Cambodian midwife is taking care new born baby

Despite already having reached UN development goals on maternal mortality, health centers in rural area across the country still lack hundreds of midwives, Health Ministry officials said at a conference on health care for mothers and their children.

Keth Ly Sotha, deputy director of the National maternal and Child Health Center, said that while the number of health facilities with a midwife had increase—227 center had no midwives in 2006 compared to no health centers without one today—another 700 nurses and midwives would be recruited and sent to rural areas this year.

“This year, we are recruiting more than 700 nurses and midwives for the whole country,” Mr. Ly Sotha told the conference, adding that Cambodia now has 3,678 midwives in public facilities around the country.

The government announced last year that it had already met its Millennium Development Goal of reducing the maternal mortality rate to less than 250 deaths per 100,000 births. In 2010 the number of women who died per 100,000 births stood at 206.

Midwife education in Cambodia

Still, Koum Kanal, a gynecologist and adviser to the Ministry of Health, said on the sidelines in the meeting that the number of women dying in rural areas is still higher that in urban centers.

“How can we make it equal between rural and urban?” Mr. Kanal asked, adding that giving bonuses of $15 per successful delivery to midwives in rural areas had helped attract more midwives to the provinces.

“But the concern is the salary of the staff is still limited,” he said. Sin Somony, director of Medicam—an umbrella organization for Cambodia health NGOs—said midwives trained in Phnom Penh are still hesitant to work in rural areas due to the living conditions.

“There is a need for continuing education to update methods, especially in regard to maternal, new born and child health,” he said. “Another option is to train locals as midwives and then encourage them to stay.”

Traditional midwife

Cambodian traditional midwife

Even though the the Ministry of Health announced to people to give birth at the health center to be safe, but more people in the province, especially the poor people are still try to deliver baby with the traditional method. And the midwife that help in delivery is called “the traditional midwife”. This midwife usually does not have a medical degree or have not been professionally trained from health official, but they have been trained from the older people. They do not have medicine for the mother, but use the alternative medicine that they can find from jungle. After the baby born, the mother need to sleep on the bed and they put some charcoal beneath to make it warm for the mother.

We want all pregnant mothers go to deliver their baby at the hospital or health center to be safer because at these facilities they have doctors or nurses, or midwives that have been professionally trained.

The bilingual education for children

Cambodia’s indigenous minorities are increasingly gaining across to primary education in their own language, as bilingual education is expanding and being incorporated into government schools, the UN said. Adding that Cambodia had become a regional leader in bilingual education.

“Cambodia is recognized as a role model in the Asia-Pacific region for its mother tounge-based bilingual education program, which has enabled children and adults from minority populations, who do not speak the national language at home, to access quality basic education,” Unesco and Unicef said in a joint statement yesterday to mark World Mother Tongue Day.

About 4 percent of Cambodians belong to indigenous minority groups that speak about 20 different languages. Most indigenous minorities belong to hill tribes living in the northeastern provinces of Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri, Kratie and Preah Vihear.

The statue sign for Ratanakkiri province

Unicef early childhood development specialist Natalie Mufel said bilingual education had expanded from a few NGO-run community preschools a decade ago to a total of 20 community preschools in five provinces.

Ms. Mufel said the introduction of bilingual education at government schools marked a very important shift from community to state.

Cambodia’s approach was unique in the region, she said, as other government do not take the lead on bilingual education, they leave it up to NOGs to do something, while some countries such as Laos and Vietnam insisted on providing education in the national language only.

Bilingual teaching in Cambodia currently provides children of Brao, Banong, Kreung, and Tampuon hill tribes classes in their own language, which are taught during the first three years with 80 percent of the teaching conducted in the local language in fi8rst grade until it is gradually replace by Khmer in fourth grade, according to Unesco.

As these language are oral languages only, teaching material is written up in Khmer-script phonetic rendition of the local language, Ms. Mufel explained.

The children in Ratanakkiri province

This bilingual teaching approach was sharply reducing school dropout rates in indigenous communities where dropout rates and other social and health indicators are generally among the worst in the country.

“Before, only a few children went to school. Now all the children in the community go to school,” she said.

Bilingual teachers are recruited in local villages and trained, which also creates new job opportunities for minorities, Ms. Mufel added.

