World Vision works

After a night at the Takeo Hilton (aka the 5 star guesthouse!) complete with shower over toilet and transparent towels we woke to the highlight of the challenge - the World Vision project visit. For the 11 participants on the challenge who did not have sponsor children to visit, this would be their experience with a World Vision project on the trip. I began the day with a briefing of the work of World Vision and an overview of the history of the Koh Andaet community. All 21 of us then piled into vans, including a World Vision ute and took off to buy rice for the community. Three of the participants were visiting sponsor children and so they were sure to buy a 50kg bag for each family.

Clinging onto the side of the ute while riding on bags of rice in the World Vision ute I couldn't help but wonder if the precariously positioned Richard, who sat on the roof of the ute would in fact be okay - and well if he did fall, would I lose my job? ;).

We drove the 45 mins to the World Vision community, past stunningly green rice fields into the dusty roads of Koh Andaet. As a group of 21 anticipation laden people in matching bright red Challenge shirts we looked like quite the sight. We were greeted by the sweetest, most accomodating and most grateful ADP leaders. We had no idea what the visit would entail however we felt so humbled to be welcomed by such love by such kind hearted people. We were ushered into a modest office building and given a presentation on the Koh Andaet community. What was remarkable to me was how passionately the World Vision staff shared of the work that was being done and would be done in the years to come (with a special focus on water and sanitation). They clearly have a deeply rooted love for the community in which they work.

The Koh Andaet community is relatively young in terms of the length of time that World Vision has worked there - sponsorship began here in Sept 2006 so the needs are great. We were to witness communities at their greatest point of need. We were reminded by the staff that this community represented the poorest of the poor. We were to see this for ourselves later in the afternoon.

Following the talk the three participants with sponsor children readied themselves for their visits. Unfortunately due to a miscommunication between our NZ office and Cambodia one of the children had not arrived and a child of a previously cancelled participant was present. The WV staff snapped into action jumping on their mopeds in search of the missing little girl and my fellow participants immediately surrounded the little boy and showered him with random gifts found in our day packs. He had a huge grin and was none the wiser. Just under an hour later the most adorable little girl walked in, clinging to her mother's legs. Pam's sponsor child had arrived. Shyness soon gave way to a rather fiesty nature which was fun to watch.

Our crew of 40 made our way to a local restaurant where we watched in delight as the sponsor children and their families tucked into the food with healthy ambition. I couldn't help but be envious of the sponsors as they experienced a connection with this World Vision community that I did not have. You could see that the sponsors were relishing this experience and the children were simply in awe of the chance to meet this mysterious person on the other end of the letters. For the participants on the second challenge, I imagine that this experience multiplied 18 times will be enormously powerful. It made me excited at the thought of my own sponsor visit in a few months.

I will let Pam share with you from her perspective however before I do I will share just a couple of things that stood out to me the most today.

Following lunch we were divided into two groups, both groups to visit communities in desperate need of water and sanitation intervention. It is difficult to explain how confronting the poverty of these communities was for us. The poverty was unapologtically frank in its introduction. Heart-breakingly so. We were essentially exposed to a community at the beginning of the World Vision life cycle. World Vision had finished its assessment of the need and was now at the beginning of the implementation phase. We were given the opportunity to deliver the excess rice we had earlier purchased to some of the most impoverished families I had ever encountered. One family consisted on three small children living with a rather frail grandparent in a hut so small that there is literally not enough room for all four family members to stand in there at once. This family survives on snails found by the children and the occasional portion of rice. Snails and a small portion of rice. SNAILS and a SMALL PORTION OF RICE! That is unbelieveable. I looked at her precious grandsons in amazement. I held back my stream of tears as I recognised the small lanyards around their necks proudly proclaiming that they were now sponsor children. It was the realisation that life would soon be different for them that was of any relief to me as I walked with the other stunned participants to the next home.

I asked Chanthida, the ADP manager as we walked down the road, 'Do you often dream about what this village will look like in 10 years?'. She replied with a smile, Ýes of course, it is the catalyst for the work we do. It is what causes us to work so hard.'I loved to hear this. It was wonderful to hear that these precious people were in such dedicated hands.

