Siem Reap, KH – Peaksneng Thormacheat Team Member Improves His Life – 12 Jun 2015

CWC is a member of the Peaksneng Thormacheat shop in the Siem Reap region of Cambodia. His role in the team is to make compost, deliver garden materials, and help build family gardens. His unofficial duties consist of cooking lunch for the rest of team and being the comedian of the group. He likes to laugh and joke around with the shop manager, Reynaldo Diez. The two make a hilarious combo who create an energizing work atmosphere.

The CWC family home is a place of love, hard work, and productivity. They have numerous chickens, ducks, and two large cows that they received from a cow bank through the Catholic Church in the area. CWC and his wife take pride in their home’s appearance, and are keen that their four children receive a good education. The children are extremely polite and love helping with the daily chores.

In June 2014, CWC received assistance from the shop to build a garden at his home for his family. Since then he has taken the techniques that he has learned in his job to increase his family’s health and income.  CWC has not been idle this last year, he has been busy at his home expanding his garden, building a nursery for seedlings, and producing his own compost to continually nourish the soil. He has taken out three loans through private parties and from the shop. With the loans he has built a well and devised a clever way to irrigate his ever expanding garden. In addition, he built a pig shed and is now fattening two pigs to sell at the market. One of the loans has already been paid off and he is half way through paying off the other two. The microloans have given him access to funds, which he would not have been able to obtain from banks.

Although the family are doing well on many fronts, they still face many challenges. CWC’s wife does not have a regular income, and her main occupation is working on their small rice farm 5 km away. The weather has been erratic in Cambodia this year, which has affected their rice yield greatly. This year, they were only able harvest half of what they did last year. They are grateful that CWC has consistent work with the Peaksneng Thormacheat shop, and that their other income generating activities are doing well.

After CWC repays his current loans he wishes to purchase a motorbike and expand his pig fattening operation. His dream is for his children to be able to study up until university and then secure well paying jobs in the city.