Public information

There are many public information posters on display around Cambodia.Subjects covered include health topics such as TB awareness and HIV awareness(Treatment for both these conditions are free of charge here) Many cover maternal and child health and advise about contraception(called birth spacing in this country) vaccination and immunisation and treatment of fever and diarrhoea and vomiting. There are also public health posters about not drinking unclean water and the importance of hand washing. Social issues are addressed in some such as the importance of sending children to school and the damaging effects to all of domestic violence. However the posters that I find most dramatic are the ones advising people what to do and not do with guns and land mines.Both guns and land mines have been a very serious problem in the recent past in this country.There was a gun amnesty and thousands of guns were handed in. A wonderful statue has been made from some of these guns and is sited on a roundabout at one of the main routes in to Phnom Penh. It is a large gun with the barrel tied in to a knot. There were millions of land mines laid around the borders of Cambodia. Many have been removed but many still remain and one still hears and reads of horrific landmine injuries most weeks.I think the thing I find most bizarre about the guns and land mines messages is that they are always drawn as cartoons. This strange mix of the terribly serious depicted as comical always unsettles me. Maybe that is what they are supposed to do!