She badly injured shielding her infant niece from bullets.

Mrs. Soy Sak, 59 , and her husband, 60,  are staying in a small hut [click here to view a sample of Khmer hut] built by a farm owner. They are hired to be care-givers on this farm.

Every day, her husband has to do some cutting the grass, water the crops, and look after all the fruit trees for a farmer in Cheung Prey, 45 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Phnom Penh. Unlike her husband, Mrs. Sak is not able to do much because she is disabled due to an injury to her left hip .

I had the chance recently to sit down with her and ask what happened to her hip. With her voice full of emotion, she described a terrible event which occured about 30 years ago. One evening, as she was carrying her 5 month old niece down to the village creek to give her a bath, she heard gun-shots very closeby. She remembers falling to the ground but her only thought at the time was the safety of her 5 month old niece. With tears her voice broke as she expressed her gratitude that her niece was not harmed. However, she herself was hit with a bullet which went through her left hip. She was was assisted by some villagers to get back home and to the doctor who diagnosed her with a broken hip. 

Everyone in her village called her the heroin for a baby because she shielded her niece from being hit by the bullets. The infant niece could have been killed by those soldiers.

Her injury has left her unable to enjoy her life. She has not been able to walk properly. The bullets went through her hip, and some pieces still embed in part of her bone.

Some years later, Mrs. Sok said that a non-profit funded hospital was willing to help her fix the broken hip bone so that she could walk properly again. She said that because she couldn’t even afford the cost of daily meals while staying in the hospital, she had to leave without being properly treated. Now, she uses a walking stick to aid her in getting around. Her left hip looks pretty soft and it seems that the hip bones have not been fixed yet. 

I asked if she would like to go back to the hospital to receive proper treatment for her hip-injury. She said that she is so poor that she can’t even afford to buy the food she would need if she has to stay one or two weeks in the hospital. 

What she needs

• A sack of 50 kg of rice a month.
• Some fund to go back to the hospital to get proper treatment.
• Proper clothes which you can change during the day.