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Cambodia: People: Siep Siep is a widowed mother of three, and the youngest of four sisters. Here, in their own words, Siep and her eldest sister, Seour, tell the story of their family.
Khmer Rouge Time Siep: During the Pol Pot time, I moved to one of the districts in Battambang Province where I was separated from my first sister, second sister and third sister. We were living in hardship and difficulty. Especially we worked very hard and we didn't have enough food to eat during that time and Pol Pot soldiers forced us to dig the ground and lift heavy things. I don't want to say much about this period of time because it seems like I have a very suffering memory in my head. Seour: During the Khmer Rouge time our four sisters fled to another district in Kampong Speu province where we had a relative working in the Khmer Rouge organisation, Angkar. I thought that we could depend on him, that he will not make something bad for our four sisters. But in fact that man wasn't a good-hearted person. He sent us to Battambang province where we had to work very hard, were short of food and were starving. So the reason that man sent us to Battambang was not for good reasons but for bad reasons - he wanted us to starve to death. However, also in Battambang we met a Khmer Rouge soldier who was a good person. He didn't put me in the mobile team. I had a chance to look after my three sisters at that time. We were given about 250 grams of rice per day for the whole family. Usually at that time Pol Pot put young people who were 18 to 22 into what was called a "mobile team" so they could work together, but I was allowed to stay with old people at the village because I had to take care of my sisters. 
But after being there for one year they separated us and I went to work on a mobile team. So I had to work very hard from day to night. My life became worse and worse. I didn't have a good chance to look after my sisters and I didn't know what was happening to them. I came back to see my little sisters once per month. I saw that they were living in a very poor situation, very poor condition, and they were starving. My sisters were eating very small plates of porridge, so I brought some rice with me and gave it to my sisters to cook. One day I saw my second sister Nareourn eat potato skins thrown away by a Khmer Rouge soldier. It was poisonous and she got diarrhoea and nearly died during that day. But I ran to meet one of the villagers to ask for sugar and salt to cure her.Seour: In that time I got married in Battambang. The Khmer Rouge forced me to get married together with 76 couples at one time. I refused two times but the Khmer Rouge soldiers tried to lobby me and they tried to encourage me to get married. I refused two times, but the third time they played a trick on me and told me that I should join one of the parties. I didn't know that it was a wedding party. They forced me to get together with a stranger that I had never met. Find out more about this time Vietnamese Control Seour: On the way back to this Samrong Tong district in May 1979, I was separated from my husband because of the shelling and bombs and fighting that was still going on. So in the end I came back by myself. I saw the situation and the environment around the Samrong Tong district completely different from what I left earlier. It seemed like there were more huts, also the road was really in bad condition. Some big houses, houses with roof tiles were burnt down, only small huts were left. Siep: We didn't have any income after country liberation day, in 1979. We didn't have any money to make business so we just worked day by day, hand to mouth. When I was a child and maybe about 15 years old, I was living with my older sisters in a thatched roof house, just a small house. I studied from grade one to grade four. 
Siep: I can say for all my life, I have never got any happiness since I was born, since I was five years old. The most happy time for me is when I got married to my husband. He could support me. He made sugar from palm juice and sold it in the market to buy food. He worked in the rice fields to produce enough rice for us to eat.Find out more about this time Democracy Siep: I joined the 1993 election and I voted for the representative that I liked, and so far I can see that what I have chosen is the right person. And also when I voted I remembered the past when they helped us in the Khmer Rouge time. If I made comparison between before the election and after the election I think that now is a lot better than before, especially relating to making business. For example, if you want to make sugar and transport it to the city or to the town to sell, nobody checks you, nobody controls you. But before the elections, we worked and we did business under pressure from the police and military. They always checked and asked a lot of money from us. Now, people can have a lot of choice, whatever business they like and can make money. For me, I still cannot do much, but we have a lot of freedom. 
Siep: The time I had good choices or opportunity in my life was when I got married to my husband. We lived together for 10 years, we had cows, we had ox carts, we had some property to live on and we could make money and he could work in a rice field but finally when he died all these things were gone - they had gone out of my hands. We had a very short time to live together before my husband died. So right now I depend on myself and I become sick, I can't do anything and I live with my old parents. They can't do anything to make money so it's still a difficult time. When I was born into a poor family I didn't have enough food to eat. We worked very hard from generation to generation, like in Lon Nol regime and Pol Pot regime, so this has made me malnourished. My health at the moment became worse. I had a heart attack and sometimes my hands and my body shake and I become weak from day to day. Sometimes if I eat spicy food or fatty food, then my stomach starts to hurt. I've fallen down on the ground two times and I became unconscious. I don't hope that my disease will be cured. I'm so worried about my health, especially that I don't think that I will live forever or live to see my children get married, be educated and have a good job and support me.Find out more about this time Development Siep: 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. Siep: I feel very happy to see today that my relatives help me to plough in the rice field because this kind of activity reminds me in the past time that my husband did the same thing. Sok is not just helping plough the rice fields. Soon he will put the natural fertilisers into this rice field and I hope that in the coming months I will get the rice production soon. 
Siep: 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 and dug canals to 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.Find out more about this time Looking to the Future Siep: 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 a 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.
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