MM DAILY NEWS

October 11, 2559 BE

CAMBODIA-LONELY PLANET
CAMBODIA

LIFE IN CAMBODIA INTERVIEW BY MM DAILY NEWS

POVERTY- one of the biggest current global issue, is occurs in many rural
areas. A lot of people around the world are facing this situation and having a hard
time to survive.
CAMBODIA- country full of natural resources, become one of the worlds
poorest countries because the decades of war and internal conflict.
In our interview section for this
issue, we decided to take all of you to
a neighboring country called
C a m b o d i a . We h a v e k n o w n
Cambodia as it has the border with
Thailand, and it is also a country
where important world heritage sites
are located such as Angkor Wat.
Although the kingdom is rich in
natural resources and has many
amazing places, decades of war and
conflict have left it one of the world
poorest countries.

Our latest trip to Cambodia was

focusing on poverty in Cambodia. We
observed one of the province called
Battambang, which is one of the
poorest province. We have a chance to
interview one of the family that lives in
poverty area showing their lives and
situation they have been facinh with.
Collecting lotus
in the pond and
selling them to
get some money
for foods.

MM DAILY NEWS

October 11, 2559 BE

CAMBODIA POVERTY STATISTIC

Population

Rural

Near poor

Poor

16000000

According to the
graph, the number of poor
people who live in
Cambodia is almost half
of the country. Also, the
number of people who
live in rural area is more
than half of the
population.

12000000

8000000

4000000

Reducing poverty
further and helping
Family who have just
escaped poverty to
stay out of poverty is
possible-said Ulrich
Zachau, World Bank
Country Director
Manager for Cambodia
and Southeast Asia.

Due to the war and conflict, many millions

of land mines (known as unexploded ordinances or
UXOs) have been left throughout the rural area,
some of them are still hidden and unexploded.
These mines are continue to kill and injure people
and affect eight out of ten people in Cambodia.
Most of the poor people depend on agriculture to
survive but 12% of people have no land to do
agriculture which is one of the causes of a strong
trend of internal migration. Moreover, people are

moving from the more densely populated

provinces to the more sparsely populated
provinces in the north-east due to the rapidly
growth of the population. The productivities
from agriculture are low. Each year, people
face seasonal food shortages. Rural people are
looking for work but the wages are also low.

Cambodians houses and

agriculture areas.

MM DAILY NEWS

October 11, 2559 BE

BATTAMBANG

In a small house in Battambang, we
have a chance to interview a lovely
family we met. This family has 6 people,
including father (Rith) who is the leader
o f t h e f a m i l y, m o t h e r ( B o p h a ) ,
grandfather (Da), grandmother (Kosal),
older daughter (Srey), and younger
daughter (Samnang). We talked to every
single family member.
The father stated about
what they have been
facing with in the first 6
months they have moved
here. As he looked back
to the first month when
they moved here, he had
a hard time planning and
managing his family to
make all of them survive.
There is no other way to
have enough money for
everyone if he didnt
send the older daughter
abroad.

It was the only choice

that they have. Although
the older daughter was
sent abroad, the
remaining members are
still fighting against
h u n g e r. E v e r y b o d y
works to have enough
money for their
payment, without caring
much about their
health. They have to
make decision between
their health and money
to make the incomes
and expenses balance.

Our family is poor

and everyone has to
work hard for
money. I dont want
to be their burden,
so I decided to go
working abroad to
reduce their
expenses in the first
6 months-said
Srey, the older
Rith and Bopha
knew that doing
more work is
equivalent to bigger

amount of money but their health will

become worse. However, they chose money
because they think that working hard today
will resulted a better outcome in the future.
Their lives depend on agriculture.

MM DAILY NEWS

Every members must have

basic needs such as food, water,
sanitary products, and health care
to maintain their health, which
cost a lot of money. Unfortunately,
there is an unavoidable local mafia
who collects bribes from them and
they also have to pay taxes to the
government every month. To have
enough money to pay for the
needs, Rith and Bopha have to
work everyday. Grandfather and
grandmother are infirm due to
their ages, so they work 6 days a
week which doesnt impact on
their health conditions that much.
Rith decided to send his daughter,
Samnang, to school because he
knew how important education is
to humans. Every members in the
family think that her education
worths their money while some
other parents might not think and
choose to save their money
instead.

October 11, 2559 BE

Everything has gone well until

one day, her grandmother accidentally
fell down the stairs, but luckily, she
wasnt badly injured. Nevertheless,
she had to rest for 1 month with no
income but still have the same
amount of expenses. Also, in every
other months later, she couldnt work
as efficiently as before, thats why her
income decreased. Due to
grandmothers accident, the family
didnt have enough money to send
Samnang to school and let her work
instead, to make the familys
economics condition better again.

For me, I have to make

sure that we have
enough money for our
daughters education.
But because of
grandmothers accident,
we didnt have enough
income to send her to
school-said Bopha, the
mother.
4

MM DAILY NEWS

Mortifyingly, the
unexpected nightmare
had came to the family.
They had to face with
the worst disaster they
have never thought of ,
which was drought and
crops failure. It had a
huge impact on their
main occupation and
also the living of all
family members.

October 11, 2559 BE

All of them couldnt

work efficiently for 2
months, which lessen
their incomes. Due to
the disaster, it directly
affected their physical
and mental health, so
their healths became
worse. Because of the
crops failure and
drought, water became
scarce and expensive.

But in the darkest

night, there is hope.
They got help from
the international
organization which
provided loan for
mother to start a small
business. Bopha said
that, this loan really
helped her improving
her job, instead of
farming, she could do

In that month, our

family encountered
the big disaster. We
suffered a lot from its
affect. Luckily, we
got help from NGO,
which helped us a lot
with our incomes-

I felt guilty
because I made my
family worse but
now we have better
health and more
money left in saving
comparing to the
first month-said

said Rith, the father.

Kosal, the grandmother.

weaving, which is her favorite hobby.

Moreover, their family also received
the low level aid from NGO, which
helped decreasing the expenses for
their food supply. Both of them helped
improving the family from suffering
with the bad disaster and made their
life better in every aspects.

MM DAILY NEWS

October 11, 2559 BE

BETTER LIFE
Im so thankful to
my family because
they are working
hard to send me to
school for a good
education. I really
hope that one day, I
will get a good job
and help my
family-said Samnang,
the younger daughter.

Their lives became better a few months later,

Samnang went back to school again. Thanks to the
international organization and NGO, they have more
money left in saving so they are able to eat better
food which leads to better health. Their lives
become much more happier after working hard for
the first 6 months. They already have enough saving
and bring their older daughter back from working
abroad. Rith also send her to school to ensures that
she is safe. As you can see, they choose to work hard
at first and their life become better and better in the
future.

From the statistics, nowadays people who live in

poverty area in Cambodia is decreasing, two out
of 10 Cambodians are poor, compared with five
out of 10 in 2004. We are hoping the poverty in
Cambodia will continue decreasing so Cambodia
will become a better country in the future.

Despite impressive
reduction in poverty,
these hard won gains
are fragile. Many
people who have
escaped poverty are
still at high risk of
falling back into
poverty, -said Neak
Samsen, Poverty Analyst
of the World Bank in
Cambodia and the coauthor of the Poverty

MM DAILY NEWS

October 11, 2559 BE

CAMBODIA-LONELY PLANET

Written by Supapitch Ngamsangapong (Mook)

Pannacha Lertlarpnont (Miu)


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