(as prepared for delivery)

• Professor Tung Rathavy, Director of the National Maternal and Child Health Center and Manager of the National Reproductive Health Program, Ministry of Health
• Ms. Chi Socheat, Executive Director of PSK
• Ms. Claire Stokes, Country Representative of PSI/Cambodia
• Director of Provincial Health Departments
• Health providers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

The U.S. government, through the U.S.Agency for Internation Development (USAID) has been providing support to Population Services International (PSI) and their local partner, Population Services Khmer (PSK) to support the Royal Government of Cambodia to reduce child mortality due to acute respiratory infection (ARI)/pneumonia and diarrhea. 

With USAID’s support, PSK has been working to improve case management and treatment of ARI/pneumonia and increase use of high quality, affordable health products five provinces: Kampong Cham, Tbong Khmum, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pursat.

Through USAID’s existing support, PSK has trained and provided on-going on-the-job coaching to 116 private providers, many of whom are here today. This support includes visits by PSK’s Medical Detailers, who are able to witness provider-client interactions and then provide on-the-spot feedback for how to improve case management.

To ensure the quality of case management, PSK also undertakes separate quality assurance (QA) visits, which use a checklist to objectively assess performance and identify areas for improvement. During the last round of assessments, all providers who were assessed met PSK’s standards for quality assurance.

In addition to improving the quality of case management of the network of providers, PSK has also undertaken activities to improve health seeking behaviors among Cambodians such as airing a sixty second radio spot on pneumonia on five local radio stations explaining pneumonia symptoms, the importance of seeking care and treatment from a trained provider, and completing the full dose of the Ministry of Health (MoH) recommended antibiotics.

Today’s meeting represents an opportunity to engage with the providers who have participated so fully in this program over the last year, to commit to use the skills and knowledge they have learned, and to continue efforts to reduce child mortality due to acute respiratory infection (ARI)/pneumonia and diarrhea.

I know you will take the skills and knowledge that you’ve gained over this time and put them to good use to continue to save the lives of children in Cambodia. Thank you for all of your hard work.