the 2h project

“At the end of the day, the best safety net is a job”. These are the words of Robert Zoelick outgoing president of the World Bank.

As part of the World Bank and IMF analysis on how to protect the world’s poorest communities from the world’s ongoing financial turmoil, just last week Zoelick and others concluded that the best protection from poverty is employment – the poor need to work. We agree.

Since 2007 the 2h Project has been working with local leaders and communities in a Cambodian commune outside Phnom Penh. At times it has been painfully slow going but our goal to establish a project that will provide jobs for some 600 families identified as ‘extreme poor’ is close to reality.

In August of last year 2h saw the completion of Stage One of an innovative community hub. A 1.2 hectare site in the heart of the commune provided an ideal location for a skills training base to be erected including a caretakers residence and community pagoda.

The hub will present women from the local area with an opportunity to receive vocational training while at the same time as earning an income. The hub will also provide vital life-skill training including the importance of savings programs which will allow for ongoing home-based employment and for school age children to attend
school.

In spite of Cambodia’s worst floods in decades leaving our site one and a half metres underwater (just four weeks after the build was complete) progress has continued to be made.

In January this year the main building floor was concreted and in March a market was secured for the sale of the hub’s intended production of traditional ‘export quality’ mats - a critical step in ensuring the project will remain both sustainable and scaleable.

I first met Piseth’s mum the day she was released from prison. She’d been there for 3 months. A harsh place for criminals, an unimaginable one for a petite Cambodian woman wrongly convicted. In spite of her circumstance it was clear that she was a kind lady with a warm smile.

Having lost everything in the years of the Khmer Rouge, including her husband, this woman had learnt to survive. Like so many others she’d returned to Phnom Penh to try to rebuild her life and the lives of her two small children. While grinding out an existence at the city dump her leadership and her compassion quickly attracted a group of displaced persons.

At 2h we continue to get excited about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Janine Hardy fits the bill perfectly. This amazing single mother of five lives her life in a way that is totally inspiring. And a little known secret is Janine was pretty much responsible for ‘dragging’ Kate Taylor through her Bachelor of Midwifery at UniSA!

With five children ranging in ages from twelve through to two Janine made a decision to head to Uni and begin her degree in 2002. “Janine was always looking out for others. If they didn’t quite understand she’d be the first to say I’ll stay back and help” says Kate, “She was motivated to teach and train. We hit it off straight away. Probably because I needed so much help!”

International Midwives Day acknowledges the invaluable work of midwives. This year’s theme for International Midwives Day is a simple truth: through the vital role they play in improving maternal and newborn health, Midwives Save Lives.

In celebration of International Midwives Day this year, the staff of the Lyell McEwin Hospital wore purple casual clothes and made a gold coin donation to the 2h Project’s Safe Arrivals. Many thanks to Merdith Hobbs and Erin Reynolds and to the staff of Lyell McEwin for their valuable contribution to maternal health in Cambodia!

Sadly, midwives and midwifery services remain unequally distributed between and within countries; every year 48 million women give birth without the support of someone with recognised midwifery skills, and over 536,000 women die each year with millions more suffering infection and disability resulting from preventable complications. While International Midwives Day recognises the significant impact midwives have on the health of women and newborns, it is also a call for greater investment to ensure life-saving midwifery care is made more accessible, especially in developing countries where 90% of maternal deaths occur.

Midwives are essential to reaching Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, targeted at reducing maternal, neonatal and infant deaths worldwide. More than ever, the need for midwives is clear; every childbearing woman should have access to a midwife’s care. Midwives save lives.

For over 10 years local Adelaide girl Kate Taylor has been talking up the virtue of helping others. In particular is Kate's passion for Cambodia's traditional birth attendants and the mothers and babies they assist. Not many would know however that Kate failed her Year 12 Biology examination (and the subject for that matter). Not the ideal springboard for a future in health science. Here are a few other things you might not know about the founder of 2h. 

I’ve never seen a baby so big! He was less than four hours old but he looked ready to start his first day at kindergarten. Mum looked average, Dad looked average but this ‘little’ fella was anything but average -born at 10am in the morning at the provincial hospital weighing a whopping 5.8kgs!

It’s late afternoon about 20 kilometres out of Phnom Penh. We’ve dropped past a small village to say hi. Among the many ‘Hellos’ from cheeky kids and a few adults is a familiar face - the local birth attendant smiles and greets us, happy at our return. “Have you been busy?” we ask.

Love to see you at our April fundraiser.

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Progress toward the MDG’s, but most vulnerable are being left behind.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international development goals that each of the 192 member states of the United Nations, as well as at least 23 international organisations, have agreed to accomplish by 2015.

We landed in Phnom Pehn; I felt tired and overwhelmed and excited and apprehensive, and after failing to kindle a single smile from surly airport staff, I was in need of a reassuring, friendly face. Thankfully, we were soon approached by a beaming Piseth, Field Director for the 2h Project. He greeted each of us as warmly as an old friend. I liked him instantly.