Cambodia

Community Description
Puok is a small district town, located about 13 km from the famous Angkorian Temple Complex, which includes Angkor Wat. Despite the tourism that the temples bring to the region, Siem Reap Province remains one of the three poorest provinces out of Cambodia’s twenty four provinces.

Puok has the district’s main health center, a fairly large market and a very large high school with over 5,000 students that provides government education for many of the small towns and villages in the area. Puok also served as a refugee camp just after the Khmer Rouge period for the surrounding area.

The town is growing, and new businesses have been sprouting up since the paving of National Road 6, which serves to connect Cambodia to Thailand.

Puok district has nineteen villages with two communes and a total population of just over 20,000 people. In Siem Reap Province, over 51% of the population is below the poverty line.

According to 1998 statistics, the daily income was 1,035 reil/day (approximately $0.246 a day).

The town has a small, privately owned, rudimentary water system that pipes water to the market area, houses near the market, as well as the Puok Health Center. However, the majority of the households in Puok get their water supply from individual wells.

Puok Health Center cares for on average 2,000 patients a month. The town water supply to the center is inconsistent, and periodically shuts off or runs out of water unexpectedly.

The health center and its three mid-wives, deliver about 50 babies per month for women who come from Puok District Town and the surrounding villages.

Cambodia’s infant mortality rate is 95/1,000 and the maternal mortality rate is 4/1,000.

Project Description
This project involves purchasing a 1,000-liter water tank and installing it at the Puok District Health Center to provide running water for the delivery room.

A support platform will be constructed, to provide the tank with the elevation needed for adequate water pressure, and the piping will be installed.

The tank will provide clean, gravity-fed, running water as well as extra water storage and easily-accessible water for use by the health care staff when delivering babies.

The community will contribute a portion of the labor, and $20 will be contributed by the Puok District Health Center.

This project to provide water for the delivery room was identified by the mid-wives, hospital director and health care staff to satisfy a critical need.

Project Impact
This project will benefit more than 600 women who use the delivery room each year, by providing them with clean and sanitary conditions during childbirth.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Stephanie Magedanz Bartsch

Comments
This project provides a simple solution to deliver an uninterrupted supply of water to the local health center. As a result, the basic and necessary sanitary needs in the delivery room, including washing hands, cleaning equipment, and washing the newborn and mother during childbirth, will be met.

Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00

Donations Collected to Date
$500.00 + additional donations for future projects

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Stephanie Magedanz Bartsch of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Stephanie and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in Cambodia.

This project has been completed. To read about the conclusion of this project, CLICK HERE.

Community Description
Kraubau village is a very poor community about 7 kilometers off of national highway 5 in Boribo district, Kampong Chhnang province. Boribo is about 2.5 hours, or 120 kilometers northeast of Phnom Pehn city.

Kraubau is a disproportionately poor and vulnerable community. Most people are farmers. However growing is difficult because of the lack of a consistent water supply.

Most children drop out of school before completing primary school due to pressure from parents to support the family by farming, or having to raise their siblings. There was a primary school in the community, but it was shut down two years ago when teachers stopped showing up due to the difficult commute.

There is a lack of access to clean water. The community relies on rainwater during the wet season and uses crude, unreinforced, hand- dug wells, which often collapse, during the dry season. There are no latrines.

Project Description
Two hand-dug wells will be improved by increasing the depth of each by 4 meters, and installing pipes for reinforcement. This will make water available during the dry season.

Although located on private property, the families will share the water supply with surrounding members.

All of the labor will be done by the community. A skilled community member will be paid for supervising the project.

Project funds will pay for the materials and their transportation to the job site.

Monthly health workshop will be held on such topics as the prevention of mosquito-borne illness, the prevention and treatment of diarrhea, and basic sanitation.

Project Impact
44 people will be immediately affected by this project. In addition, approximately 50 local agricultural workers and loggers who work in the surrounding areas will directly benefit.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Keiko Valente

Comments
Existing but marginally functional wells will be remediated by this project. Safe water will be available to the community year-round. This will have a great impact on the economy and public health of the community.