When the community leaders of the village we visited were given the chance to talk to us, they stood in front of their huts and unveiled a large hand drawn plan of their hopes for their village. On this plan they had included an illustration of the 'dream home for the villagers'. This was pivotal moment for us as visitors as we were presented with such a humble dream: a home on stilts, chickens, a small rice paddy and clean water. We looked around as this leader spoke and could see that the village was far from this dream and yet after seeing examples of World Vision's success in such communities we had no doubt that through partnering with World Vision these proud and enthusiastic communities leaders would see that dream become a reality.

The community leaders then took the time to thank as - over and over - for our support of their community and of Cambodia. It was a special moment. We were then led to the current common water source - a common pond used by both animals and humans, riddled with bacteria and extremely high in carbon. There is no wonder the children get as sick as they do. The need for this proposed water and sanitation project could not have been made clearer to us.

I simply cannot continue on without asking anyone reading to consider donating to this project via any one of the participant fundraising pages at fundraiseonline. Any money donated will go straight to World Vision and be applied to the water and sanitation project of Koh Andaet. I assure you, this is a worthy cause. Visit: www.fundraiseonline.org.nz

Today the participants all saw enormous need, this is in contrast to what many of the participants of the second challenge will see as most will be visiting communities much further along the development process. The advantage here is that the next participants will see the completed version of what their fundraising dollars translate into.

Following the visit we all road back to the town of Takeo both stunned and hopeful for what what we had seen.

Later that night we all chatted and chatted and chatted about the work of World Vision. Enthusiastic participants who had visited sponsor children spoke with passion about the development progress they had seen the day previous (in the community of Samrong Tong - a community that is in the final phase of sponsorship). Talk then moved onto fair trade and ethical consumer behaviour. Many commented how meaningful the discussions had been for them. This was enormously pleasing for me as the World Vision rep, as our hope is to have people discuss, debate and share issues of global poverty and personal responsibility. What a great day.

Pam Scott shares her experience...

With ten 50kg bags of rice piled high on the back of the World Vision Ute and some proud kiwis sitting on top we headed out for what was to be the highlight of the trip for many of us. Having all worked so hard over the last months raising funds, we were all so eager to experience first hand the amazing work of World Vision here in Cambodia.

Warming up our voices and practicing our national anthem, we made our way out to the World Vision office in the vans where the staff were all waiting with huge grins and a massive welcome.

The Koh Andaet Area Development Programme is comprised of a community of 26 villages, including over 3000 households and around 17,000 people. The staff outlined their plans and goals for the programme and their 5 ‘step’ plan for development. It was pretty impressive – including Community Mobilization, Sponsorship Management, Water and Sanitation (where we play our part), Food Security and finally HIV/AIDs Management. There seemed to be a real sense of empowerment for the local people who have been involved in the development of the programme since it was established only two years ago.

It was then time for the sponsors to meet their children. There were three of us today with children from the region, and what an awesome experience it was to meet them and their families! My little girl, Kamsan, is only four and so found all of us to be a little overwhelming at the start, but she soon warmed up as I handed her the doll I had bought over for her. What a joy to see her face light up and to see her cuddle and care for that doll the whole time we had together. We had some time with the families and then all headed out to lunch together. Jeepers, I have never seen a little girl eat so much! She was so cute, but really got into the rice – stuffing her cheeks till they were bursting.

Back at the office we handed out the sacks of rice we had bought for each of the sponsored families. A family of 6 will get through about 2kg of rice per day and so the sack would last them nearly a month. The thank-you’s and blessings that Kamsan’s mother proceeded to give me were pretty overwhelming; such basic things can mean so much! Saying goodbye was so hard especially as they are asking when will we be back…

We then headed off on some of the worst roads I have ever seen (yes, we had to get out and walk in parts, and there was even a group effort to push the van over some of the bigger bumps) to a couple of the villages in the area: Doem Doung and Chroy Pone.

Our group went to Doem Doung – the poorest village in the region. With four sacks of rice in tow we met some of the local families and saw first hand the initial stages of the Water and Sanitation project. There are now 16 bio-sand filters in the village helping to provide safe drinking water for a number of families. We also saw the ‘common pond’ providing the major water supply to the village. Their aim in the next year is to have a new common pond that is deeper so it doesn’t dry-up in the dry season and that is fenced to prevent animal contamination and children drowning. We gave the sacks of rice to the “most poor” - it was pretty full-on to experience the desperate need of some of the families in this village; for example, one family who had just lost both parents to HIV/AIDs!