A girl holding her brother in Ratanakkiri

Pa Satha, director of Ratanakkiri province’s education department, said that out of the province’s 185 primary schools, seven had begun bilingual classes last December and another five would join this year.

“The program is very important, since it helps students prevent repeating classes and it reduces the number of students dropping out of school,” he said.

Thun Pun, a Tampuon minority villager and chief of Ratanakkiri’s Lung Khung commune, said a bilingual school in his constituency was helping people in the community to protect their languages and culture and improve the community.

Cambodia GDP

The government estimated that economic growth will reach 6.5 percent in 2012, though it warned that debt woes still being played out in markets in Europe and the US could dampen this year’s prospects and said more efforts should be made to trade with other country in the region. With more than three-quarters of Cambodia’s export still going to the US and the European Union in the form of textiles, garments and shoes, Prime Minster Hun Sen said that Cambodia should aim to foster new trade links with other countries.

“We have to strengthen the economic foundations in Cambodia and not only focus on markets in the US and Europe but also look toward markets in Asia,” Mr. Hun Sen said in a speech at the annual Cambodia Outlook Conference in Phnom Penh. “Asian markets are giving a lot of hope to Cambodia for exports and income,” he added.

Garment export Cambodia

During the economic crisis in 2009, economists said that Cambodia should prioritize diversifying its economy so that it is less vulnerable to shocks abroad. But since then, very little has been done to achieve that goal, though more agricultural products in the form of rice, rubber and cassava are now beginning to be exported to countries such as China.

Also, contributing to economic growth this year, Mr. Hun Sen said the tourism sector was predicted to grow at 20.7 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year, after growing 15 percent in 2011. Visitors to Cambodia reached 2.88 million last year. Mr. Hun Sen also said that the agriculture sector was expected to improve upon its 3.3 percent growth last year, though he did not say where the grow would come from.

As for inflation, Mr. Hun Sen said that the government would continue to take measures to keep the inflation rate about 5.5 percent, even in the face of growing oil and food prices on international markets. “Rising petroleum and food costs could affect domestic economic,” he said.

Speaking at the conference, Faisal Ahmed, resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in Cambodia (IMF), offered a similar outlook in the economy and predicted economic growth to be 6.5 percent and 7 percent this year. He also said that China’s continually strong economy could act as an engine for growth in Cambodia.

“With growth in China… and we all have to prepare for it, it means a lot of good news for Cambodia, who get new trade channels and investment channels,” he said. “If only a fraction of that market comes from China, it means large growth.” There are signs that China’s economic growth is already having an effect. Cambodia’s Le Ye Rubber Company and the China National Food Industry Group Corp signed an agreement last year to export 1 million tons of cassava from Cambodia in 2012.

Cambodia GDP constant prices (source: http://www.indexmundi.com)

While prediction strong growth figures, Mr. Ahmed warned that Cambodia would have to ensure it increase the amount of tax revenue it generates in order to sustain the economy. Though revenues are increasing, many businesses here still get away without paying taxes. Although the figure look attractive on paper, economist say that more still needs to be done to ensure that benefits from economic growth are more inclusive. Observers say that most of the growth is concentrated in urban areas and that not enough is being done to develop the countryside, where most of the population still lives.

“Basic services on the rural level have been developing, but very slowly compared to urban areas,” Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodia Economic Association, told the conference, adding that the current national budget only allocates about $30 million out of $2.5 billion to commune councils for development.

“So each commune has $10,000 to $15,000,” he said. “It is really a problem.”
But Hang Chuon Naron, secretary-general of the Ministy of Economics and Finance, said that the government was prioritizing rural areas and had spent $160 million over the course of 2009 and 2010. Mr. Chuon Naron did not provide figures for spending in rural areas this year.

Mekong Express limousine bus is parking along the way

The car accident happens in Cambodia almost every day not even the small car, but the bus accident is also common. Talking about the bus accident, Mekong Express is on the of the bus companies in Cambodia that provides transportation from Phnom Penh to other provinces throughout Cambodia.

We rarely hear about the accident from the Mekong Express and in 2011 this company has accident-free. This leads to be given the honored from the National Police.

Mekong Express limousine bus and staff welcoming all passengers

The National Police have awarded Mekong Express an honorary certificated for being the only bus company operation in Cambodia whose driver did not get into an accident last year. The award was issued during a meeting between police and bus companies at National Police headquarters on Monday, February 13, 2011 to discuss the growing number of accidents involving buses. According to a statement issued after the meeting, 41 bus accidents in 2011 claimed the lives of 25 people and injured 124 others.

