Living conditions for the poor

While the city of Phnom Penh is full of Lexus cars and you can buy everything we get in the West, there is still a huge distance to the conditions in the countryside and among the poor in the city. Agriculture is inefficient and many still don't have enough to eat.

The little boy on the photo live in the temple area with his grandmom, father and aunt, all three are unable to work.

This is what they may call for a home. A bed by a wall of the temple with constantly risk of being removed. My boy Kosal with his father and his little brother San. San don't go to school and the three other sisters are all left by the grandparents in the village. Next photo shows Kosal mother in front of the hous in the village. No electricity, no bath, no wc .....living for under a dollar per day per family member.

This is the bathroom that my kids share with around 40 other people in the temple area. One shower and one wc. No hot water and no washing machine, some people not even have money to buy washing powder.

This is how this boy still iron his cloths now a day. His father died when he was little and his mother died 3 months ago. Borin met him in the hospital while his mother was sick, he looked after her and studied at the same time. He have no other siblings. This month he finished high school and I promised to help him to become engineer.

This is the conditions in the country side. Use of modern agricultural machinery is extremely limited. Everything is done manually. Production is limited and just enough to feed the family.

Farmer and his wife, they process a few kilograms at a time