Village (slum) Tours

New Hope Cambodia conducts tours of local villages for volunteers so they can see the conditions in which some people with whom they are working are living.

 

Thursday 10^th July 2014

A group of us went on a tour of one of the villages where New Hope provides support. Quite a small area of houses on stilts made of wood, grass-panelling and corrugated iron. Some of the volunteers were recognised and greeted by some of the kids. There were water stand pipes dotted around and communal water filters for drinking water. All the houses appeared to have an electricity supply and I was told that they have one take-off the pole and share the costs. No toilets in evidence.

Kitchen preparing food for the local market stalls

 

Local market stall

The whole area is pretty squalid and lies behind the children’s hospital. It is subject to flooding to adult-thigh depth during the worst of the rainy season which must be very dangerous from safety, health and water contamination point of view. It is all government land so the residents can be turned out at any time if the land is redeveloped.

Thursday 17^th July 2014

Went to a different slum quite close to the school. Slightly larger than last week but even poorer, if that is possible. Many of the children living here attend New Hope Cambodia. Some families were living under tarpaulins and shelters among the bushes on the edge of the village.

Many of these families are those of army soldiers who are away at the borders. Unfortunately the soldiers often do not send money home to their families, preferring to drink it.

The village shop

One family's lounge room

The bedroom

Others here are Khmer families that have been thrown out of Thailand. Since the recent coup d’états in Thailand 350,000 Khmers have been expelled from Thailand to make more jobs for Thais. These people have no homes and no jobs and some of them have found their way to Siem Reap. A few of them are in emergency accommodation provided by New Hope Cambodia at the old school buildings (click here to see photo on earlier blog post.)