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Cambodia: Change: Quotes This is what some people in the Samrong Tong community have said about their needs, and about the World Vision development project there. Siep (widowed mother of three - Female, 36 years): My older sister thinks that more than 50% of the people in this village are rich and she thinks that the number of rich and poor is 50/50. But even in this 50% of rich people there are families who have to sell their cows or land to make bigger houses. They might owe to money lenders. They can have a bigger house but no cows. For example, one family which is richer than ours has more cows; the daughter works at the factory in Phnom Penh, the father is a motor-taxi driver and they have more land. Read Siep's story Kea (Siep's mother-in-law, Female, 68 years): I feel I am disappointed in life in my old age. If I look at other old people, it seems that when they become old they have a lot of money, a bigger house and more land. But for my family, I have nothing. All my children except one are gone, and all our property like rice fields, our house and even our clothes are sold, so we have nothing. My five children died, from one generation to another generation. One died in the Pol Pot time and another one just recently. I feel disappointed in my life and I feel very sad about my children and that's why I have a little bit of mental illness and I feel sick. When they were sick, we sold off some property, like cows and rice field, to buy medical treatment for my children. However, they left me. It seems like I am like a beggar. I just ask money from people who do some good charity toward me. I don't have much hope even that my grandchildren will live independently in the future. Read Kea's story Huat (World Vision Project Manager, Male): World Vision started working in this community in 1998. Before World Vision started doing the five year design, we invited the community members to have a meeting together to find out the problem and work out solutions to deal with these problems. In the process of the discussion, we found that some people who came into the meeting didn't have a lot of creative ideas to share in the meeting. This is because they have passed through the Khmer Rouge period of time, when they just did what the Khmer Rouge asked them to do. They just did it by order, so their ideas were blocked. This really impacts in this generation especially on World Vision development activities. Also many educated people were killed during that time. When we started working here, there was only a small number of educated people left in this community. Read Huat's story Siep (widowed mother of three - Female, 36 years): Before World Vision started working in this community, compared to the situation now, there is a big difference. My rice field didn't have enough water to grow rice and we needed irrigation and a water supply but we didn't have a choice. Then World Vision started working here. They built up the irrigation systems dug canals for water the paddies. World Vision started to build roads and my children can walk along that road smoothly and easily. We also see that World Vision set up the cow bank, rice bank and kindergarten and school building. My children used to attend kindergarten when they were young but now they become older so they go to the public school. I think it's good help to have World Vision here. Read Siep's story Huat (World Vision Project Manager, Male): We focus on various development activities such as building the water gate and road construction, rice bank, cow bank, and kindergartens and fertiliser loans. World Vision is helping to improve the living condition of people. For example, we are building the irrigation system because we want to improve agricultural production. The road reconstruction will help improve communications from one place to another. The rice bank, the cow bank and the fertiliser loan can help people not get into debt to the money lenders. And the kindergarten can help the young children learn and understand literature before they step into the first grade in the class. World Vision has been working here for 4 years. It's just in the early stages. We still need a lot of time and years to go. We just met with village leaders who said that 'without World Vision in this community the situation would be worse, it would be difficult with more hardships'. Read Huat's story Jum Choom (Head of village - Male, 52 years): People really like the development project because it brought a lot of good changes into lives of people in the community. It has done a lot of things in this area. It started the cow bank, the rice bank, the water gate and the kindergarten for children from two villages. World Vision built the kindergarten and also paid for teachers' training and some school materials. Siep (widowed mother of three - Female, 36 years): I just imagine one day that my children will be educated, and if they are educated I hope they will get a decent job and then they can earn money to support me and my old parents at home. Among the three children that I hope can help the family here, maybe the girl, my daughter, will have a job in factory and then she can make more money to support the family here. Education is not just to help me and the family, but when they become educated they can understand issues relating to health, agricultural development and other things that happen in their lives. So I still think that the education is the most important way for my children's futures. Read Siep's story
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