Maly's Story: Keeping Mothers and Babies Healthy in Cambodia

Maly works as a Line Leader at a busy garment factory in Phnom Penh. She is 8 months pregnant with her second child, and sometimes her job can be very tiring and demanding! But there are perks of working at her company, and she has joined CARE’s Chat! Contraceptive training program, supported through the GSK-CARE Frontline Healthworker Partnership, which has taught her new skills to help her workers, but also to improve her personal life!

Maly lives with her husband, her brother in law and his wife in a room near the factory where she works. Her work days tend to be long, she usually spends 8 or 11 hours at the factory.

Maly enjoys participating in CARE’s training activities. “Before I joined CARE’s training, I didn’t know anything about contraceptive methods, that’s why I got pregnant twice!” She says. “But now, after I have my second baby, I will start protecting myself”.
Maly is learning at her factory not only how to be a better worker and leader, but she is also learning important lessons through CARE’s training about nutrition, sexual education, and maternity health. “I didn’t have any information when I had my first baby. Now, with the second one, I am getting a lot of useful information from the nurse”, she says.  
Thanks to the advice of Nurse Chanthy at her factory, Maly understands the importance of visiting her local health centre regularly to follow up on the progress of her baby.
  Thanks to CARE’s training at Maly’s factory, Maly and her husband Rin are better informed about contraceptive methods and hope to avoid unwanted pregnancies in the future.

Maly’s work days can get long and her workplace often gets very hot during the dry season in Cambodia, so taking a break is always a good idea. Sometimes, when she feels sick, Maly visits the infirmary to recover. “Sometimes I feel very heavy and exhausted”, she says. “The nurse advises me to eat better, take calcium and get regular check-ups at the health centre.”

Having a better infirmary has helped Maly feel better at her workplace. “It’s great to have a nurse at the factory I can talk to”, she says. “I can ask for her advice. Like, I asked her if it was true that if you drank wine during pregnancy, the baby would have beautiful skin. She told me it was a lie and that I should never do it!”

Eating well is very important for Maly and her baby. This is why CARE’s Food Vendor Program is helping provide healthier food options for women like her outside their workplace.

 
Maly can also have a close monitoring of her pregnancy
at her factory’s infirmary. She regularly visits Nurse
Chanthy to get her weight and vital signs logged into
CARE’s Healthy Mother’s app.

Maly feels better at work now that she can access a knowledgeable nurse at her factory. “The nurse is so much better now thanks to the training with CARE”, she says. “She also have posters and other materials that she uses to teach me about nutrition and other things, and I can even take those home!”

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Images Credit: CARE / Erika Piñeros, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 2018.

To learn more about our work in Cambodia, click here.