After being honored by the National Police, the Mekong Express said it was thrilled to receive the National Police certificate. “We are really excited,” said Sin Sasaketh, an administration chief with the company.

Sann Socheata, road safety at Handipcap International, said discussion between bus company and police, as well as the issuing of awards for safety, would go a long way making the roads safer. “I think this will help decrease traffic accidents for now and the future,” she said.

Mekong Express limousine bus ticket

The classical dancers Phorsda is performing her talent on stage

The Phnom Penh dance festival held for the third years on Saturday evening of February 11, 2012 at 7PM at Koh Pich with a program that will include 27 dances ranging from classical to hip hop, perform by 37 artists in a 90-minute production. This dancing is called “The Street Dance” or in French “La rue danse” this means that the dancing is perform on the street for the public.

The festival, which took place on Koh Pich island, consist entirely of new dance routines, most of them contemporary work performed on popular, if not well-known music, with the occasional Cambodian traditional piece thrown in, said Korm Borin of the Institute Francias, which is organizing the event.

Yon Chantha is very serious in her performance

The festival featured the country’s leading dancers such as Chumvan Sodhachivy, known as Belle, who just returned from performing in Madrid and presented a routine reflecting Spanish influence. Sem Kosal’s dance interpreted on classical guitar music; Nget Rady was accompanied by an errie science-fiction type tune; an Nam Narim selected a soft jazz tune for her piece. There also performed by hip hop dancer Tiny Toones who presented two numbers.

Chanmoly is performing with the face mask

Chanmoly with her contemporary style

Eight stages has been built for the festival, and the public was invited to sit on mats set up on the ground and watched as artists perform one after the other their three-to-four-minute numbers.

The idea is that the artists moved from state to state while people relax in front of the stage they have selected, said Mr. Borin who is in charge of the Institute’s cultural department.

Lots of people were enjoying the show. They were all so happy and keeping clapping their hands to encourage the performers. The show starts at 7 pm and admission is free.

The grilled cow for sale on the street

In Cambodia, people eat many kinds of meats as food, for example beef, bacon, duck, chicken,..etc. The beef and the bacon are the most popular food for Cambodian people since the price of the fish is getting more and more expensive. The price of the beef is also expensive right now. If you walk out in the evening you will see there are lots grilled cow and grilled chicken for sale to serve to people as food.

A government directive has taken aim at Phnom Penh’s popular late-night Khmer barbecue restaurants, but it is not public drunkenness or the frequent firing of weapons at the establishments that has authorities worried—it’s the spit-roasted cow outside.

The Council of Ministers signed a directive on January 10^th telling all restaurants in Phnom Penh to move displays of spit-roasted cow away from the public yes after the Supreme Council of the Mohanikaya Buddhist order called a meeting at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall in December to discuss the issue.

The grilled cow on the street after the flesh has been sold leaving the bone frame

“Grilling cows in front of the restaurants is a show of support violence in a country that believes in the Buddhist religion,” said Chhoeung Bunchhea, a member of the Supreme Coucnil. “It can instill the ideas of a massacre to a child and push them to commit violence in society.”

He said that during the meeting in December, it was decided that displaying the roasted carcasses of cow glorifies the killing of animals and is bad for the image of Cambodia. They then passed the request for a ban to the Council of Ministers.

The roasted chicken for sale on the street in Phnom Penh

“We want a nonviolent culture and happiness in society,” Mr. Bunchhea said, adding that similar vendors displaying roasted whole chicken, ducks and deepfried fish do have to conform to such rules because they were small size animals.

Only restaurants that display spit-roasted cow had heard of the directive.

On Street 13 in Daun Penh district’s Phsa Kandal I commune, there is a strip of at least six barbecue restaurants in a row—directly accros the street from Wat Ounalom.

Huy Seir Ratanak, manager of the Chan Thol Arunras restaurant located on the strip, said that he did not obey the directive after receiving it last month, but his restaurant received a visit from the commune authorities soon thereafter.

The restaurants serve roasted chicken wings food

“The authorities came here and ordered me to move the grill closer to my restaurant and to make sure to clean the space,” he said.

Pen In, Phsa Kandal II commune chief, said that she would request that police remove the spites if the restaurants in her commune do not move them.

