Siem Reap, KH – Family extends vegetable garden – 30 Oct 2014

The SOL‏ Family live in Peaksnaing near Siem Reap, Cambodia, where village life has some serious drawbacks because the villagers are extremely poor, and tend to live in one room houses that have been known to collapse during heavy rains. In this way they live in great hardship.

In spite of their hard work they are not able to earn enough to provide themselves with even two square meals a day. They are often ill-clad and ill-fed. Since they rarely have any savings, in times of need they have to borrow from the village moneylender. Therefore, they are frequently in debt that they are often never able to repay.

Mrs SOL is always working hard to support their family. They have six children who are all married with families of their own. However, she herself cares for five grandchildren.

Mr SOL is a fish net and basket weaver. The life of a weaver and farmer is full of difficulties. The crops are at the mercy of the timing and type of rains, and drought and floods often take away the fruits of his hard labor.

The family has very small paddy field located in the very dry area where the can only grow rice in rainy season for household consumption.  Mr SOL has found it impossible to successfully grow rice for selling due to high production costs, lack of water source for irrigation in dry season, and unpredictable harvests that are not always enough to cover the costs.

In spite of both their hard work, the family live a life of extreme poverty. They say that “they were born in debt, live in debt and will die in debt”.

This year Mrs SOL decided to participate in the Food Always IN The Home (FAITH) garden program. When she built the garden with the shop team, she decided to grow gourds, Chinese cabbage, corn, long beans, spring onions, eggplants, sweet potato and morning glory. The garden is growing very well and producing good yields.Mrs SOL has extended her garden to grow cucumber, and now she also grows several other types of crops such as long bean, pumpkin, and ride gourd.

She now also raises chicken which helps grow vegetables using organic natural fertilizer, because she makes the fertilizer from chicken and cow manure combined with other fertile sources like waste from the kitchen and fields. On average, she earns about $3 to $4 per day from selling their their surplus vegetable production, after the grandchildren have enjoyed the fresh vegetables from the garden. It may not be a large income by western standards, but it is better than before and the family now eats very healthy food grown from their own hard labor.Mrs SL is very happy with her vegetable growing; not only for household consumption, but also for sale for income. Her husband also helps her with growing, harvesting and is a good vegetable seller. Neighbors always come and buy vegetable from her garden because they are tasty and safe, since they are grown organically without oil based chemicals.