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MRDF's director recently visited Cambodia to see how one partner organisation is supporting farmers in one of the world's poorest communities.

Kirsty Smith travelled to the country in April to see the work of The Cambodian Children's Advocacy Foundation (CCAF). The local organisation provides agricultural training and loans to some of the poorest farmers in the remote Banteay Meas District in southern Cambodia.

12-year-old Ouk Pronh's family received chickens from MRDF's partner

MRDF's partner provides training on a natural-based fertiliser that allows the soil to recover its quality within three years. Previously, villagers used chemical fertilisers that destroyed the soil. Now they are able to grow more crops on their land in a sustainable way.

The project targets the most disadvantaged villagers, such as widows and orphans. Kirsty, who has been director of MRDF since 2000, said: ‘This training has transformed the community. Not only are people growing more crops for longer on their land, but they are saving the money they used to spend on expensive fertilisers. Many people are also using the natural fertiliser to wash their animals' pens and chicken coops, to clean their houses of insects and are seeing a remarkable difference.'

MRDF's partner also supports a chicken project in the area. Those identified by the local authorities as the lowest income families are given hens and a cock and are supported with materials and training to build chicken pens. The income which they raise from selling the eggs or the fattened chicks has enabled them to pay for their children to attend school, to repair and improve their homes, or to buy piglets which they sell at a profit. After a year, they are expected to pay back the same number of birds that they received. The project has so far had a 100% repayment rate.

This work is particularly crucial in Cambodia where people are still feeling the impact of decades of conflict and instability under the Khmer Rouge. Millions were forced to leave their homes and work in the rural areas as the Communist leaders tried to set up a classless utopia. Many left their villages without any belongings and community structures were completely destroyed.

Kirsty said: ‘The Khmer Rouge sought to break down communities and families which has made the reconstruction of society very difficult. Projects such as this one which provide appropriate and locally based income generation to those who have lost everything, enable marginalised families to start the difficult process of rebuilding their lives and their communities.'

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