Spirituality as a Source of Sustainability

Below is an article I've been working on this week. It details the connection between health and religion in Cambodia, and how IRD would be wise to begin utilizing local relgious leaders in their work.


"To avoid the heat, the ceremony began early. The rented red plastic chairs were full and the babies were pacified with dried noddles. Rising to speak was the village chief; behind him a man in orange robes came into view.

The presence of a monk at a Child Survival Program event is uncommon. The target of International Relief and Development’s USAID funded grant is to decrease the morbidity and mortality rates of children in the struggling Tuk Phos province of Cambodia. IRD’s scope of work is not focused on the impact religious leaders have upon their communities. But should it be? The relationship between religious figures and the masses in Southeastern Asia has historically been strong and is currently one of the major elements keeping this rural region hopeful.

The pagoda, the road side shrines, and the daily chants all help to add color to the life of a Cambodian village. And for most villages involved with the CS Project, this distinct religious atmosphere remains segregated from the work IRD is doing. IRD hosts training meetings to help villagers care for their bodies; Buddhism offers blessing ceremonies to help villagers care for their souls. While it would seem that health and religion have separate aims, they are actually two sectors of the local economy that could be further integrated.

It may be true that health and religion are very distinct disciplines, but IRD’s work could be strengthened if it employed the help of local religious leaders. For within this particular community, health and religion have one major thing in common: education. IRD seeks to provide villagers with nutritional training so that they may become more healthy and self-sufficient. Faith practitioners hope to see villagers gain an increased passion for study so that they may become more informed about and active within their own spirituality. If IRD seeks to continue serving as a vehicle for education, a partnership with the local religious community would be highly beneficial.

Villagers themselves have voiced excitement over such a partnership. In 22 interviews conducted with local villagers within the Tuk Phos district, it was nearly unanimous that the aid of monks, achars (laymen), and nuns would be a helpful addition to the work IRD is currently doing. Sorn Chankoy, a 24 year old mother of one, said that there has been little incorporation of religious figures into the work IRD has done in her village. When asked if such involvement would be positive or negative, she claimed that “Monks have a lot of experience teaching. Monks are the model. They are respected.”

30 year old Pach Sopheap echoed Sorn’s sentiments, expressing enthusiasm over the connection between IRD’s education and the education provided by religious leaders. Pach lives near a pagoda, so she is accustomed to receiving teaching from monks. In fact, monks already “help educate about feeding and hygiene” in her community. “They help to remind us,” she said. If IRD could provide formal training on nutrition and health to local monks, their role of “reminding” would only be fortified.

By providing local religious leaders with formal training in health, IRD taps into a source that is able to meet needs for sustainability. Individuals who are already committed to meeting community needs are the perfect population to receive increased training. While their technical skills may fall short of IRD’s health practitioners, their values and passions don’t. Since religious leaders are so strongly committed to being advocates for the well-being of their villages, the level of trust and confidence villagers possess is already high. Religious figures can become more than qualified to teach and advise on nutrition and hygiene, for their impact and influence is far reaching.

Religion in Cambodia is not going anywhere fast. IRD’s Child Survival Grant, however, is. Ending in September of 2010, the project is phasing out and local volunteers will tackle the task of ensuring that what IRD begun is continued. In an effort at being sustainable, what better than religion to take the reins?

The stitching of this country’s social fabric has been, at times, a little jagged. Regimes have risen and fallen. Dictators have invaded and evacuated. Atrocities have hit and demolished. But religion has been a uniting and encompassing thread, holding the broken pieces together. Religion has provided a steady presence of peace and hope. In these times of sickness and disease and death, religion is capable of providing life; if not with the needle of a doctor, then with the word of a teacher."