Oeun E is the Village Health Volunteer of Sophy village in western Cambodia. E lives with his wife and their four children, ages 16 to 19, two of whom are in secondary school. Unfortunately, the other two dropped out of school and help the family earn money with farm work. Besides being committed to helping […]

Nhep* and her husband Oeun* lead one of seven landless families in their village in western Cambodia – and being landless is only one of the challenges they face. Nhep and Oeun have five children ranging from three to 20 years old. One of their biggest challenges is the fact that Nhep, Oeun and their […]

Noun Rany, who is 29 years old, lives in Tumpung Cheung village in western Cambodia with her rice farmer husband, Hing Ryna, who is 33 and their two daughters, who are 9 and 2. Rany joined CWS-supported development activities in late 2016 to help her family improves its situation, and now she is very active […]

Phan Oeun is now 46 and has been a CWS partner for more than a decade from her home in northern Cambodia, where she lives with her husband, You Ron, 52, and their two grown children who were middle school age when the family first met CWS. Now Ron is a Village Livestock Agent and […]

Loy Koemsat is 42 and lives with his wife, Yong Chem, who is 40, and their two daughters in northwest Cambodia. Not too long ago Koemsat earned about 20,000 Riel ($5) a day for his labor when he could find work during planting and harvesting seasons and from collecting and selling crickets and grasshoppers in […]

Imagine I have a bottle of water. There’s a plastic seal on the cap. I unwrap the plastic seal, twist off the cap and take a sip. You wouldn’t see anything wrong with that, the bottle of water is clean. Now, imagine I take a piece of hair and place it in a piece of […]

Proeung Touch is 61 years old and he lives with his much younger wife, Vann Chhorvy, who is only 45 years old, but unable to work outside their home because of a long-term illness, which costs the family a great deal of money for treatment besides. They have four children, ages eight to 21, and […]

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 […]