Habitat for Humanity Cambodia
| Contact information | HFH Cambodia
#35 Bis, St. 478
Sangkat Phsar Deum Tkov, Kan Chamcar Morn
PO Box 2452 Phnom Penh 3
Cambodia
Phone: +855 23997840
Fax: +855 23997840
| | Web site | www.habitatcambodia.org
|
 | |  | |
|
|
Cambodia -- Habitat for Humanity Int'l 1
THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA, located in the heart of Southeast Asia, is an ancient land with a young population. The median age of its people is 22 years. Regardless of age, Cambodians are often poor.
According to the 2010 Human Development Report published by the United Nations, about 26 percent of the Cambodian population lives on the equivalent of less than US$1.25 a day. A great number of the poor are concentrated in the rural areas.
After the fall of the communist Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, there was an influx of migrants from the rural areas to the capital Phnom Penh. About 250,000 people, or 20 percent of the city’s population, live in squatter settlements, slums and other poor urban communities. They lack secure tenure or basic services as they settle in every conceivable empty space, from courtyards and rooftops, to sides of railway tracks, riverbanks and swamps.
A 2009 World Bank report stated that the poorest Cambodians live in inadequate housing made of thatched roof with bamboo or wood walls and floor. Access to piped water is extremely low while few people have access to proper sanitation facilities.
Habitat for Humanity International registered a branch office in Cambodia in January 2004. HFH Cambodia’s programs in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang and Kandal aim to reduce poverty. Habitat provides families with livelihood training such as agriculture, animal husbandry, business management, and other initiatives such as liquid soap production and handicrafts in an effort to increase daily income and family savings.
HFH Cambodia has unveiled a five-year strategic initiative which aims to assist 10,000 low-income families while inspiring individuals, groups, organizations and the government to champion innovative housing solutions for Cambodians in need.
In Siem Reap, HFH Cambodia’s water, sanitation and hygiene promotion project aims to improve hygiene and sanitation practices, as well as increase access to safe drinking water and sanitary latrines, for 15 villages and eight schools in the Angkor Chum district.
Habitat is also closely involved in a major government initiative to improve land rights for squatter families through a World Bank supported project in Battambang — Cambodia’s second largest city.
A Habitat home in Cambodia is usually 31.5 sq. m. in size. The layout of the house comprises a living room, bedroom and a kitchen with a toilet. Traditionally, houses have been built using fired bricks or as wooden houses on stilts. In 2009, HFH Cambodia introduced a new building technology – hand-made stabilized soil blocks, which offer Habitat home partners a more economical, environmentally friendly housing solution. The layout of the house comprises a living room, bedroom and a kitchen with a toilet.
HFH Cambodia home partners repay mortgage loans prorated to their incomes, enabling even very poor families to benefit. The average repayment is approximately US$22 per month over a period of about five years.
HFH Cambodia hosted its first Global Village volunteer team from Australia in July 2006. Since then, Habitat has worked with volunteers from the US, New Zealand, Singapore, Korea, Australia, among others. In November 2009, the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project brought together more than 250 local and international volunteers to work with Habitat home partners in Oudong, Kandal province.
HABITAT HIGHLIGHTS
• In March 2010, HFH Cambodia marked World Water Day by providing a Global Village volunteer team from the Shanghai American School with a taste of the difficulty in getting safe drinking water in a Phnom Penh community. The volunteers helped two families fetch water in barrels and carted them back to the families’ houses as well as make the water safe for drinking. In February 2010, a volunteer team comprising the board and patrons of HFH Great Britain helped to build two row houses in Oudong. The house dedication ceremony was attended by the British ambassador to Cambodia, Andrew Mace, as well as the former deputy governor of Phnom Penh, His Excellency Mann Chhoeun.
• In February 2010, a volunteer team comprising the board and patrons of HFH Great Britain helped to build two row houses in Oudong, the Cambodian site of the 2009 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The house dedication ceremony was attended by the British Ambassador to Cambodia, Andrew Mace, and deputy governor of Phnom Penh, Mann Chhoeun.
• In December 2009, the provincial governor of Battambang announced the approval of converting state public land into state private land to further the goal of providing secure land tenure to urban landless poor living in the Reserved Garden Area of Battambang.
• In November 2009, the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project brought together more than 250 local and international volunteers to work with Habitat home partners in Oudong, Kandal province. Twenty-one homes were built over five days for families who were relocated from a dump site in the capital Phnom Penh.
• In tandem with the 2009 Carter Work Project, Habitat launched the Cambodian Youth Initiative where local young people build homes together with their international counterparts in Oudong. The youth volunteers also took part in leadership and cultural exchange activities.
• In September 2009, Habitat hosted contestants in Cambodia’s first reality TV series, “You’re the Man”, who took part in challenges including making soil blocks in Oudong.
• In February 2009, International Children’s Care Australia, a Christian development organization, donated US$500,000 to HFH Cambodia to build 50 homes for families relocated from a Phnom Penh dumpsite as well as to provide health and livelihood training.
• ANZ Bank contributed nearly US$5,000 in February 2009 for water and sanitation improvements in the resettlement community of Sen Sok and another district.
• In July 2008, HFH Cambodia partnered with MoneyGram to repair and build a total of six houses in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap provinces.
• In June 2008, HFH Cambodia signed an agreement with the World Bank and local officials that enables hundreds of squatter families living in a public park in Battambang to gain land rights. The US$436,000 project also involves training and microfinance schemes to build core homes and upgrade services.
• HFH Cambodia hosted its first Singapore team in May 2008. The volunteers built houses and community water systems in Habitat’s first rural project in Angkor Chum district, 60 km from Siem Reap.
• In 2007, Habitat began a home-improvement scheme based on building core houses and upgrades for 150 families in the historic tourist destination of Siem Reap, also the second poorest province in the country. Partners include Credit MFI, a locally registered micro-finance organization affiliated with World Relief.
COUNTRY FACTS
Population: 14,453,690 (July 2010 est.)
Capital: Phnom Penh
Land Area: 191,035 sq. km.
Ethnic groups: Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, others 4%
Languages: Khmer (official) 95%, French, English
Religions: Buddhist 96.4%, Muslim 2.1%, other 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% (1998 census)
Literacy: 73.6% (2004 est.)
Urbanization: 22% (2008)
Population Living on US$1.25 a Day: 26% (2009)
Access to Improved Water Sources: 61% (2009)
Access to Improved Sanitation Facilities: 29% (2009)
Sources: CIA World Factbook, World Bank
Updated January 2011