Bun Ven, who is 44, lives with his wife, Heng Samoeut, who is 39, and their daughter in Tuek Kraham village in northern Cambodia. These days Ven earns a good living by rice farming and raising chickens with his family, and by helping other poor farmers work hard to improve their lives. However, when he […]

Bun Ratha, 28, lives with her husband, Horm Chanthorn, 25, and their 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter in Rung Chrey village in western Cambodia. They are farmers living on her mother’s land and raising ducks for a living. But their income is quite low and they have high interest loan payments due from buying the […]

Touch Oeun, 41, lives with his wife Kun Pich, 37, in Rung Chrey village in western Cambodia. Before getting to know CWS partner, Rural Development Association, Touch and his wife sowed and harvested vegetable twice a year. They were better off than some neighbors because of their garden; still, they often they did not have […]

In 2014, as part of CWS work to help poor rural families in Cambodia improve their lives and livelihoods, Nen Aem received a rooster and four hens from CWS, which she kept healthy and productive. The next year she received vegetable seeds too, and with her hard work, ingenuity and perseverance – and thanks to […]

When CWS partner, Rural Development Association (RDA), staff started working in Chroy Sdao commune in western Cambodia two years ago, the health center was in great disrepair. The most alarming indicator of the clinic’s poor situation was the lack of a functioning toilet – at a health clinic! Still the health center staff was meant […]

* In January, with 16 years’ experience as a program staff leader, Sophal Mao was named Country Representative, becoming the first Cambodian to hold the position. * With Week of Compassion funding from the Teach WASH project, 336 new sanitary latrines were built, marking a 42% increase in latrines among the 799 households in the […]

Pann Srey Touch, 23, lives with her husband, Doeun Tith, 25, and their two-year-old daughter in Teuk Kraham village in northern Cambodia. They are farmers with a small land plot where they grow rice, cassava, eggplant, citronella and basil. They sell the cassava locally for about $450 per season, and the other crops they keep […]

CWS household partner, Veth Sokhean, is one of a surprisingly high 65% of women who run Cambodian businesses – many small and informal. She lives in Choam Ksant village in northern Cambodian with her husband Lum Loep, 33, and their three sons ages 13, 9 and 4. Loep is a wage laborer with low income […]

In early 2017 the CWS team in Cambodia wrote about a girl named Chrang and her mother, Hong Khoeun who, with CWS support started a grocery shop back in 2012 when CWS was working with poor families in Kam Prak village in northern Cambodia to support them in reaching their social and economic goals as […]

Charn Sour, 42, knows firsthand how socially isolating poverty can be. Sour and her husband, Chey Cham, 53, live in Ang Tboung village in western Cambodia. They have six children; her youngest sons attend primary school while her older sons work in two hours away from home. Sour’s two daughters are married with families of […]

In 2010-2011, the Disciples of Christ Week of Compassion funded Lending a Helping Hand – an initiative in Battambang, northwest Cambodia that was led by a Cambodian NGO, the Association for Development for Our Villagers’ Rights. There were many and varied accomplishments from the project, which supported basic health services, hand pump wells, community leader […]

Eighty percent-plus of Cambodians live in rural areas, and more than 40% of these people have no access to improved water sources https://www.wssinfo.org. Poor sanitation is endemic with 50% of people defecating in the open (Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey, 2014). These circumstances, plus poor household hygiene leads to many preventable diseases and to a […]

In northern Cambodian, where CWS team members support our Promoting Better Lives project, a group of women have been meeting monthly for several years now to review and discuss their shared savings through Robonh Samaki, or Robonh (village) Solidarity, which is one of 49 similar groups that CWS supports. And, when families in the village […]

Ngin Chanrith, who is 50, lives with her husband Bun Heang in Anglong Thma village in central Cambodia near their two sons and two daughters, who have families of their own. Heang is the village Chief while Chanrith drives a motorcycle taxi to earn about $5 a day to supplement their income. To help her […]

More than five years after CWS transitioned from active engagement win Ti Pou commune in central Cambodia, Chhay You, who is now 59 and the Commune Chief, is proud to continue helping his neighbors and friends as the work each day to secure better lives for themselves and their children. You was Commune Chief when, […]

Mrs. Chab Heang, who is 61, lives in Ballangk Kroam village central Cambodia with her son Kriya, who is 30. Heang and her husband, who was the family’s main income earner, divorced some years ago so now Heang and her son work as wage laborers planting, and then harvesting, corn and potatoes on their neighbor’s […]

Hong Khoeun, age 55, and her husband Sim Kheang, age 60, live in Kam Prak village in northern Cambodia. They have a daughter Chrang in Grade 7 at a secondary school in a village that is about 20 kilometers from them, where she lives in a dormitory during the school week. In 2012, CWS began […]

CWS first met Chantha in January 2017 when he became a Community WASH Focal Persons for his village, Rung Chrey, in northwest Cambodia. Through CWS partner, Rural Development Association, Chantha joined with CWS Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Training Resource Center trainers to learn the basics about WASH promotion, including working to develop the skills […]

As CWS prepares to end its engagement in Cambodia next year, I joined with my colleagues in Kampong Thom province to celebrate 24 years of partnering with families, communities and local government, as they work with us to improve their food security, health, education and access to clean water. CWS started working in 34 villages […]

Choeun Seam and his wife Ra Aei are both thirty something, and their sons are 3- and 8-years old. Now the family lives in Rung village in central Cambodia but, before, when Choeun worked as a daily wage laborer they moved around to different communities to find work to earn a subsistence living. In addition […]