enables the poorest families in Cambodia to actively make their own choices and alleviate poverty by saving money. Through Tabitha’s Savings Program families set goals to make their lives better.

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Better Lives Partner Since: 2013
Current Families in Savings Program: 53,310
Total Dependents in Savings Program: 426,480
Families Impacted Since 1994: 523,236

Programs

Savings Program
The Savings Program is the core activity of Tabitha. Saving is a non-threatening way for people to begin making decisions about their lives. Through savings, people set goals to make their lives better. Tabitha staff make weekly visits to families in the program to offer support and collect savings. After ten weeks families are paid 10% interest on their savings which they can use to purchase needed household items. Families graduate from the Savings Program in 5-7 years, at which point they have become self-reliant to access food, clean water, shelter, and income.

Water Access
This program is available only to people in the Savings Program. It enables families to have access to clean water and can raise a family’s income. Tabitha helps families build wells on the premise that they must use the well to generate income from livestock or agriculture.

House Building
Tabitha invites volunteers to come to Cambodia and build houses with families in the Savings Program. Volunteers finance the houses and are taught construction skills by experienced Cambodian builders. The program provides homes for families and a sense of ownership, as local people teach foreign visitors a new skill.

Cottage Industries
The Tabitha Cottage Industry program is another arm of the Tabitha Cambodia integrated community development programs. The handicrafts are made into marketable products from traditional hand-dyed and woven silks. Tabitha pays workers a fair price for all products and provides training, employment and income. The products are marketed worldwide and sell at very reasonable prices. 50% of product is sold through the shop at Tabitha Cambodia in Phnom Penh, while the other 50% is sold overseas.

Building Schools
As our families achieve their dreams through the Savings Programs, the needs and desires of people change from basic needs to dreams of providing an education for their children. When a community reaches that stage of development, the families approach the Tabitha staff and request a school. Tabitha builds and equips schools, and then passes ownership and responsibility for running these schools – including the supply of teachers – to the government through the Ministry of Education.

Community

Tabitha currently works in thirty-seven areas within fifteen provinces in Cambodia providing programs that bring significant changes and development to the lives of the Cambodian people. A group of Tabithas and supporting groups  in Australia, Singapore, Canada, USA , UK , Netherlands, Dubai, Hongkong, China and other countries were established to focus efforts with the joint international goal of lifting more Cambodians out of poverty . They are continually fundraising and supporting the programs of Tabitha Cambodia and that makes Tabitha stable.