by Leng Thy
Living in Atsue village, Sombor Commune, Prasth Sombor District, Kompong Thom Province, Mrs. Morm Khy, a 55-year-old- widow is dreaming to own a cow one day to help her family farm the small plot of land that was left in her possession after a divorce in 1995. The divorce left her only with 1000 square meters of rice land and three young children. Since then, she became the breadwinner of the family and all the heavy burden of caring her children fell on her. To supplement the 72 kg of rice she harvested from her very small plot of land, Morm Khy has to work as farm laborer where she earns a meager wage of 5000 reils or $1.25 per day.
One year later, in 1996 her hope was restored as she joins a Christian community in her village. That group of people provides her a lot of support, even inviting her to be a member of the cow raising group project. Being one of the poorest families in the group, Morn Khy was chosen to be the one of first recipients of the cow gift loan from CHAD. She said that since owning a cow her situation has changed significantly. First and foremost, she benefits from building a good relationship with her neighbors who help her feel that she is not alone and who stood by her side during times of troubles and difficulties. For Morn Khy, owning a cow means she only needs to borrow one cow from her neighbor in order plow her field and transport firewood from the forest to her house. In the same way, she told that owning a cow also gives her the ability and opportunity to help her neighbors by letting them borrow her cow. According to her, she saves 30,000 riels for transporting firewood and about 1,500 riels/day for vegetables she harvest from her garden that has been fertilized by manure from her cow.
Another benefit she mentioned from owning a cow is it affords her to be more productive or keep her busy at home. For instance, with cow manure she started doing compost, clean area surrounding her house, do vegetable gardening--watering, cultivating the soil, and fertilizing it. According to her these works help her overcome her boredom, and also make her to become industrious. She said, “these benefits also enable me to send my 18-year-old youngest son in school till now.” With her smile, she expresses her joy even though she is working hard, Morm Khy said that she would like to say thank you for all the support from my church and the cow raising group that chose me to be first person to receive the cow gift loan from CHAD.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Why we form rice banks
by Katherine Parker
Cambodia is a country still visibly struggling to rebuild community trust, stability and self-sustenance after many years of civil war and foreign occupation. A significant job for the Community Health & Agriculture Development (CHAD) program is to share about the concept of stewardship and why we, as Christians, need to nurture, sustain and expand the resources that have been entrusted to us so that we can share with others. Cambodian staff person for CHAD, Mr. Thy, talks about a time when Cambodia was rich because people worked together, but now because of mistrust people are locked into poverty. It is from this starting place that CHAD works with church and community groups to start development projects. We ask the community to identify what needs it has and then what resources it has to begin addressing those needs. CHAD works together with the community to provide a gift-loan. It is called a gift-loan because the individual who is entrusted with the initial portion of money or, say, an animal is expected to return that to the group so that the gift-loan can be re-invested in the community, rather than being paid back to the donor.
CHAD began working with a community in Swaian village in Batanmbong province starting in 2005 to establish a cow-raising group. When we visited this week (March 2008), we met a five day old calf, the second to be born to this cow! This church community has worked well together for cow-raising and so we were excited to celebrate the beginning of a rice bank with 10 families.
The economics of rural Cambodia is that the primary source of income for farmers is selling their rice, which is usually harvested in December. Some of the rice is sold immediately after harvest, and some is kept to feed the family throughout the year. However, if the family needs money (such as for medical expenses or a wedding) they will sell their stored rice. For this reason, there is a lot of hunger in the months of October through December before the new crop is harvested. The local merchants charge 100% interest on loans of rice taken at this time.
Unfortunately, no one family has the money to build a structure to store rice. In the Swaian community, the families had all contributed money to purchase the supplies for building a communal storage house for rice (about $5 per family). We observed the cement pillars that had been erected for the storage building and the palm trees selected to be cut down for further construction materials. Unfortunately, the community member who is skilled at planking palm trees has been sick with a fever and so the rice store is not completed. The community hopes he will recover soon and the families can finish building the structure in the next week.
CHAD provided the $750 in capital to purchase the initial store of rice. The group has established its bylaws and policies for loaning out the rice (at 30% interest, about 1/3 the rate offered by local merchants). The group hopes that in three to four years it will have doubled its rice and can use this to start a new rice bank in the neighboring village. I was excited to listen to the families talk about how they hoped to use this rice bank to reach out in ministry to their community. They were realistic about the challenges and were committed to continue working together, expanding upon their initial success with the cow-raising group and building the rice storage house.
