This hospital has a special history: more than 20 years ago, the acclaimed Japanese photographer Kenro Izu visited Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor. The infant mortality rate for malnutrition was at 50%. Izuwas deeply moved by the sick children he encountered during his photo travels and by the limited health care. He is committed to building a children’s hospital in Siem Reap in order to provide better quality health care. When the doors of AHC were officially opened in 1999, the hospital consisted of only three Cambodian doctors and ten nurses, numerous medical volunteers from around the world and one hospital bed. From the beginning, AHC functioned as a teaching hospital, training medical personnel with an emphasis on empowerment and self-sufficiency. While the clinic began with only one outpatient ward, it quickly expanded its capacity and range of services to meet the needs of the hundreds of children who would arrive every day. From 2000 to 2005, AHC added an emergency room, a surgical unit, a dental clinic, an eye clinic and other units, becoming one of the few paediatric hospitals in the country that offers such special services. In 2007 the hospital trained nearly 1,500 Cambodian doctors, nurses and health workers in paediatrics and treated nearly half a million children.

The vision of Kenro Izu was realized in 2013, when AHC officially became ​ an independent organization run locally, firmly rooted in Siem Reap and led by an experienced Cambodian team. After the transition, the hospital expanded further, positioning itself at the forefront of paediatric health care in Cambodia by opening the country’s first neonatal intensive care unit, treating its first cancer patients. I consider myself as a photographer enthusiast and could not help but be struck by this story.