Emerging from decades of internal and external conflict, Cambodia is one of the poorest, most vulnerable countries in East Asia. With a major HIV/AIDS epidemic now apparent, the Mekong Partnership and Beyond strategy gives Cambodia special priority.
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission and protecting the rights of children affected by HIV/AIDS are new areas of intensive action for UNICEF in Cambodia, part of a wider multi-sectoral program that includes Lifeskills-based prevention activities and building acceptance of people with or affected by HIV/AIDS among in-school and out-of-school youth. UNICEF puts strong emphasis on building the capacity of local partners, in particular the Provincial AIDS Committees.
| Cambodian streetchildren learn new skills in a temple-based project |  |
Communications
UNICEF has provided an international consultant to work closely with the National AIDS Program to improve capacity in behaviour development and change communications (BDCC). A priority for both BDCC and Lifeskills activities is to target the role of alcohol and methamphetamine and other psychoactive substances in promoting risk behaviours.
Hotline and TV Spots
Experience has shown that Cambodians have a lot of questions about HIV/AIDS. Now, thanks to a new UNICEF-supported initiative, they can get the answers. In 2000, UNICEF and local NGO INTHANOU set up a telephone Hotline providing reliable, confidential information on HIV/AIDS. The free service connects callers directly with a team of five medical doctors. In the first two months of 2001, the Hotline took 5,241calls, nearly 20% of them from women.
Lipstick traces warn a Cambodian housewife that her husband is putting her at risk
The Hotline owes much of its growing popularity to two UNICEF-supported promotional TV spots launched in late 2000. Another two TV spots use mini-dramas to promote new voluntary confidential HIV counselling and testing services, targetting women in established relationships and military personnel.
The troops get a lesson on HIV/AIDS prevention
PMCT and Testing Services
Calls to the Hotline service confirm that counselling and testing services and parent-to-child transmission are major concerns for young people in Cambodia. With so much interest, voluntary confidential counselling and testing (VCCT) presents a good opportunity for wider prevention among Cambodian adolescents and young people.
Cambodia has set the ambitious goal of making VCCT services available in all national and 70% of provincial hospitals by 2005. UNICEF is one of the lead agencies in helping realize this goal, along with WHO, UNAIDS and the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières. UNICEF is currently supporting six VCCT centres throughout the country and will add five new centres in the next stage of expansion.
| A folk comedy troupe delivers the HIV/AIDS message at a local festival |  |
Encouraged by vigorous UNICEF advocacy, Cambodia is starting to shape a national policy for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMCT). Following a successful pilot in Phnom Penh Central Hospital, UNICEF is supporting comprehensive PMCT services in Battambang Hospital and in NMCHC.
The Buddhist Response
A proactive Buddhist response to the impacts of HIV/AIDS including almost half of the country's pagodas has emerged in the last few years. A major landmark was the UNICEF-supported Regional Seminar in Phnom Penh May 2000, which involved the Ministry of Cults and Religions and senior monks, and representatives of Thailand's Sangha Metta Project. Representatives of the Ministry of Cults and Religions now sit on Provincial AIDS Committees, and low-cost initiatives in the temples are incorporated into the overall provincial response.
In April 2001, UNICEF brought senior Cambodian monks, including the Supreme Patriarchs of Cambodia's two main Buddhist sects, on a study visit to Thailand. The delegation met with Thailand's Supreme Patriarch and visited several temple-based initiatives under Thailand's Sangha Metta Project, which continues to provide training and support for Buddhist HIV/AIDS initiatives in Cambodia and elsewhere through the Mekong Partnership and Beyond.
Alternative Care for Orphans and Abandoned Children
The growth of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, and the inevitable continued rise in orphans, adds new urgency to the need to rethink and overhaul alternative care for children. Since mid-2001, UNICEF has supported a project on improving alternative care in Cambodia. The project includes: a baseline study of the alternative care network; development of training for care providers training; development and implementation of guidelines for institutions, international adoption procedures and promoting family and community-based care; and monitoring and reporting systems for care of orphans and abandoned children.
With Hope and Help: Cambodia
The Cambodian With Hope and Help film was finalized in 2001 and the manuals are currently being translated and adapted. Together they will put persons living with HIV/AIDS in the spotlight to raise awareness of support for and compassion towards affected people beginning at the national level.
With Hope and Help was shown three times to promote the 2001 Candlelight Rally for people affected by HIV/AIDS.
Working with Provincial AIDS Committees
Following a UNICEF pilot initiative in 1996, the provincial AIDS committees (PACs) and AIDS secretariates of 16 of Cambodia's 24 provinces are receiving capacity building support from UNICEF, UNAIDS and UNDP/CARERE under the national Strengthening Provincial Responses on HIV/AIDS (SPRHA) Project.
UNICEF works directly with 13 provincial AIDS committees. Support has included assistance with preparations for World AIDS Day, situation analysis and response planning, and refresher training for PAC members.
In 2000, quarterly regional cluster meetings for the provincial AIDS committees were launched under SPRHA, allowing the PACs to share ideas and experiences.
| Young people take part in World AIDS Day activities, Svay Rieng province |  |