“I have explained to the restaurant owners not to grill cows like this because it looks very bad and especially because it is unsanitary,” she said.

People offering food and money to monks in the annual Meak Bochea ceremony held at the Oudong mountain

In vans and on trucks, thousands of monks, officials and members of the public made their way toward Odong mountain yesterday morning to commemorate the day that the Buddha announce to his followers he would die in three months.

While Meak Bochea day is little recognized among the public, for the most serious devotees of the religion it remains a key holiday in the Buddhist calendar.

Falling approximately three months before the widely celebrated Visaka Bochea, informally known as Buddha’s Birthday, Meak Bochea commemorates they day that the spiritual leader Gautam Buddha announced his future; the death and accompanying nirvana into which he would enter.

Sakyak Mony Chedi at Odong mountain where the buddha's bones are kept in there

Attendants at yesterday ceremony prayed an lit incense at the top of Odong mountain, where three bones—the relic of Buddha—were honored. They made offering of rice, noodles and money to the monks.

Police chief for Odong district, Khem Samon, said several thousand people, including Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, turned out for the celebration.

“Meak Bochea is the special day when we Buddhists are reminded of Buddha telling that he will enter parinirvana in three months,” explained Yem thin, abbot of Wat Tonle Mean in Kampot province’s Angkor Chey district.

“Beside gathering at Odong, Buddhists are to gather at every pagoda where monks pray and preach about the Buddha and his teaching,” he added.

The gate to Odong Montain. Odong mountain is officially called Phnom Preah Reach Trop

Chhorn Eam, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture and Religion, explained that the Meak Bochea also commemorates the day that Buddha met 1,225 monks without any schedule.

“All of the people who showed up were ordained by Buddha himself. And Buddha gave them principles of the Buddhism called “The Ovadhapatimoka.” Thos principles are to cease from all evil, to do what is good, and to cleanse one’s mind,” he said.

In order to help attain those principles, said Mr. Eam, Buddhists make merit offerings to monks and at pagodas. The main destination is the mountaintop Wat Odong, containing the shrine with the born relics that are said to belong to the Buddha, which is considered to be one of the holiest location in Cambodia.

The Odong mountain view from the ground

But though the holiday is a key one for many devotees, and is an official government holiday, it is celebrated relatively little among most of the general public.

“In town, you can see every few things: ritual performances by Buddhist monks, offerings at pagoda. But in three months, not just in town but across the countryside, you will see many people celebrating,” explained Ang Choulean, and ethnologist who has spent decades studying ceremonies in Cambodia.

“Meak Bochea and Visaka Bochea are purely religious holidays, so I think it is normal that the impact is not that visible.”

Google homepage browsed by Google Chrome Browser

This is the tutorial about how you can search your keywords directly for your address bar. Usually, when people want to search for any keywords or topic, they need to type the search engine website like Google, Yahoo, or Bing in the address bar. Once the website appears, they will enter those keywords or phrase in the search box then hit enter. The result will come out.

Well, in the the browser like Google Chrome or Firefox or even in Internet Explorer, you do not have to go the search engine website then enter that keyword, you can just enter those words in the address bar then hit enter. The result will come out.

Mozilla Firefox

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, you will notice there is a search box right next to the address bar. And in the search box, you will see the drop-down list of all search engine available in its browser. You select the search engine you like, then you just input the phrase you want to search for then it will show you the result from that search engine. If you choose Google as a search engine for the box, then google will display the result.

Mozilla Firefox blank page with the keywords seach in the address bar

Mozilla Firefox does come with its personal search homepage that links directly to Google. To access the personal search of Firefox, just type “about:home” without quote in the address bar then hit enter. You will see its home page.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome blank page with the keywords search in the address bar

If you were the users of Mozilla Firefox and newly switch to Google Chrome, you will see it is a bit different from Firefox for the search box as Google Chrome does not have a separate search box like Firefox. So, do you have to enter the search engine address until the page appear then enter your keywords to search? No, you don’t have to do that as Google Chrome is specifically designed for the speed and you can just type the keywords in the address bar directly then hit enter. It will show the result from Google immediately. If you input the text in the browser like “how fast is google chrome?” then hit enter, you will get the result like screenshot below.