Although there is such poverty, the people really smile! They really seem to have hope, and you can see in their short history since the Khmer Rouge regime the people have really started to embrace life again and are fighting for a better future – Cambodia is certainly on the way up!

The lovely Princess Fiona shares her experience of the World Vision community visit:

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink…

Today was the day we’d all been looking forward to, visiting Koh Andaet. It was the chance for us to see first hand the very real need and where our fundraising dollars were going to be spent.

Our group went off to visit Chroy Prone Village. As Pam mentions, we also had many occasions where we needed to get out of the van and walk as the roads were pretty well poked. Interestingly here, we are only 8km from Vietnam. We are surrounded by stunning countryside, lush fields of rice, a few scattered palm trees and sugar palms.

When we arrived, we were shown to an area which had been set aside for our meeting. (all outdoors ofcourse) We were individually greeted by the Village Community Leader, a man with incredibly gorgeous eye lashes, anyway. He was so pleased to have us here. We were also greeted by the lady in the village responsible for Gender issues. When I enquired further, her role was largely around educating the women in the village on hygiene and women’s health. I was impressed. Both these two were smartly dressed.

We were given chairs to sit on and the villagers were sitting on mats on the ground, with the Elders at the front. There was really only 3 of them. (I guess another sign of Pol Pot) The rest villagers stood around and smiled incessantly.

The Village leader then rolls out his plan, a beautifully hand drawn vision for the village. EACH house in the village was on this map / plan. They were all colour coded to differentiate the different types of houses. The village of the future includes each family having adequate housing, a small plot to grow vegetables, a couple of cows, some pigs and a rain water tank to collect water. For the entire village more common ponds so that the villagers don’t have to walk so far to collect water. Fencing around the common ponds, in order to keep out the animals and prevent kids from drowning. The next major step after the common ponds is sorting out the roading, we can vouch for that. This affects the ability of the kids to get to school during the wet season, as roads are currently often impassable. When I spoke with Ly, the World Vision Food Security Manager, and asked how exactly this would be done, in their ever practical style, he replied they would set up a “work for food programme”. They’d offer work to all of the villagers and surrounding villagers to provide the labour to build the roads and pay them in food. (Again incredibly humbling). Sanitation was also a priority, in terms of rubbish and keeping the village clean.

We liked that plan and were impressed with how well thought out it was and gut renchingly practical. I think the fact that this plan was illustrated, meant that the whole village is able to buy into this and understand where the community is going. There is a real feeling of hope here. Those of you who have contributed to our fundraising are a huge part of this. Know that these people are incredibly thankful and excited for their futures!! Thanks again. It was very humbling to meet these people and incredibly exciting to know exactly what the money is being spent on and who’s going to benefit.

Then we toured the common ponds, first we came across a couple of old ponds which were really dirty and not really used. They’d been built some time ago with support from other aid agencies, unfortunately they are not protected by high enough sand banks and the flood waters from the river get in. A little further on, is the new pond, which is 4 meters deep and built up with nice high banks. This is the pond that is going to be fenced and in the first quarter of 2009 thanks to you all!!

Pam and Claire mentioned the rice that the group had brought, in addition to a sack each going to the sponsored children, there were a few sacks to be distributed. In Chroy Pone, the World Vision staff knew exactly who needed this. “The woman in blue”. This lady had tragically lost her husband 18months ago, and then a few months ago, her 15 year old daughter died suddenly. Cause of death unknown, possible health condition that was unknown. She was left to raise 6 other children on her own. In order to do this, she has to work. We were able to give two 50kg sacks of rice to her. She had tears in her eyes, she was so thankful. We all had tears in our eyes, (in fact I still do now as I write this). We wanted to lighten the mood somewhat and decided we could also sing to her, so we burst into the National Anthem again, getting quite good at this. Plenty of other villagers came around to hear us. It was a really beautiful experience.

Today World Vision impressed me immensely, their staff knew exactly what and who is in need. They think incredibly practically and always seem to work for the collective benefit of all. I am proud to be able to support this work.


P.S. Photos to come :)