SREY NY – PHYSIOTHERAPIST FOR ABLE

My name is Srey Ny. I am a physiotherapist and I work with Children In Family’s ABLE program. Before I came to work at CIF I had worked for another organization called Banteay Prieb. Through that organization I worked with many people with disabilities in a village setting, so it was good preparation for my work with Children in Families. One day a friend told me that CIF was looking to hire a physiotherapist. Their office was close to my home so I decided to apply for the job. I met Lisa, who is a physiotherapist from the U.S. She told me that she really needed to hire a Khmer physiotherapist because she was the only P.T. that CIF had and she needed help to understand how to best help children with disabilities and their families in a Cambodian community. She told me about how Children In Families worked with children through foster care and kinship care. This was a new idea for me and I was very interested in working to help these families.  

I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with some very special children and families and I feel like I am able to have a very positive impact. Some of these children had never had the opportunity to receive treatment or had had very little treatment because they live in a rural area. Because we work in the community where they live we are able to really see them respond to our treatment and we can help the families learn how they can help the children every day at home. We are encouraged because we have seen a lot of progress in several of the children we are working with and the families are reporting that they are happy with the progress too. 

In Cambodia some people do not pay much attention to children with disabilities. Those of us who work for CIF have been blessed to know the love of God. God has given us His love and we have the opportunity to share that love with these children and families. As we give attention to these children it helps their families to feel supported to give them the love and attention they need as well.