Youth of Banteay Meanchey
Youth of Banteay Meanchey Province is a Cambodian non-profit organization with a focus on education and information that is important for youth. Youth of Banteay Meanchey has completed several project to build wells for villages and also helps provides education for students that have no money and help the sick who are in poor families. They raise money through local events.
Partner Projects
Sreng Meanchey, Sala Krouv, Pailin Province
Thourn Tip is 32 and lives with her husband and children in Sreng Meanchey village. They have permission to use a private water reservoir that was installed by a Cassava farmer but the water is dirty and contains chemical run off from the plantation. The village use it because rains are unreliable and they have no choice. Water can be trucked in to the village but the roads are bad and sometimes impassable so it is very expensive. Enough water for two days for Tip's family would cost half of her income for the same period.
Children in the village regularly get sick with diarrhea due to using unclean water and malaria from the tiger mosquitos which are common in the area. The entire village was full of joy to hear that we were investigating the possibility of a well project for their village. When the dry season comes they are suffering so much being unable to collect rainwater for drinking.
Anlongsa, Banteay Meanchey
"Our village has faced a lack of water in the dry season and it is almost dry again. Even now we are suffering. We currently get water from a small pond and more than ten families are accessing it everyday. Other families fetch water from the river. Unfortunately, the river is now dry and the water is shallow and it is not clean", Hoau Hert said. "We would like to ask for 2 pump wells in order to have enough water for the 310 families in Anlongsa village."
Hoau Hert is 54 years old. She lives in Anlongsa village and has 2 sons and 2 daughters. Hoau supports her family by growing rice 6 months a year and selling fruit and vegetables surrounding her land, such as papaya, bananas, and sweetsop. She said, "Last year her family had very big issues with no water because the small pond and river they use to get water dried up. She is now worried of the water drying up again since it is being evaporated and used everyday."
Hoau earns $5 per day (20000 Riel). She buys food for $2.50 and the other $2.50 she uses to buy water. But sometimes she couldn't support her family to buy water so she and her daughter have to walk 5 kilometres to the river to carry water home. She added, "it was very difficult to fetch water from the river because it is hard to access“. Besides that the water is dirty and isn’t good for drinking just for washing and cooking. Hoau and the villagers are very happy to know that this project will provide water directly to the village and help many poor families in Anlongsa to access clean water from the well and no longer need to walk many kilometres from their homes.
"If our village has 2 pump wells through this project we are so blessed, our lives will be easier than before and villagers won’t get sick everyday because of diarrhoea, typhoid, and other diseases from using unclean water”, Hoau said. The villagers would like to say thank you very much to the generous donors who have helped us here in Cambodia.
Thnout Village, Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia
The village of Thnout in Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia does not have enough clean water and needs two pump wells to supply water for the 380 families that live in the village.
“We are now using rain water for cooking and drinking. We use water from a nearby water source for washing because it it not clean enough to drink and cook. When the dry season comes we are facing a very bad water shortage”, the chief of Thnout Village said. The privately owned water source used by the villagers is small and runs out of water when it is dry. The villagers make a living by growing rice and fruit and vegetables such as Papaya and Sweetsop. Those that can afford it spend much of the money they earn to buy clean water. “If we have two pump wells our village will be safe for the next dry season”, he said.
Bour Kek lives in the village and is 46 years old. She has 3 children. One of her sons and her daughter are now living in an orphanage in Poi Pet city because she cannot afford to care for them or send them to school. She lives with her eldest son who is 19 years old and her husband and they grow rice to make a living. Bour Kek has a bicycle and she uses it as her transportation to bring papaya and Sweetsop to sell in the village and Sisophon city. Some days she earns 5 dollars but sometimes nothing. She said, "this month every house has Papaya and Sweetsop as well so not many buy hers". She spends $2.50 (10,000R) of this income to buy water for cooking and washing. Bour kek is happy that they have rain this month but she is worried for the next dry season. She said, "I will be facing a water shortage again for the next dry season if we don't have wells in our village we can use”.
When they don't have money to buy clean water Bour Kek and her son ride their bicycle to their closest water source near the national highway about 15 kilometres away. She and her son sometimes don’t arrive home until 9 or 10 pm at night because it takes so long to travel to get water. Bour Kek is delighted if her village can have a well and her neighbours who are in the same situation as her can have a clean water too. She hopes to have clean water safe from diseases. The important thing is that they will have clean water and she is grateful for this project that will save many lives in her village.
For US$1460, two pump wells can be built that will provide a secure source of clean and safe water for all the families in the village.
Senk Thbong, Banteay Meanchey
The village of Senk Thbong has 308 families that are currently suffering from a water shortage. They are afraid of running out of water because the canal they are using cannot supply the whole village.
Chea Savorn is 60 years old and lives in the village with her daughter and husband who is 63 years old. Chea and her husband earn a few dollars a day planting rice and harvesting bamboo. Chea said, "a few months ago my family faced very big trouble with a shortage of water in my village". They had no water for 2 days because the canal had run out of water and become shallow and dirty.
Her family currently walks 1.5km every day to collect water from the canal. "However", she said, "We will run out of water if there is no more rain in the next 1 or 2 months". The water is dirty and smells bad and she worries about getting illness and diarrhoea.
Chea said, "I am very happy if my village can have a well, many poor families like mine can have access to clean water". She hopes that when her village has wells she will not be sad and have trouble getting water anymore. She also hopes that the other families wont have to worry about getting illness, diarrohea and water shortages. She's also excited she can grow vegetables for food. She would like to say that she is very grateful to the donors and Well Directed for helping her village have a chance to receive clean drinking water from pump wells.
For US $1,500 we can build two pump wells to provide clean water for the 308 families for Senk Thbong Village.