Google Chrome search result from the keywords that typed in the address bar of blank page

Driven mainly by an increase in fire and motor coverage, revenues generated by Cambodia’s six insurance companies in 2011 grew by 19 percent compared with the year before, to $29.7 million, according to data from the General Insurance Association of Cambodia.

Although premiums are rising, those in the insurance industry say that the rates for firms to reinsure their policies are also going up due to an increasing number of claims stemming from events such as the recent folding in Thailand and last year’s tsunami in Japan.

“The truth is that as far as reinsurers go, Cambodia gets lumped into a group with Thailand, so even though the country was not really affected by the floods, the rates will go up,” said David Carter, DEO of Infinity Insurance.

“Flood insurance is going to become harder and harder to get as properties become less insurable and reinsurers assume more risk,” he said.

FORTE the insurance company in Cambodia

Making matter more challenging, claims in Cambodia’s insurance market last year amounted to $33.5 million was paid out to two garment factories that burned down in Phnom Penh and Kandal provinces. The two cases have also sent rates on fire insurance upward, insurance companies say.

Despite the challenges, insurers also say that the notion of insurance for matters such as health and possessions is beginning to take hold in Cambodia.

“Insurance is gaining momentum as the government continues to publish information about picking up insurance, showing what exactly are the benefits,” said Ty Atith, a senior underwriter at Cambodian Reinsurance Company.

Proof of this can be seen in health insurance premiums, which grew by 31 percent last year compared to the year before.

“I think that is mostly because more NGOs, companies and embassies are buying group health insurance for their employees,” said Mr. Arith.

Data from the General Insurance Association of Cambodia show that fire insurance accounted for 26 percent of total revenues last year, followed by motor insurance, miscellaneous insurance and health insurance comprising 19, 17 and 15 percent respectively.

Insurance companies are hopeful that a draft law will be adopted soon because the legislation will make automobile insurance compulsory. In Meatra, head of the Finance Ministry’s insurance division, said that the law was still in draft form and that he was unsure when it would be debated.

DDD Celebrates 10 years of creating jobs. (source: http://www.digitaldividedata.org)

When Jeremy Hockenstein came to Cambodia for the first time more than 10 years ago to see Angkor Wat, he expected to be inspred by the temples. But he had no idea that the people he met here would inspired him to develop on of the most successful NGOs in the country.

The corporate consultanturned-CEO of Digital Divide Data (DDD), a digital content NGO, remembers how many schools and charities he encounter on his trip that taught computer skills to locals—but also how nobody he spoke to expected that the training might help them one day land a job.

‘“I met with an NGO for disable people to make crafts, and in the back I saw people using computers, so I said, ‘Oh great,’ he said. ‘They had pictures on the walls of all their graduates, and I asked, ‘what kind of jobs do you get when you graduate?’ And they replied, ‘we don’t get any jobs: It’s Cambodia.”’

DDD map - location in Phnom Penh

Just a month later, with the blessing of then-King Norodom Sihanouk, Mr. Hockenstein sought to build an NGO that would give disadvantaged workers an opportunity to find jobs by giving them entry-level technology training.

He arranged for a handful of Cambodian to fly to India for data entry management training, while setting up DDD’s first office in Chamkar Mon district on Steet 360.

Content process sourcing in Cambodia was born.

Starting with just 20 employees, Mr. Hockenstein was able to get a $50,000 contract with his alma mater, Harvard University, transcribing 10th-century paper issues of student newspaper The Crimson into digital content.

“When we first came in 10 years ago, there was a real hunger for young people to learn technology,” he said.

DDD specializes in data indexing, tagging, and developing optical character recognition, working on projects with international institutions such as Yale University, Readers Digest and Unicef, but also locally with MobiTel and ANZ Royal Bank.

His employees are largely high school graduates who upon hiring are given a four-year works program that includes a scholarship.

After that, they can either stay on at DDD or seek employment elsewhere, earning an average of four times the average national wage, according to Mr. Hockenstein.

DDD, which celebrate its 10-yeaw, has also managed to open three more branches in Kenya, Laos, and Battambang province. DDD now employs about 1,000 people and has 481 graduates, of who 471 now have management roles with other companies in information technology, finance or human resources.

In Phnom Penh, the NGO has moved out of its old villa on Street 360 into a seven-storey office building in Chamka Mon district.

“The need for digital content is booming: government and corporate records, especially now for iBooks, the Kindle and iPad,” Mr. Hockenstein said, adding that the NGO has generated $3.5 million in earned income.

