Chinese-backed charitable organizations have contributed to improving the healthcare sector and people's well-being in Cambodia, health officials said on Thursday.

Cambodian Minister of Health Chheang Ra presented the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Monisaraphon, the equivalent of a knighthood, to four representatives of Operation Smile Cambodia, Future Smile Charitable Foundation, and Pundarika Charity for their outstanding contributions to the healthcare sector in Cambodia.

The medal awarding ceremony was held at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in the capital Phnom Penh.

Ngy Meng, director of the hospital, said the government's honorable medal decorations were bestowed upon them in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the healthcare sector in Cambodia.

"We deeply appreciate your dedication and commitment to advancing healthcare in Cambodia," he said.

Nous Sarom, director and senior surgeon at Operation Smile Cambodia, said Operation Smile Cambodia has closely cooperated with China's Future Smile Charitable Foundation to offer free surgery on children with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities from birth.

"Future Smile Charitable Foundation has not only given technical support for our special surgeries on children, but also provided a budget to us for carrying out subsequent projects for years," he told Xinhua.

"This project has provided great benefit to children, helping restore their faces and giving them new life and smile," Sarom said. "We are pleased to work with our Chinese counterpart."

Hul Chan Oun, the 28-year-old mother of a two-year-old girl, who had received a free operation on her cleft palate, said the surgical operation gave her daughter a new facial appearance and would definitely change her life.

"After the surgical treatment, her facial appearance is good," she told Xinhua. "The treatment provided by the Chinese doctors was free of charge."

Chan Oun said her daughter is now very healthy because she can eat like a normal kid.

"I would like to thank the Chinese doctors for providing a good surgery to my daughter, and I'm really happy with this," the native to southwestern Kampong Speu province said.

In September 2024, Future Smile Charitable Foundation and Pundarika Charity donated four ambulances to Cambodia and provided free surgical operations to dozens of Cambodian children with cleft lips, cleft palate and other facial deformities.