C.H.O.I.C.E

I arrived in Phnom Penh on a mission to sort out my visa for Myanmar which was hindered as I arrived over the weekend when the Embassy was shut, I then had a few stops and starts as I had to find confirmation that I once had a job and now no longer have a job (thanks to the speedy work by HR NTU who did an efficient job, as always!). The big thing of note in Phnom Penh is the superabundance of Lexus' that ride the streets!

After a healthy cup of ginger, honey and lemon tea at Chiva's Shack I learned about C.H.O.I.C.E Cambodia, an ex-pat run NGO out on a Sunday mission to deliver basic food stuffs to several of the villages surrounding Phnom Penh.

One of the villages reached by CHOICE. Villagers set up home alongside the road as this little 10m stretch either side of the road is not owned privately nor by the government. They have no land rights here.

I decided to join Choice and spent a productive and enlightening day out with the NGO and other voles. We started off with an efficient production line and packed carrier bags with rice, noodles, sugar, soy sauce and other helpful bits and bobs. We loaded up the truck and sat in the back and drove down bumpy roads until we reached the villages and handed out the goodies.


One resourceful villager makes homemade rice wine!

Choice also offers a free, portable clinic to the villagers which gives them much needed access to free health care. If you swing by their blog and facebook page you can see their ongoing work...Of course it's that age old dilemma of a fish versus a fishing rod and I'm pleased to say that there are long term projects, funds willing, to provide one of the villages with a plot of land in which to build a school and have land enough for the villagers to grow rice.

The kids at school. One Choice vole handed out school books and pens for each child attending school in the village!

The villagers don't own the land that they have built their homes on so have few rights and means of being self-sufficient. They also have to deal with the fact that their water supply, a pump helpfully put in by Unicef, is contaminated and laced with arsenic which I found truly shocking: that there are people out there without access to safe drinking water. Maybe I am too naive and ignorant! And I was also alarmed at the high levels of corruption in Cambodia with much monetary aide coming into the country but little making it to those in need. Sad times.

Water pump and dishes.