Dollar Amount of Project
$380.00

Donations Collected to Date
$380.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has been fully funded, through the generosity of Keiko's friends.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Keiko Valente of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Keiko and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in Cambodia.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Community Description
The area was one of the fronts of the civil war in the 1990s, and the town has only existed for about 15 years. The town is growing, with recently paved roads and a new bank building.

Sdao Santepheup High School is the only high school in the district, and has operated for less than 10 years. A new school building was recently built, with funding through an NGO.

Only 3 of 8 bathrooms at the school are presently used, often without water. This has a negative effect on the number of students (especially girls) who attend school and pursue education.

Project Description
This project will connect the school's ponds to the school's bathrooms.

Project funds will be used to purchase the pump and the required PVC pipe.

The labor for digging the trenches, laying the pipe, and installing the pump, will be contributed by the school and the community.

Project Impact
750 students at the school, consisting of 350 girls and 400 boys in grades 7 to 12, plus faculty and staff numbering 20 people, will be the direct beneficiaries.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Bob Miller

Comments
This is a simple and very inexpensive solution to a critical problem facing the school. It is simply a matter of transporting water in the ponds, where it exists, to the school bathroom, where it is urgently needed.

The participation of the community is very high. A small amount of help with the purchase of the materials is all that it will take to carry out this meaningful project.

Dollar Amount of Project
$200.00

Donations Collected to Date
$200.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has been fully funded, through the generosity of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Bob Miller of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Bob and/or those of his counterpart PCVs in Cambodia.

This project has been completed. To read about the conclusion of this project, CLICK HERE.

Community Description
A general description of the district is set forth in the project pages of the prior projects, as described in the Comments section below.

This project will take place in Toom T’mai Village of Dang Tung Commune, located along a small dirt path off the north side of the 12 km dirt road leading to Wat Crang Leeyou, and ultimately to National Road 3. It will be located in the middle of a cluster of 14 houses, all occupied by families working at rice farming. To the east, north, and west of these houses are rice fields.

Currently, the families obtain water by biking 1 km to the communal pools at Wat Dang Tung, the closest Buddhist temple. The water they retrieve is not clean, as it is contaminated by the waste generated by the wat.

Project Description
This project is to dig a well and install a manual water pump. The district office will take responsibility for testing for cyanide to ensure that it is safe for use by the community. This precaution will be taken even though no cyanide has been encountered in any wells in the district to date.

The water table is stable and plentiful enough that the well will provide water during the entire year.

Project funds will go specifically toward hiring a skilled well digger, who will dig the well by hand and install the pump and mechanical equipment.

The community will contribute $50 toward the project, and will be responsible for the maintenance of the well and pump.

Project Impact
The project will directly affect 80 people, consisting of 63 adolescents and adults, and 17 small children, residing in the 14 houses surrounding the pump location. In addition it will be available for use neighbors on the other side of the road.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Lauren Arnold

Comments
This is Lauren’s fourth project, setting an example of excellence for other PCVs to follow. Here are the prior projects:

Bun Ranny Hun Sen High School Bathroom Project 1 – Cambodia

Bun Ranny Hun Sen High School Bathroom Project 2 – Cambodia

Prey Sumnang Well Project – Cambodia

Lauren efficiently directed the prior projects such that there was a savings of $100. She applied that amount to the current project, which led to the ability to build another well for a small additional amount.

Multiple projects in an area serve to encourage others to follow with additional community development efforts, and to reinforce the feeling of empowerment within the community.

The project provides clean water to an unserved population, and benefits public health at an extremely low cost.

Dollar Amount of Project
$450.00

Donations Collected to Date
$450.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of Hugh Kaplan, of Bethesda, MD., USA.

Per the wishes of Hugh, this well is now designated the "Mimi Arnold Graduation Well".

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren Arnold of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Lauren and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in Cambodia.

This project has been completed. To read about the conclusion of this project, CLICK HERE.