Siem Reap, KH – Garden Shop Team Member Improves His Family’s Life

Mr. CWC is a member of the Peaksneng Thormacheat shop in the Siem Reap region of Cambodia. His official role in the team is to make compost, deliver garden materials, and help build family gardens. However, he also has unofficial duties that include cooking the team’s lunch and being their comedian. He always finds it easy to laugh and joke around with the shop manager, Reynaldo Diez. The two make a hilarious combo that create a great atmosphere to work in.

The CWC family home is a place of love, hard work, and productivity. They have numerous chickens, ducks, and two massive cows that they received from a cow bank through the local Catholic Church. 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 their parents with the daily chores.

In June 2014, Mr CWC received assistance from the shop to build a garden at his home. Since then he has taken the techniques that he learns in his job to increase his family’s health and income. He has not been idle during the last year, because he has been busy at his home expanding his garden, building a nursery for seedlings, and producing his own compost to continually nourish his soil. He has taken out three loans through private parties and from the shop. With the loans he built a well at his home and devised a clever way to irrigate his ever expanding garden. In addition, he built a pig shed and is now fattening up two pigs to sell at the market. One of the loans is already paid off and he is half way through paying for the other two. The micro-loans have given him access to funds that he would never have been able to get otherwise.

Although the family are doing well on many fronts, they are still have many challenges. CWC’s wife does not have a regular income, her main duty is to work in 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 going well.

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