Clean Water Update from Sokhorn

Read below the update Project Manager Sokhorn wrote last month about progress in Brasat Char village.


I have been trying my best in working for sustainable development in the communities we work with and I am enjoying seeing the big changes happen.I am very happy to continue my working with JWOC to develop the poorest communities around Siem Reap province. In addition, I like working with JWOC team. We have a great team and we have been working in good environment. I am happy to update you about the Clean Water Project in Brasat Char village, which I have been working for more than three months but we have not finished yet.

This photo show clean water team in rainy season. My team and I went to Brasat Char village to do hygiene training for children; we tried to go to the village with the slippery and muddy road around five kilometers from the better road to Brasat Char, some of our team went on foot for a long distance. Even though we have difficulty with the road in this season we are happy and enjoying in working to develop our community.

This photo show poor hygiene with the kids in the village. His nail very dirty and it cause very bad health in the village such as getting diarrhea, dysentery, cholera and other diseases. As the solution we train the kids with basic hygiene training (hand washing and teeth cleaning), we ask them to practice in the real practical from our training.

Brasat Char Village, there are 1607 people and 332 families. If we compare to the previous villages Brasat Char is bigger and most villagers using traditional pit wells than other villages (just big hole to the ground) which make many obstacles for them. In rainy season the water flows from dirty ground into the hole, while in dry season they have to dig further into the ground to get more water. In additional, a few villagers have their own pulley wells, hole wells and pump wells in their families. From our surveys, we can see they have been lacking of hygiene knowledge. This problem can cause number of villagers getting sick in their families.
So far we have already drilled 31 new wells to provide beneficiaries use safe drinking water, and we are going to check more wells location after Pchum Ben festival. Then we are going to provide hygiene training for more children, and then it is the turn of the adults. Additionally we are going to train villagers how to use and care ceramic water filters.


Other news- Jackie the new Education Manager trained our Clean Water team how to be a good presenter for the training sessions. She was helping the team build more confidence, and to know more about the materials used in the training. We asked the team present in turn in front of their team. Once again we asked them for practicing with the louder volume because we can have a huge group to train in the village. In order to make the training successful and useful for the students Jackie and I went to the village to observe them during the training and after that we gave feedback to the team by person.

Finally, I would like to say again thank you so much for helping the Clean Water Project. I look forward to writing to you again next time to tell you more about the project.

Flood Relief Update- Phase Two

Fortunately the flood waters in Siem Reap have now more or less gone. It's amazing to look at villages that just 2 weeks ago had rivers instead of paths and see bare ground again.

The flooding is now replaced with much more manageable puddles, but problems still exsist.

Unfortunately the flood waters going isn't the end of the story. A couple of days ago ( Friday 4th November) the World Food Program appeal for food aid for victims of the flooding. With rice crops destroyed in both Cambodia and surrounding countries the cost of rice, the staple food, is increasing week on week.

Rice, the staple food of Cambodia is rapidly increasing in price.

This increase in price is going to affect the poorest hardest. Even in better years portions of rice in some households were already meager and this jump in prices will make portions smaller still.

You can read the full appeal from the World Food Program here.

As with the initial emergency response, not everyone will be able to benefit from the work of the larger agencies-there's just too many people. Using the funds donated to our appeal JWOC is able to make a commitment to help the communities around us to make sure that they aren't left out.

We will soon be recruiting a new project manager to plan and coordinate all the activities of our recovery work. The new manager will be a local person with experience in community work- someone able to identify and respond to the needs that exist.

Thank you again to everyone who donated to our appeal and made it possible for us to provide immediate and ongoing assistance.

Yukari Kane * Susan Kieswetter * Sheena Cowell * SHARE * Sandra H Snowe * Ronie Reiley * Robert Lynn * Rhonda Conry * Regina Rubeo * Rajiv Bhagat * Patricia Maloy * Pat Requa * Pamela Mueller * Noreen and Kermit Heid * Nancy Miller * Michael Werner * Mary Renton * M C Day * Leonard Novick * Kathy Hornsby * June and Robert Berliner * Janet and Allen Johnson * Jane Price * Harold Streeter * Gillian Scott * Erin Ricigliano * Erin Leider-Pariser * Deborah Forsythe * Daren Hamaker * Collette Foundation * Christpoher Colson * Chris Hurst * Chelsea Drennan McCabe * Chad and Heidi Carson * Carolyn Rose * Cara McGourty * Brian Feeney * Becky Ballard * Annie Andrighetto * Allison Turner * Alex Nebesar *