New York / North AmericaDigital Divide Data
115 West 30th Street, Suite 400
New York, NY 10001
Phone: +1.212.461.3700
Fax: +1.212.813.3209

San FranciscoDigital Divide Data
972 Mission Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: +1.212.461.3700
Fax: +1.212.813.3209

Phnom Penh, CambodiaDigital Divide Data
No. 559, Street 271
Tuol Tom Pong II
Khan Chamkar Mon
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Phone: +855.23.220.843 (office)

Battambang, CambodiaDigital Divide Data
Group 02, Phum Prek Preahsdach
Sangkat Prek Preahsdach
Battambang City
Battambang, Cambodia
Phone: +855.53.730.155 (office)

Vientiane, LaosDigital Divide Data
PO Box 315
Unit 21, Dongpalep Village
Chanthabouly District
Vientiane, Lao PDR
Phone: +856.21.263.448 (Office)

Nairobi, Kenya Digital Divide Data Kenya Ltd
Paramount Plaza 7th Floor
off Globe Cinema Roundabout, Nairobi
P.O. BOX 4282-00506 [Mailing Address]
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254. 772. 191. 795
Phone (Sales): +254.20.3601649
Phone (Sales): +254-704-803703

Cambodia Public Bank (Campu Bank) in Phnom Penh Branch

Cambodian Public Bank’s net profits last year increased 71.66 percent to $23.69 million compared with 2010, according to audited data obtained by the bank of Friday.

According to the data, the bank was able to reduce the amount of non-performing loans from $21.77 million to just $9.7 million over 2011, contradicting a statement issued by Moody’s Investor in September that increasing credit risks would lead to a probable downgrade of Campu Bank’s D grade in the following 10 to 18 months.

Phan Ying Tong, country head of the bank, said that growing profits last year stemmed from better asset quality gained from more rigorous new lending policies.

“We now have a very stringent requirement for approving new loans in an effort to increase recovery action so that we can tackle all the non-performing loans as soon as possible,” he said, adding that increased market activity caused by a growing economy has also driven the insurance of new loans.

Campu’s loan portfolio, issued mostly in the agriculture and retail sectors, grew last year between 10 and 15 percent to about $620 million compared with 2010, Mr. Tong Said.

The number of cases of infectious tuberculosis in the country dropped by about 30 percent between 2002 and 2010, according to preliminary result from a study conducted by the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control.

Data show that between 2002 and 2010, the prevalence rate of the infectious from of tuberculosis fell from 269 cases per 100,000 people to less than 200 per 100,000 people, Said Dr. Mao Tan Eang, director of the TB Center.

“We have had a big reduction of tuberculosis, but Cambodia is still among the 22 countries with the highest burden of TB,” Dr. Tan Eang said.

Out of the 22 countries identified in a World Health Organization (WHO) report last year, Cambodia had the second highest estimated prevalence of all infectious, and noninfectious, forms of the disease at rates of 660 per 100,000 people in 2010.

However, the country made large strides by managing to nearly halve the number of tuberculosis cases from more than 1,250 per 100,000 people estimated in 1990, said Dr. Tan Eang.

The decline resulted from a drive by the center to make sure that TB health service, including diagnosis and treatment, reached not only hospitals, but also local health facilities, he said. “Gradully, we expanded to all health centers,” he said, adding that the number of cases were so high in 1990 because the country was still recovering from civil war.

Dr. Rajendra Yadav, WHO medical officer for Stop TB, welcomed the finding in the preliminary data.

“It is an amazing achievement,” Dr. Yadva said.

Infectious TB patients display symptoms such as coughing, chest pains and fever and can pass on the infection through droplets from the throat and lungs.

Sambo is giving people a ride at Wat Phnom

Cambodia’s now-retired resident pachyderm Sambo, along with Louise Rogerson from Elephant Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation (EARS), a mahout, and the son of Sambo’s owner, made a four-hour journey on foot to the elephant’s new home in the city’s Sen Sok district.

Accomplished with the help of medication to ease the pain of wounds in the elephant’s feet, the journey was the last that Sambo will make for a long time, EARS said in a statement.

Rather than providing daily rides to tourists around Phnom Penh’s Wat Phnom, Sambo will receive medical care so that her feet—which were found to be inflamed and infected during a medical examination in November—can recover.

