obcr

How much can a small amount of money change a person’s life? Many of us may think that it would not make a significant difference but in a place like Cambodia, it changes lives. Lets look at some real stories gathered from the FEBI members who have taken out loans via the group’s micro financing fund.

Seng Soben, Aspiring Hairdresser aged 24

Soben cutting a customer’s hair

Soben is known for his hairdressing skills in the Samrongtong District. He usually cut people’s hair just about anywhere- on the streets or in people’s homes with the only simple scissors he own. When he knew about the FEBI micro financing scheme, he began to be a member and after being qualified to take up a loan in 2009, he took out a about US$600 to open his own hair saloon. Today, he earns about US$150 a month from his business which enables him to repay his loan and contribute to the savings scheme in FEBI. After repaying his full loan in mid 2010, he took out another US$1000 to help his fellow villagers realise their dreams of owning their own businesses.

Kou Rithy, Farmer aged 37 with 4 children

Kou Rithy at his chicken farm

Prior to becoming a member of FEBI, Rithy had difficulties rearing chickens as a side income aside from rice harvesting which was not enough to raise four children and a wife. His troubles included the chickens dying due to unknown reasons or losing the chickens at night due to holes around the cage. He took out his first loan at US$250 to patch and expand his chicken coop and build a more hospitable environment for the chickens to thrive. Over the next 8 months after repaying his loan, he took up another loan at US$300 to buy food and other necessities for the chickens which we was able to repay in full in December 2011. A serial entrepreneur that he is, he took up another loan at US$1000 to grow potatoes at Banteay MenChey Province.  He now generates a stable income and has been able to provide a more comfortable life for his family.

San Sarith, Executive Director and Master of Electronics, aged 35 with 3 children

Master Engineer at Work

This is indeed another interesting case of a FEBI member or founder – Sarith, an Executive Director who runs his own electronics repair shop in Lorthyoung Village, Sombo Commune, Samrongtong District who despite having a somewhat successful business had trouble making ends meet. Through his own personal reflection, he then found a way to resolve his predicament when he thought about creating the micro financing scheme together with his fellow friends to help himself and others come out misery.  Soon after qualifying for a loan he took out US$850 to strengthen his business offering by buying equipments for repair and other capital needs.

Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

For more information about FEBI’s members, click here: http://obcr.org/febi/

Rany...and Vichka

Rany comes to class everyday looking worn out, untidy and unshowered..so does her friends like Reaksmey, Sakhena, Samsochanda and almost all of  the other children in ETPC. Why so? The water in their homes do not come from piped sources hence, bathing daily is an impractical fete.

At such as young age, Rany has been forced to understand that water is a great scarcity and the uses are specific for other more important functions such as drinking, cooking, and [the occasssional need for] washing clothes. The deprivation is accredited to the scarcity of available clean water which are commonly obtained from lakes, ponds, pools of still water or streams, canals and rivers. In the dry season, water becomes alot more of a challenge to obtain. One issue worth noting is that Rany has to share her water with the livestock around the village as the water is from a public source, therefore are polluted with waste.

Rany is also tasked to collect water everyday-and storing them into huge jars, pots and containers inside her washroom (if she has one), kitchen, outside and et cetera. It is quite a tedious task and takes an average of four trips on foot..

Sickness from contaminated water are a rite of passage for children Rany’s age.

Countless other children suffer needlessly from this predicament. 

According to Unicef, more than 4,000 children die from water-related diseases everyday.

Ever wonder what you would do without electricity?

I love electricity..everybody does…well, maybe not the Cambodians! They seem immune to not having it around because electricity is expensive. Electricity costs as high as 18 cents (USD) per kilowatt-hour in Cambodia compared to 5.4 cents (USD) per kilowatt in neighboring Vietnam.  Why so? The country is almost totally reliant on fuel imports due to lack of natural resource that generates electricity. About 95% of the power generation comes from diesel power plant and only 15% of the country’s 14 million people are connected to the power grid.

So in comes Mr blackout- a regular visitor to Cambodia that everyone has to tolerate with..he pops in whenever his girlfriend- Miss Electricity has PMS or decides to take a break. Who can blame him? Reality is the country’s demand for electricity outstrips supply owing to vigorous economic activities in the manufacturing, agriculture, textile and service sectors.

