requested to use the fund
for tiny expenses that would move the client’s
progress forward, such as paying for plowing the fields
of a recently orphaned set of siblings whose 19 year
old brother wanted to keep them together; or paying for
a haircut of a youth who had a head-injury as a child
and now is alcoholic; or buying a book for a child who
loves to read, but cannot afford to buy such a luxury;
or helping a very poor widow to buy the necessary supplies
to begin to make and sell cakes to increase her income.
These uses help forge the relationship with the social
worker, and also provide just the tiniest encouragement
for them to dare to hope to improve their lives. The
amount per client is miniscule – in July 2000,
the average, per client expenditure was $3.77, but the
impact is great.