Related Stories:

The Elephant Named Sambo Retires After 30 Years At Wat Phnom

Sambo Can Work if Owner Promises No Rush Hour Jam

Dr. Paolo Martelli, who conducted the original examination of Sambo, will assist in her rehabilitation. The first bout of treatment will ast for one year, after which a review will be conducted to determine the next sate of recovery.

Dr. Martelli believes Sambo’s injuries could take up to two years to heal and that she will never fully recover because her injuries went untreated for too long.

EARS is funding the entirety of Sambo’s medical care and is also helping Sambo’s owner, Sin Sorn, with a remuneration package to assist with costs including the elephant’s food, water and electricity while in retirement.

Mr. Sorn said he paid $5,000 of his own money to build Sambo’s new shelter, which Ms. Rogerson confirmed.

Since Sambo has been working for about 30 years until date, it is now officially her time to take her retirement for the rest of her life.

Unseasonable rains have interrupted this year’s dry season, bringing a welcome boost to hundreds of thousands of dry season farmers around the country, an official and an agriculture expert said.

Oum Ryna, deputy director of the meteorology department at the Ministry of Water Resources and meteorology, said that provincial areas throughout the country have received sporadic rainfall. Some districts have had more rain, others less,” Mr. Ryna said, adding that more rain is expected over the coming weeks.

While they may be unexpected, Mr. Ryna noted that the unseasonable rain were a “normal” climatic event.

However, Yang Saing Koma, director of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), said the unseasonable rains were more frequent this year than usual. The rains would make a difference for farmers this dry season, which lasts roughly from October to March, he said.

“This year, I think, there is a lot of rain,” Mr. Saing Koma said.

About 200,000 families in part of Takeo, Kandal, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampong Thom and Kompong Cham provinces grow dry season floodwaters and irrigation schemes. The dry season harvest contributes about 20 percent of the country’s total annual rice harvest.

“It is very good for the people who grow vegetable and crops in the dry season,” Mr. Saing Koma said, adding that because severe flooding last year destroyed much of the wet season crop, many rural communities had been forced to grow rice in the dry season.

“There are many farmers that grow dry season rice, especially after the floods,” he said, adding that the rains will be a boon for them.

Chum Sophy, director of Prey Veng province’s water resources and meteorology department, said the province had already benefited from the wet weather.

“There are shortages of water for irrigation and drinking, so it is good that rain fill the rice paddies,” he said. “It can also help raise the level of ground water so people can use their wells as usual.”

San Soeun, a farmer and chief of Prey Veng’s Boeng Daul commune, said, “it is good that it rained because the dry season rice needs this rain; we have been waiting for rainfall so that the crop can flourish.”

In this tutorial I will show you how to display “Recent Post with Preview Image” in the thesis theme. As you see this blog “Sideth.com” is using “Thesis Theme” and there is the recent post with preview image at the right sidebar (see the screenshot). It is very easy to display the recent post with image preview by using the simple script. I am not sure if this tutorial is working with other themes beside Thesis as I did not try yet. But you can try and let me know if it is working.

Below are the steps you need to follow in order to make it work correctly with your theme:

1. You need to download and install the wordpress plugin called PHP Code Widget. Follow the instruction on that page of how to install this plugin.

2. Once you have PHP Code Widget installed in your blog, then go to Appearance -> Widgets

3. Drag the “Php Code” and drop it at your sidebar where you want it to displays. And entitle it to whatever like “Latest Post” or “Recent Post” as I use it in my blog.

4. Copy this code and paste it inside the box of your widget:

<div id=”recent-posts”>
<ul>
<?php global $post; $postslist=get_posts(‘numberposts=5&order=DESC’); foreach($postslist as $post) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
<a href=”<?php the_permalink(); ?>”><img src=”<?php echo bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=/<?php
$values = get_post_custom_values(“thesis_thumb”); echo $values[0]; ?>” alt=”<?php the_title(); ?>” width=”60″ height=”60″ /></a>
<a title=”Post: <?php the_title(); ?>” href=”<?php the_permalink(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a><hr/>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
</div><!– End Recent Posts –>

5. When ever you publish new article, you need to upload the “Thumbnail” image inside your blog and copy the link of the image to put it in “Image Thumbnail” box which is located beneath your post box.

I hope this is useful for you and if you have the script code with better design, please share with me. Let me know your thought about this tutorial.