Community Profile

The southern Cambodian province of Takeo is located around 78 kilometers from Phnom Penh along the National Highway 2. Samrong is one of the 10 districts of Takeo province and Khvao, where our partner community is located, is one of the 11 communes of Samrong district. A mainly rural, subsistence farming region, Khvao consists of 18 villages with a total population of 14,865, including 7968 females and 6295 children and youths under 18 years-old. The primary sources of family income come from traditional rice cultivation, small rural business, and selling unskilled labor in the city.

The major problems identified during our initial visits to Khvao were poor and limited education and health services, low income and unemployment, lack of water for drinking and agricultural production, and lack of sanitation facilities.

The poor educational opportunities for children in Khvao commune is due to the fact that the school facilities are dilapidated, teaching quality is low and schools are too far away from many children. Extreme poverty also forces some children to drop out of school in order to help their families. Children drop out even from primary school and only a small minority complete high school. Most girls are looking for jobs in garment factories in Phnom Penh in order to earn income to support their families. Parents often lie about the age of their daughters so that they may apply for a job in the factories. Violence is becoming a big problem amongst youth, who are frustrated and bored due the lack of opportunities available to them.

Food insecurity is another major issue in Khvao. The poorest families face a food shortage throughout the entire year. This is due to low productivity of rice cultivation, landlessness and natural disasters, such as the draught that devastated Samrong in 2006. Limited income generating opportunities resulting from lack of skills and capital also contributes to food insecurity in the district. Food insecurity in turn has serious a negative impact on other areas, such as education, health, and domestic and social violence.

There is only one health center in the commune, which is not functioning well mainly because of a shortage of drug supplies. The common illnesses being reported to the health center are pneumonia, diarrhea, malnutrition, and skin infections. When a child gets ill, the care taker normally goes to buy medicine from the market or seeks help from a traditional doctor (Krou Khmer). This is due to the poor public health services and lack of health education in the commune.

Despite all of these constraints, the people in Khvao have an incredibly resilient spirit. Even with their limited resources, they dream of a better future for their children and are working very hard to achieve it.

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Access to Water

Two-thirds of Cambodians do not have access to safe drinking water. This is a major cause of disease and one of the leading reasons why one in ten children do not survive to see their fifth birthday.

In 2006 the Samrong district was plagued by drought, which reached critical levels during last year’s dry season. Villagers were forced to travel long distances in search of natural water sources, as the community pools had all dried up. Every day of the drought was a struggle for the villagers to meet the daily water consumption needs of their families, as well as their animals.

Some villagers were forced to drink from a highly contaminated deep pond that is normally reserved for watering animals. Even during the wet season, when the ponds are full, the water most people drink is hardly potable.

In April, at the height of the dry season, Bridges Across Borders installed seven wells to serve at least 100 families. Bridges also provided a home water filter to each family and provided training to ensure that the water would be safe for drinking.

Each beneficiary family paid the equivalent of five US dollars each for the wells and two dollars for the filters. Their financial contribution is important to ensure that the families understand that they are the owners of the wells and filters. The money that was raised from the well and filter contributions was then used as seed money to start a community-based Self-Help Group. Members of the group save their money together and can borrow from the community fund at low-interest rates for micro-enterprises and other means of increasing family incomes.

This year, our Community Development Program team is helping to strengthen the Khvao Self-Help Group and support their income generation activities through the provision of matching funds and small business training. Plans are also underway to dig more wells and provide more filters.

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Community Child Education Center

Bridges Across Borders manages and supports the running costs of the Community Community Child Education Center established by our local affiliate organization Meakea Aphiwadh in 2004. The center provides English and computer skills-training, health and hygiene education and sports activities to the children and youth of Khvao commune. More than 300 students are now enrolled in the computer training and English programs. Bridges is currently seeking funding to expand the computer lab and provide further technical assistance to the center, which is playing a vital role in the educational development of this community.

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Link to Community Development page