Most pumps have been sold in Kampong Speu with smaller quantities being sold in Kampong Chhnang and Takeoin provinces, which are poor even by Cambodian standards, with an average annual income between $200-$400 for an average family of five. Many people lack shelter, food, healthcare and education, and children are often severely underweight, their growth stunted. To date, we have worked with 116 villages in 17 communes. Each village village is home to between has from 50 to 300 families. We work in a number of communities populated by Cham Muslims, who are traditionally discriminated against, and suffered the highest losses of population of any ethnic group under the Khmer Rouge.
Below is a sampling of the villages we currently serve:
Chhouk Kranhas
In the village of Chhouk Kranhas the farmers must first walk over two miles to get to their fields. Then they irrigate those fields by carrying water to them in buckets from their water source. We are thrilled to know that the pumps are relieving them of this grueling task.
The community's abiding concern is their children’s welfare. Here a child is easily fatigued from lack of proper nuitrition.
Sambour Community
The village of Sambour is located about 25km (15.5 miles) from the archaeological site of Angkor Wat. After the end of the Khmer Rouge rule in 1979, Sambour still suffered from skirmishes between the isolated and desperate hard-line Khmer Rouge leadership and the Vietnamese Incursion Forces. The situation lasted until the late 1990s, denying Sambour all prospect of economic growth. A lack of education and marketable skills leads locals to work far away, if they can afford to pay for transportation. Seventy percent of the population survives by cutting wood in the nearby mountains and reselling it. This activity takes three full days of work at the mountain and creates five dollars of gross income, which is not enough to feed a family.
