This is one Cambodia story you need to read

I have a really uplifting and miraculous story from an extremely remote corner of Cambodia that is home to some of the most impoverished families on the planet.

When our group visited Cambodia earlier in the year to reconnect with the two villages we support in the Andong slums and remote Oddar Meanchey (OM) we had some amazing experiences from cutting the ribbon on a brand new $500,000 school, serving breakfast to 400 students on their day off and checking out a significant upgrade to a high school boarding house. But for most of us the real highlight was the day we spent delivering emergency food aid to some desperately needy families way off the beaten track in OM.

All families in OM do it tough thanks to the remote location, absence of local employment opportunities, no treated water and virtually no meaningful government support, but one in particular really tugged on the heart strings.

We rolled into the yard of this family of four to find really basic living conditions with an open fronted and ramshackle 'house' with a dirt floor, one table in the corner serving as a kitchen, a single timber sleeping platform and a family completely without hope.

Dad earned less than four dollars a day tending the small farm they have been granted permission to live on, while mum was completely bed-ridden, her body wracked with HIV and cancer. Their 10 year old son was sporadically attending our nearby primary school, while their six year old daughter was forced to stay home to do what she could to look after mum. Without going into too much detail, the situation was completely overwhelming on so many levels. We had a couple of nurses in our group who were convinced that this poor lady was in her last days or weeks.

Delivering a 50kg bag of rice and some bottles of oil and soy sauce seemed such a token gesture for this desperate little family so we passed the hat around and managed to rustle up some financial support that for us was inconsequential, but for them amounted to more than three months worth of dad's wages. Our in-country director Pastor Abe (pictured hugging the dad) made a commitment to follow up with the family to help them access some medication that would provide mum with some much needed pain relief and a bit of comfort as her life drew to a close.

Some of the neighbouring families were so pleased when they heard we had given the money as it would provide the husband a chance to arrange a proper funeral for his wife so they could farewell her with dignity.

Abe arranged for her to be transported the three hours to the nearest hospital in the tourist town of Siem Reap (home to the world famous Angkor Wat temples) so she could be seen by a reputable medico who prescribed her with an array of medications to make her final weeks as pain free as possible. After the first visit there was a minor improvement in her condition so some follow up appointments were made and to everyone's great surprise she has defied the odds (and an expert medical prognosis) and has slowly but surely got herself back on her feet.

She is now up out of bed and helping out around the home, preparing food and supporting her husband as best she can. Her little girl has been able to go back to school and the future (at least in the short term) is looking so much brighter than it was a couple of months ago. Her doctor can't quite believe what has happened and neither can the villagers who knew of the plight of this family and witnessed this woman's deterioration over many years. He is confident she will be with her family well into next year and possibly beyond if she continues to make the improvements she has in recent months.

If we ever needed a reminder of why we continue to support the projects in Cambodia, surely this is it. It really does demonstrate that a small sacrifice on our part has the power to deliver so much hope, dignity and light into the lives of people who undeservedly find themselves born into a situation they are powerless to change.

If you've made it this far, thanks for taking  the time out of your day to pause and think about our friends in Cambodia and as usual please accept my gratitude for your ongoing support and encouragement.