Siem Reap, KH – Lighting up the Rent-to-Own home community – Sep 2023

Around 70 per cent of people in Cambodia have no access to electricity, so most villages in the Cambodian countryside are covered in darkness after the sun goes down. Living without light puts children at risk of falling behind academically because they cannot study or complete their homework at night.

Only 10% of those living in more remote areas can access electricity. Not having a reliable source of energy adds to the already difficult living conditions of people who live in poor, rural communities and makes it difficult for them to sustain work that could bring in income. This means that residents often use candles, kerosene lamps, car batteries or generators to meet their lighting needs so that they can maintain watering their garden and drinking water for their livestock.

A partnership of Better Lives and Peaksneng garden shop has collaborated with families to build 26 Rent-to-Own (RTO) homes in a community north of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Now the Peaksneng shop manager Rey has collaborated with the Village Chief, a local pastor called Thon, and the Catholic church to assist the RTO families to have access to electricity and light at night.

Choun Choi, father of a RTO family, is happy that he is now connected to electricity. Choi used to pay 5,000 Riel / US$ 1.25 per liter of fuel to pump water for his garden and personal use. He also spent around $40 a month for diesel to run his own generator. Now he gets electricity from the new connection, and for about the same amount of money has been able to have 24-hour service and has increased his use of electricity approximately seven times. This is because he can switch on more lights, have a fan on, and his family can use electricity for healthier cooking. “Connecting to this new power will help us a lot” he says as he smiles!

Yang, a RTO family member, spent $25 on fuel to pump water to his garden. Now he wants to buy an electric water-pump to help water his vegetables. He earns around $75 every month and now he will be able to save money from his income. He says “when I have an electric water pump, I could grow more vegetables without paying too much on fuel. It will also help my children to study longer than usual”.

Eun Lem is a father of an RTO family, he cannot believe that for the first time in his life he is able to have an electricity connection. He shares that “it’s so helpful for my wife and my children, we spent so much on the fuel to pump our water for maintaining our garden. Now we have connected to electricity, we can grow more vegetables.”