The district of Kompong Tralach, 65km north of the capital Phnom Penh, is prone to both droughts and floods. Before the programme began, poor access to education and health services made life hard for the farming communities here.
World Vision began working with the people here in 1991, focusing on health improvements. When Child Sponsorship began in 1995 the scope of the programme broadened. We are still supporting the district hospital and local health workers and we are installing water pumps, and training the people to maintain them to ensure they have access to clean water into the future. But we are now also supporting schools and teachers, repairing roads and helping individual farmers provide for their families’ needs. Farmers are given training in improved methods to help increase their yields and small loans of seeds or livestock are available to encourage enterprise in the community.
The local people have set up Village Development Committees through which everyone has a say in the aims and activities of the programme. They expect to achieve all their goals by 2010.
*****February 2010 update *******
The Project in the Villages of Kompong Tralach has now been completed and World Vision is now just monitoring how the people are continuing to be self sufficient.
News of a new project in other villages in Cambodia will be available soon. So watch this space.