There have been extensive efforts over the past five years by both the government and private sector to resolve this urgent issue…however powering Cambodia would take time.

Imagine not being able to power the laptop, charge the mobile phone or watch TV?

p.s im now in my third blackout (yes as i am writing now) in just less than two weeks of being here in Cambodia.

Garment factories are plentiful in Cambodia..they are seen to be the way out of the fields for the teenagers and adults in the rural areas. Teenagers as young as 13 quit school to join the [illegal] workforce working as long as 10 to 12 hours a day to earn $50USD a month.

While OBCR tries to stop this from happening, parents of the children insist that this practice helps lift some burden off the family. Many teenagers also succumb to peer pressure {seeing their employed friends afford some luxury} and the obsession of being able to earn a living without the need for going under the sun.

This practice is expected to continue at least for the next 10 years.

Some facts:

• The garment industry is the largest industrial employer in Cambodia
• The factories are mainly owned by Chinese and Korean companies
• Over 70% of the garments made in Cambodia gets exported to USA
• The industry employs an estimated 350,000 Cambodian teenagers and adults
• There are more than 300 [registered/ accounted for] garment factories in Cambodia
• In the first half of 2011, garment export earnings was at US$ 1.86 billion

About 70% of the population in Cambodia depend on agriculture for a living with rice being the main produce.  This is the livelihood that they know as the know-how has been passed through generation(s) and it becomes natural to keep this legacy alive in the family. Challenging the status quo just seems implausible for them except for a few.

Traditional tools and method are used in planting the rice- only a select few can afford the machinery. Both men and women share the burden of planting, harvesting and many still depend on cows to help them in the field. The lack of lack of manpower for reasons like children going to school, daughters working at the factory, sons leaving home after marriage and et cetera make this an overwhelming process althogether- but yet necessary to keep food on the table.

There were occasions when i find my students (and even the teacher) missing class because they needed to help their parents in the field.

Below is a worrying scenario that would pose as a threat to their livelihood:

The paddy fields of impoverished Cambodia have suddenly become a prime slice of global real estate. But will the rural poor pay the price? This tiny Asian nation has just begun to recover after dictator Pol Pot’s reign of terror, in which around 2 million Cambodians died, and the brutal civil war that followed. But now a very different story is unfolding in the agricultural heartland which once became notorious as the “killing fields.” In a world plagued by food shortages, Cambodia is suddenly awash with global investors keen to snap up its cheap fertile land. The global financial elite see it as a recession-proof investment, and the government is desperate to invite in money and development. But it’s driving a surreal land boom in the poorest villages: an estimated 15% of the country is now leased to private developers and stories are filtering in from the country’s most impoverished farmers who tell of fear, violence and intimidation as private companies team up with armed police to force them from their land. In this week’s Crossing Continents, Mukul Devichand samples the heady atmosphere of Cambodia’s business elite, uncovers a lawless reality and investigates the claims of corruption and violence visited on the poor. He tells the stories of three very different men, Cambodian and foreign, who have very different plans for Cambodia’s land: and asks what’s really happening as one of rising Asia’s poorest nations struggles to catch up.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x9yd3/Crossing_Continents_Cambodia_Country_for_Sale/

A luxury for many of us mean vacationing to the Caribbean, owning a home, an iPhone {then the iPad and what not}, BMW and many other et ceteras. Owing to our constant desire for happyness and fulfillment, these luxuries we want to afford naturally become a goal in our lives.

For the less fortunate however, life has a different connotation. None of those luxuries are ever attainable. In fact, hardly ever thought about because happyness bears a humble definition. One in which there is no worry about whether there would be enough food to put on the table – the rest are luxury. It’s a constant struggle.

Such.. the dismal reality of the destitute.

Dear reader,

thank you for arriving at the right destination. In this blog website, you will be able to peek into an NGO named OBCR based in Cambodia that has been in operation since 2005. Having been involved myself (I am not Cambodian), and experiencing firsthand being humbled by poverty, I hope to plant a helping hand and give this NGO a global presence. I aim to share stories about Cambodia- the ones that matter so you can decide whether you want to lend a helping hand to one of the poorest nation in Asia.

Love,the editor.