Wrong Side of the Tracks
I recently spent a day with ADRA’s (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health team (YSRH), based in Pursat, a provincial capital in Cambodia.
Our day began at 6.30 am. We head to the railway station “down near the bridge,” to take a train to Chur-Tom. At the station—a piece of ground about as high as the railway track itself—we board our transport, locally known as the kray haus, or “flying bed.” It’s a three- by two-metre bamboo-and-timber construction, sitting about 30 cm above the tracks. It rolls on two axles, whose bearings are set in grooves cut into the timber of its underbelly. A four-stroke, belt-drive five-horsepower motor propels the vehicle. We board, the driver pull-starts the engine and we are moving.
Our “bed” buzzes along the track, through jungle-covered landscapes of mountains, flooded rice fields and vast wetlands dotted with palms and huts on stilts.
A bed heading in the opposite direction often interrupts our journey. When the two meet, an assessment is made as to who is going to remove their bed from the tracks. This is usually determined by who is carrying the least cargo. The less fortunate party dismounts, and unloads their cargo, which might include a motorbike, produce, timber and even livestock. Some of our cargo is traded as we go.
After three hours of most interesting, most uncomfortable travelling, we reach Chur-Tom, a large village of some 4000 people, serving some 13,000 more. It’s a conglomerate of small, single-room, timber and bamboo huts. Narrow streets weave between huts, sometimes bisecting a family’s living area, where they sit eating. The streets are muddy and potholed. The air is filled with the stench of sewerage.
The YSRH team has been working in Chur-Tom since December 2002 in a project designed to educate youth and young couples about sexual and reproductive issues. The program focuses on disease prevention, personal heath and family planning. Cambodia currently has an HIV/AIDS rate of 3 per cent, and Chur-Tom has more than its share. It is located on the country’s main transport route—the train line—from Phnom Penh to Battambang, a migratory path to the big city, which exposes people to a higher risk of STD/HIV infection. As the villagers are extremely poor, access to sex education and information is limited.
The team meets with Khmer volunteers; five youth aged 18–25, the local YSRH project leaders and educators. A second group of 30 volunteers live in the nearby villages. Today they will discuss the previous month’s progress and the next month’s new material. We congregate with the local leaders under a home in the village centre, where the meeting will be conducted.
The Khmer tell us that the last month had been particularly difficult. Extensive flooding had limited their mobility and access, so classes were smaller than they’d have liked. Attendance is as high as 40 per class, but this month, less than half that. The lessons take place almost anywhere—in a home, a health centre or rice field among workers taking a lunch break. “‘The location is not important,” one Khmer tells me. “It’s the message that matters.”
The new material focuses on life skills—encompassing trust, self-esteem, communication and decision-making. Such issues are extremely important to the young people. Their traditionally conservative lifestyle is becoming exposed to diverse and often confusing behaviour modelled in the media. The YSRH team provides a refresher course on the new subject matter, ensuring the local leaders are familiar with its content and understand exactly what they need to share.
They’re also warned that the next month could be particularly challenging as the annual water festival in Phnom Penh will draw many people to the nation’s capital, where exposure to STDs is higher. They begin scheduling activities.
I ask the leaders how they feel about the YSRH project. It’s an overwhelmingly positive response: “It helps educate the young people, as many of them are sexually active,” says one. “I’ve learned as much as I have taught; I’m thankful for the program,” says another.
“It helps young people gain the respect of the elders, as many of them think we’ve lost our way,” says a third.
I knew that project funding was limited, so I asked the group what they would do when it ended. “Oh, we will keep working,” they all agreed, “even if ADRA cannot!” It was a commitment to support their community and help rebuild their country, sharing both a vital message and genuine compassion.
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