Cambodia is a country still visibly struggling to rebuild community trust, stability and self-sustenance after many years of civil war and foreign occupation. A significant job for the Community Health & Agriculture Development (CHAD) program is to share about the concept of stewardship and why we, as Christians, need to nurture, sustain and expand the resources that have been entrusted to us so that we can share with others. Cambodian staff person for CHAD, Mr. Thy, talks about a time when Cambodia was rich because people worked together, but now because of mistrust people are locked into poverty. It is from this starting place that CHAD works with church and community groups to start development projects. We ask the community to identify what needs it has and then what resources it has to begin addressing those needs. CHAD works together with the community to provide a gift-loan. It is called a gift-loan because the individual who is entrusted with the initial portion of money or, say, an animal is expected to return that to the group so that the gift-loan can be re-invested in the community, rather than being paid back to the donor.
CHAD began working with a community in Swaian village in Batanmbong province starting in 2005 to establish a cow-raising group. When we visited this week (March 2008), we met a five day old calf, the second to be born to this cow! This church community has worked well together for cow-raising and so we were excited to celebrate the beginning of a rice bank with 10 families.
The economics of rural Cambodia is that the primary source of income for farmers is selling their rice, which is usually harvested in December. Some of the rice is sold immediately after harvest, and some is kept to feed the family throughout the year. However, if the family needs money (such as for medical expenses or a wedding) they will sell their stored rice. For this reason, there is a lot of hunger in the months of October through December before the new crop is harvested. The local merchants charge 100% interest on loans of rice taken at this time.
Unfortunately, no one family has the money to build a structure to store rice. In the Swaian community, the families had all contributed money to purchase the supplies for building a communal storage house for rice (about $5 per family). We observed the cement pillars that had been erected for the storage building and the palm trees selected to be cut down for further construction materials. Unfortunately, the community member who is skilled at planking palm trees has been sick with a fever and so the rice store is not completed. The community hopes he will recover soon and the families can finish building the structure in the next week.
CHAD provided the $750 in capital to purchase the initial store of rice. The group has established its bylaws and policies for loaning out the rice (at 30% interest, about 1/3 the rate offered by local merchants). The group hopes that in three to four years it will have doubled its rice and can use this to start a new rice bank in the neighboring village. I was excited to listen to the families talk about how they hoped to use this rice bank to reach out in ministry to their community. They were realistic about the challenges and were committed to continue working together, expanding upon their initial success with the cow-raising group and building the rice storage house.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Introduction of Ken Cruz
Serving with the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Kennedy (Ken) Cruz is in mission in Cambodia with the Community Health and Agriculture Development (CHAD) Program working as a Community Development Specialist. Mr. Cruz has served in that position since October 2007.
Born in the Philippines, Ken attended the University of the Philippines and received a diploma in forestry. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Letran College in the Philippines and is currently pursuing a master's in organizational leadership from Azusa Pacific University in California.
Mr. Cruz and his family have lived in Cambodia and Laos for many years, and his work focuses on community development and organization as well as program consulting. Much of his work has been among the poor in organization of holistic community development and resource generation.
Ken shares that his compassion for the poor was nurtured through the modeling of his physician father who became the foundation of Ken's early involvement in God's ministry. "I grew up and lived in a relatively poor neighborhood where my father gave free medical service for sick, poor people on a weekly basis."
"My work and ministry experiences have brought some of the most significant changes in my leadership paradigm and practice," Ken shares. "My choice of career in humanitarian and mission work transformed my leadership approach from positional to servant-leadership. My underlying leadership philosophy on this approach is 'meeting the needs of people as they work in accomplishing their jobs'. As a whole my faith, my journey and my relationship with Jesus is best captured in the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7-14."
Ken and his wife and two sons are members of the Evangelical Baptist Church.
Make an online donation to: Kennedy Cruz #3019583.
Born in the Philippines, Ken attended the University of the Philippines and received a diploma in forestry. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Letran College in the Philippines and is currently pursuing a master's in organizational leadership from Azusa Pacific University in California.
Mr. Cruz and his family have lived in Cambodia and Laos for many years, and his work focuses on community development and organization as well as program consulting. Much of his work has been among the poor in organization of holistic community development and resource generation.
Ken shares that his compassion for the poor was nurtured through the modeling of his physician father who became the foundation of Ken's early involvement in God's ministry. "I grew up and lived in a relatively poor neighborhood where my father gave free medical service for sick, poor people on a weekly basis."
"My work and ministry experiences have brought some of the most significant changes in my leadership paradigm and practice," Ken shares. "My choice of career in humanitarian and mission work transformed my leadership approach from positional to servant-leadership. My underlying leadership philosophy on this approach is 'meeting the needs of people as they work in accomplishing their jobs'. As a whole my faith, my journey and my relationship with Jesus is best captured in the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7-14."
Ken and his wife and two sons are members of the Evangelical Baptist Church.
Make an online donation to: Kennedy Cruz #3019583.
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