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Help provide clean water and school supplies for a Rural Village in Cambodia.
I visited Suong Village in Bakong District, Cambodia in late 2015 with my brilliant Tour Guide Mr Seng Bunly, it’s located about 16 kilometres from Siem Reap (approximately 7 km north of Tonle Sap Lake) with a population of almost 900 (around 300 children). I traveled in to the village by water buffalo drawn cart (OK, it was on my bucket list) and was met by village elder Mr Ta Soy and his family who took the time share a small meal and tell me about their small fishing/rice growing village and the local area. I was incredibly privileged to be able to meet with many of the younger children and give them some small gifts which I’d purchased in Siem Reap earlier in the day.
Being a rural area of Cambodia the average daily income is less than $1∙⁵⁰ USD per day (around $2∙⁰⁰ AUD) enough for the very basic necessities only. However, some do not even earn this and can barely provide for themselves. There’s no running water, no proper toilet facilities and little or no money to educate their children and break the poverty cycle which would enable them to eventually become self-sufficient.
Fortunately, Suong village has a small school (some villages do not) for the younger children (most of the 14 to 15-year old’s have already started working) but sadly, only 1 in 5 of these children will ever complete high school. I noticed a chronic lack of school supplies such as books, stationery, pencils and crayons etc. and there was no play equipment to speak of.
The cost of one well is around $280 USD (includes digging, installation of pump and paving the cement/concrete around well). I’d like to raise enough funds to install two wells ($560 USD) and also purchase some stationery for the school along with some toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap etc.) for the children and their families.
All up, I reckon around $3000 to $3,500 AUD will help out substantially (a small percentage of funds raised also goes to Go Fund Me). If more is raised, then more will be purchased for Suong Village and possibly an adjacent village (2017 will be especially tough as the return on their rice crops will be much lower this year).
I am self-funding another trip to Cambodia for almost 3 weeks in November this year and will be visiting Suong Village again along with a couple of other local villages to assist them where I can.
Hope you can chip in a few dollars and help out the beautiful people of Suong Village and other local rural villages of Bakong District in Cambodia.