Stikkord
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Commune chief Mr. Thong
Mr. Heang arranged for me to meet the commune chief of Srange Commune about 10 km outside Siem Reap. Driving past luxury hotels out of town and just a few kilometres off the main road there is a whole different world. Srange Commune consists of 7 villages with a total of 1130 families, 6500 people in total.
Location for the 1st water pump outside the commune house.
Out of these families the commune chief, Mr. Thong, had a list of 224 families that are classified as extremly poor and need all the help they can get. We made arrangments for delivering basic food, rice, noodle and fish sauce the next day. We also agreed that the location of the 1st water pump will be at the commune house (rådhuset…). Imagine that your commune house doesn’t even have water? In a week or so they can have water when they have meetings and social events!!
I was invited to lunch at Mr. Thongs house. It was by far the biggest house in the village. Mr. Heang told me he was rich before he became commune chief and the positiv thing about this is that he doesn’t have the incentives to be corrupt and exploit the villagers. Mr. Thongs is a really good man, and made me feel certain that this is a good commune to support.
Chan Loang primary school for 1st graders, 6 years old.
After lunch we went to the village Chang Louang and visited the primary school there. They doesn’t have a water pump either, but they can share with the monastary close by. They are more desperate to get a new roof. We will talk to a construct company and find out how much it will cost. I can’t promise them anything yet, but I hope I will get enough donations to have it fixed.
The state of the rest of the school needs no further explanation, just look at the picture. This school have 170 students and 4 teachers including the head master and his assistant. Had a meeting with one of the teachers to find out what they needed, but coming to the school I quickly realised they need everything! None of the students have school uniforms either, and thats important in Cambodia for self esteem and proudness of going to school. Please keep the donations coming in – this will help enormously!! 1 school uniform costs about 4 dollars (25 kr)… Can we give every student a uniform??
Local kid enjoying a shower at a water pump
The rest of the day was spent scouting for locations for water pumps, and we are starting with 5 pumps – thanks to you!! Found 4 good locations and going to find another one tomorrow.
Children at Srange Village. Looking forward to get a water pump
Miss Siep Sokhom with the certificate saying that her family is one of the poorest
In the beginning of this post Mr. Thong mentioned 224 families in desperate need for help and tomorrow we will be giving out basic food, rice, noodle and a bottle of fish sauce. Getting back into town Mr. Heang went to the market to bargain for a good price. I can’t go with, because then the price will be higher. When they agreed on the price I could come to pay. So we bought over 1 ton of rice, 2250 packages of noodle and 224 bottles of fish sauce!! Brought it to the commune house in the evening and tomorrow morning we will go back to hand it out. Devided it will be 5 kg of rice, 10 packs of noodle and 1 bottle of fish sauce for each family. Then at least the parents don’t have to worry how to feed their children for the next week. 1 family is an average of 5 persons, so tomorrow we will feed over a thousand people for a week.
This is what 1 ton of rice, 2250 packs of noodle and 224 bottles of fish sauce looks like!
More pictures HERE – take a look. If you like them, please donate.
Lost in Travelling 