By Lutfi Fadil Lokman, Young Leader for the SDGs and CEO of Hospitals Beyond Boundaries.

On a beautiful morning in April 2017, a happy and healthy baby girl was born at Hospitals Beyond Boundaries (HBB) Maternity Health Centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Kandura is not the first pride and joy of her parents, but the first one to be born in a safe environment where giving birth is no longer a matter of life and death for both the mother and the baby.

I founded Hospitals Beyond Boundaries (HBB) with Dr Wan Abdul Hannah during our days in medical school to build hospitals and clinics run by local communities. A Malaysian non-profit organisation, HBB runs the maternity centre with a team of local health practitioners and is dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable communities through sustainable healthcare efforts. Our first clinic was established in 2012 in Phnom Penh and provides healthcare access to more than 300 families from the marginalized Cham minority in Cambodia. The healthcare facilities are run uniquely as social enterprises by the local youth population who are trained and then employed as community health workers alongside doctors, nurses and health professionals. Since its establishment, HBB has trained and served more than 3,000 people.

This post is part of the “SDG Solutions” series hosted by the United Nations Foundation, Global Daily, and +SocialGood to raise awareness of ways the international community can advance, and is advancing, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. As the international community prepares to gather at the UN for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development from July 10-19, this series will share ideas and examples of action. Previous posts in the series can be found here.