Camboya

Historias reales

Vision of a future: Cambodia's Vitamin A campaign

© UNICEF Cambodia

Cheang Pheap with his parents and younger brother, in their home in Sothrea village, Prey Veng.

During the day eight-year-old Cheang Pheap is a happy, playful child who goes to school in the afternoons. He is in the first grade at his local primary school and, from his seat in the third row from the front of the classroom, he can read the blackboard clearly.

After school, at about 6 p.m. when dusk falls and the other children in the village are outside playing in the shadows under their houses or watching the sun go down, Cheang Pheap has to stay indoors. At half light, Cheang Pheap finds it difficult to see properly and needs help with everyday activities like walking and moving around. ''Once it is dark, I cannot see," says Cheang Pheap. To avoid an accident, he sits quietly inside the house, away from his three brothers and sister who play hide and seek and tic tac toe.

There is no electricity supply in Sothrea village, the only light in the house comes from the dim glow of a petrol lamp. Huddled around the light Cheang Pheap's brothers and sister use evening time to study for the next day's classes. For Cheang Pheap, the light is too weak and he struggles to read, eventually giving up and leaving his homework undone.

Cheang Pheap's mother and father first noticed their son's condition when he was two years old, but as night blindness is not uncommon in Cambodia, they were not alarmed. ''We did not consider it a serious disease. He could not go out at night but we don't want our children to stray away from the house after sunset anyway, so it did not worry us too much."

Chum Aun, a UNICEF staff member responsible for vitamin A supplementation explains, ''Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient for vision, growth and protection against disease, but many people like Cheang Pheap's parents have little knowledge of its importance or that a deficiency can cause permanent blindness.''

Cheang Pheap's family is large and poor and their immediate concern is finding enough food to eat to stay alive. Their only source of income comes from two hectares of land, a 2-km walk from the house, where they grow rice in the rainy season. With a good harvest, they can earn the equivalent of US$16 a month. However, the last two years have seen torrential rains and extreme flooding wash away most of their crops, leaving very little to harvest, even less to sell and barely enough to eat.

Parents lack knowledge about Vitamin A 

With little money, Cheang Pheap's family live on porridge and fish caught only during the rainy season. They do not have a garden to grow vegetables or fruit and cannot afford to buy extra food from the nearest market. They had no idea that their son's night blindness is caused by a lack of vitamin A in his diet or that green vegetables and some fruits are rich sources of vitamin A.

Almost 30 years of civil war has brought Cambodia to its knees. The health services were virtually wiped out until the early 1990s, leaving rural communities like Sothrea village with no health care. It was only in the summer of 2001 that a new health centre was opened, 1 km from Sothrea village, offering basic health services to the surrounding villages. UNICEF's Seth Koma community development programme provides support to Sothrea village.

UNICEF provincial health advisor, Gerry Pais, said: ''Now we have discovered Cheang Pheap, he is receiving treatment for his vitamin A deficiency and his progress is monitored by outreach workers from the local health centre. Although Cheang Pheap has suffered from night blindness for several years, it is likely that with treatment he will fully recover his night vision.''

© UNICEF Cambodia

A child receives vitamin A drops and polio vaccine at an outreach health centre

Today, UNICEF works with the Government to run a twice-yearly national distribution campaign of vitamin A capsules during routine immunization and outreach activities. In 2001, UNICEF supplied and distributed nearly 1 million vitamin A capsules and financed national vitamin A media awareness campaigns, the training of local health-centre staff and health-centre outreach costs.

Cheang Pheap's mother is hopeful. ''Now we know Cheang Pheap's problem can be treated we are very happy. We know he will not get better straight away but soon maybe he will be able to play and study more with his brothers and sister and when he's older he can lead a better life."

Chum Aun's parting words state the current situation: "In March 2001, the Ministry of Health reported that only around 50 per cent of children under the age of five were reached through our support, so there is still a lot to be done.''

Newsflash

Message received on 14 June 2002 from Maurice Hours, UNICEF Health Officer in Cambodia: You may be interested to have this rather good news about the child whose story was sent to you. Regards, Maurice.

"We paid a visit to Cheng Pheap today. He has had his three-dose therapy, the last dose was on the 24th of May. There is significant improvement in his eyesight. He can walk around in the evening at dusk, he can read with the dim light that illuminates the house at night. The father of the child feels that there is 70 per cent improvement. We'll follow up Cheng Pheap during the next 12 months..."