KEF Director, Dr Felipe Castro, after establishing a 30-bed hospital writes to us about a great challenge in Cambodia:
“The vision of establishing a Christian College of Nursing came after KEF and its affiliated NGO, BILEG received support to build a Mission Hospital in Baray District, Kampong Thom Province.
When the hospital was ready to open its doors to patients, we realised that Cambodia is in short supply of Nurses, especially well-trained nurses. Three years have passed, and the more we saw how Cambodia needs Nursing Schools, the more we needed to do something about it.
In the cities and countryside, hospitals both public and private are teeming with patients. It is good that there are now many Cambodian graduates of Medical Schools as more Medical Colleges have opened in Phnom Penh. But the number of Nursing Schools did not catch up. We discovered that there are many students in our province and other provinces who are interested in becoming nurses, but they cannot afford to go to the cities to study nursing. The few schools of nursing in Phnom Penh are overcrowded and are short of instructors.
Thus, we envisioned that Solid Rock Mission Hospital can recruit missions-minded teachers and nurses to serve in Cambodia, they can also teach at the College of Nursing. And in this Christian College of Nursing, the Khmer students will continue to learn the Word of God. We trust that many will come to know the Saviour as they study here and are discipled.
We are in the process of applying for a permit from the Ministry of Health. One of the requirements is that we should have our facility for classrooms, laboratories, and Library in addition to the usual amenities. We can build these rooms on the first floor of the current Solid Rock Mission Hospital.
We are looking to the Lord for AUD $ 230,000 for:
- Building 3 lecture rooms, an office, medical library and 3 laboratory rooms on top of the ground floor of our existing hospital
- Purchase furnishings, reference books and teaching
- Hire nurses and teachers that are qualified to teach General Education courses, Nursing foundation and the major Nursing Subjects” Dr F. Castro
