Physical health is an essential aspect of the overall well-being of a person, each human person being both body and soul after all. Thus, the mission that God entrusted to the Church to accompany the people in Siem Reap necessarily includes looking after the physiological dimension of the people.
That is why one of the programs that the Catholic communities adopted is a health education program for the women in the villages. Its primary goal is equipping the mothers and enabling them to take better care of their personal health and wellness, and that of their family’s. Its pilot implementation was lastin April 2017 St. Mary’s Church (Taom) and continues to run until now.
The program gathers the mothers and grandmothers in the community twice a month for a 2-hour lecture and workshop about personal hygiene, proper nutrition, and common diseases and its home remedies. After each lecture, they are either given gifts like hygiene kits or the lecturer conducts a home visitation to see how they are able to apply the lessons at home. A total of 40 women from the villages attend the sessions given by a midwife who volunteered for a full-time mission work.
Presently, the rest of the communities are still preparing in terms of resources (teaching personnel, materials, etc.) and logistics in order to start the program and keep it running for the long term.
Catholic Church in Siem Reap and Satellite Communities 