After a stopover in Singapore, we arrived in Cambodia for the 10th time. Every time I come back to this tropical Asian country I notice improvement - Less rubbish in the city and less motorbikes and tuk tuks on the road. Always friendly faces though and plenty of locals saying “Okoon” which means “Thank you”. Sam our Tuk Tuk driver was at the airport to pick us up and fill us in on the latest news. It’s nice to see some of our friends there to greet us. We made plans to catch up later and headed to our hotel. I am interested in seeing the large slum community that is near the old stung-meachy dump. Sam was saying they are very poor, so our plan is to visit there. We checked into the Mittapheap Hotel and say hello to all our friends there Ly Hong, Phalla, Tola and Phiro. Yes, there is a touch of jetlag however, when we awake we head to this indescribable area of 150 completely ran shackled homes. Why do they live there? They are the poorest of the poor. There is no other place for them to go. Homes made of rusting tin, rotting wood, rags at the windows, cardboard, no sanitation – our hearts melted. Something has to be done. Stefan and I believe that there are over 150 people living in this community. After purchasing two Tuk Tuks full of food we find these people are ravenous. The children have severe mal nutrition and the elders look as if they have gone through utter misery.
The photo here is taken at the slum village mentioned here in this blog