Overcoming Disability through Cow Loans

Chim Kun is more than her deformity. Crippled from birth, Kun was denied much in her life — not the least of which was a basic education. But now, with the help of CHAD's agricultural microloans, Kun is showing the world she is not someone to be pitied or shunned. Rather, she is someone to do business with.

At age 56, Kun had never attended a day of school in her life. Her mangled feet made the journey of several kilometers impossible. Nonetheless, when she heard of the opportunity to participate in a CHAD cow bank several years ago, she knew right away how the addition of livestock could help her family's finances.

Today, Kun's family find themselves with two cows and another two calves on the way. The income those cows and their predecessors have produced for the family allowed for the startup of a small poultry business, selling chicken and duck eggs.

The cows and birds combine to give Kun the resources to send her three school-age children to school. But even that is no large expense anymore, because in her eagerness to ensure they received the education denied her, Kun shaped her children into scholarship students. This mother was even able to follow in her children's footsteps, taking two years of adult literacy courses and learning to read and write.

In just a few short years, Kun has overcome deformity and illiteracy and earned financial security for her family. And it all started with one cow.

Want to find out more about how cow banks are changing lives in Cambodia?
Read about how they work here or check out another story involving cow banks here. Click here to donate to a CHAD cow bank.

Man on a Mission: Agriculture Microloan Helps Reunite a Family

Photo by Amanda King

Disabled as a civilian casualty of war, Pheng Mong was forced to stand by as his wife set off for the faraway garment factories of Thailand in search of work to support their family. But now, thanks to a CHAD cow bank, Mong has the resources to bring her back.

With two adult cows and one calf on the way, Mong's family now has financial security — something that's been out of their reach since the '80s, when Mong drank water from a well poisoned by Vietnamese troops. Ever since, he has suffered from a chronic lung disorder that frequently leaves him gasping for air.

Unable to work and provide for his family, the brunt of that burden fell on his wife, who has spent much of the last several years moving from job to job as a garment factory worker. She's currently working in Thailand, far away from her husband and son.

But if Mong has his way, that will all change soon.

Mong has big plans for those cows. He expects one more calf from each of them before he sells them to finance his dream — a small village grocery store he can run, side-by-side with his wife and son, finally reunited.

Want to know more about cow banks?
Mong's family wasn't the only one to benefit from this project. CHAD cow banks operate with a philosophy of passing on the gift, whereby some offspring of the original cow are passed on to others in the community. In this case, a local preschool teacher and a church women's leader received calves from Mong's cow. Learn more...

More Than A Cow: How Cow Banks Promote Financial Security

Photo by Paul Jeffrey

For most Cambodian families, cows represent much more than a farm tool or even a potential food source. Here, cows mean financial security. They can be sold whenever the family is in a financial pinch — if someone becomes ill, if the breadwinner suddenly loses a job, or if natural disaster strikes.

Cows are living, walking savings accounts. So when CHAD promotes cows through our cow bank programs, we're really promoting financial security. And since we operate under a "passing on the gift" philosophy, that security spreads throughout a community.

Here's how it works:

Community members form a cow bank group. Of the people in that group, one is selected as the initial caretaker. That caretaker is the custodian of the cow gifted to the group from CHAD. When that cow becomes pregnant and gives birth, the calf is passed on to another group member. The original caretaker is allowed to keep the second offspring. But the third time around, the calf is passed on again. At this point, the caretaker becomes the owner of the gift-cow and all subsequent offspring.

The same gifting system is applied to the offspring of the original cow, with recipients passing on the first and third calves that they bear. And as the cow's family tree grows larger and larger, so does the group of people whose lives are improved by the cow bank.

Of course, there are often flukes in the system: Cows die or become infertile, or family emergencies necessitate that a cow be sold before it can pass on offspring. Missionary Katherine Parker talks about some of the complications that arise in keeping track of a cow's genealogy in this blog entry.

Despite the complications, the program successfully provides financial security to many Cambodian families each year.