Feature stories
The mother and head of Srey Mao family was widowed when her husband suffered from mental health conditions. She was forced to sell all of her land to keep her husband alive, but unfortunately could not. “Everything died with my husband,” she remarked. To aid their mother, two of her sons went to Thailand as fishermen to work long hours without pay.
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The family’s father died of HIV leaving his wife both unsure of her HIV status and in charge of providing for the 11 member household. This household includes two daughters who were previously married. When the men they married found out about how poor the family was they quickly divorced the daughters. This forced the daughters and their children to move back into the home.
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There is a long history of discrimination against the disabled in Cambodia. Most Cambodians believe that a disabled person did something in his/her previous life to deserve this condition, thus must be left alone to suffer and wait until their next life. So is the case with Kong Thuok’s daughter, Socheat. Socheat was born with Cerebral Palsy, one of 400 cases throughout the Kampong Speu province.
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When SSF first visited the Phim Dy family, there were eight people living together in a small house with a dirt floor and roof that did not keep out water. There were no beds and everyone was forced to sleep on a muddy floor when it rained. None of the children were in school. Instead they would work seasonally wherever it was possible. Because the father had an ongoing health condition, the mother single-handedly supported her entire family.
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When SSF found this family they were very poor. They were living in a wall-less hut and had no land or livelihood. None of the children were enrolled in school. The family originally had six children but one of the daughters passed away before SSF became involved because the family could not afford health care.
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Coming from an extremely poor family, Phalika has seen many hardships in her life. Her father was a human trafficker in the past, who worked for his neighbor, selling workers from a commune to work in Thailand. While working in Thailand, all of the workers died at sea, except for Phalika’s father, a very good swimmer, who now owed his boss money for the lost workers.
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Several years ago, she tried to divorce her husband who beat her and her children, but he demanded that she give him all of the family’s belongings. After he threatened to kill her, she was forced to sell their rice fields to pay him, leaving her with nothing to support her family of four and ailing mother, whose medical bills forced the family to borrow a sum of 25 dollars from a money lender at a high interest rate.
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Mei Savoeun’s family, which also lives in the same village, has recently been selected for support. Her husband left home in search of better work opportunities in Thailand and never returned, leaving her alone to care for the entire family. After their cow died, the family borrowed 75 dollars from a money lender.
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Although his government pension provides his family with almost 50 dollars a month, his wife’s chronic health problems forced him to begin selling his future pension checks to creditors at a poor rate in order to get cash advances to pay for her treatments which could not wait for the first of the month. Even this money has not been enough to cover her medical bills, and he was forced to borrow money from local lenders.
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Nhem Sok, a 47 year old mother of 6 whose husband is a violent alcoholic. Nhem Sok approached SSF earlier this year after her husband came home drunk one night and tried to kill her. You can still see the scars on her throat where he wrapped his hands around her neck.
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Nou March, a 50 year old woman who lives in the Kraing Rohong village where SSF recently implemented a well, to provide water for the community. Not only does this allow for improved hygiene and the chance to bathe at home, families with water containers can more easily start home vegetable gardens that allow them to grow some of their own food and teach them important agricultural skills that they can use in the future.
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The Saem Aart family has a particularly heart-breaking story. She moved from Kampong Speu to Phnom Penh with her husband in hopes of finding work selling morning glories, but they were unable to earn enough money to live on. In a last ditch effort, they began to work as fishermen for another family, but were heavily exploited, earning just 30 dollars for more than six months of work.
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The case of Kim Mai’s family illustrates that both men and women are subjected to human trafficking. Her husband went to Thailand along with thirty other men from the same village in order to work illegally as fishermen along the coast. During a fishing outing, a storm struck suddenly, and her husband drowned after his boat capsized leaving his wife alone to provide for the family’s four children.
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The case of the Huy Sophon family illustrates that even when families do posses marketable skills, the difficulties of life in Cambodia for those who live in extreme poverty often prevent them from being able to raise their standards of living. After the husband became disabled through combat, he was forced to fall back on his catering skills to try support his family, as there is currently no pension program for soldiers who are injured during service.
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Every year, far more Cambodian students graduate from high school than are able to enroll in university studies. Those who do come primarily from rich families who can afford to support their children during their studies and pay approximately 1,500 dollars per year in tuition fees and school materials.
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