Vantha Sung is a small eight year old Cambodian boy,
but to family members, teachers and neighbors, he is a leader.

Vantha is an FH-sponsored child. He lives in Kandal Kraom, a village in northern Cambodia, with his parents, younger sister and grandparents. They moved to this community three years ago from Kampong Cham, Cambodia’s most populous province.

Vantha’s parents and grandparents are tenant farmers. They grow vegetables on wealthier people’s land and when harvest time comes, they give their landlords the best crops as a gift of gratitude. They eat their share of the harvest and sometimes still have some surplus to sell for a small profit.

Even their house is built on their landowner’s property. It is made of rice straw, bamboo and grass. Inside is a big wooden bed, which also functions as their visiting room and dining table.

Pheang Run, Vantha’s grandmother, makes sure her modest house is safe and inviting. During the rainy season, Pheang covers the ceiling and walls of the house with plastic sheets and instructs everybody to huddle together in the middle of the bed. But on a good day, one can lie on the bed, feel the brush of fresh wind, and hear the cackling of chickens.

Pheang is a soft-spoken woman with a ready smile. She has strong, rugged hands and is quick on her feet. Without hesitation, she describes the difficulties her family faced when they first came to this village.

“My life started very difficult. When I came here I did not know what crops to plant. My children did not know how to do construction work, because in my homeland all we knew was farming. My children eventually got a job in construction, but their salary was taken away by their team leader. I would get up early in the morning to go to the lake to gather water vegetables, but many times I would come home empty-handed.”

“But life has become better,” Pheang adds. “Today, I am happy because I have a good relationship with my landlord. I can plant anything – corn, morning glory, squash, every kind of herb – and sell them to the market.”

Pheang and her children learned to plant different kinds of vegetables and use better farming techniques because of the training provided by FH. As a result, their harvests have become plentiful, to the delight of their landowners.

At school, Vantha is excelling. He is at the top of his class, and his teachers know they can count on him when they need help. Vantha’s dream is to become a teacher some day.

But just as tangible physical change is happening in Vantha’s family, spiritual transformation is also taking place. Vantha has been attending a Bible class for children taught by FH staff members. At home, his grandmother loves to read Bible stories to him and his sister. And in December last year, Vantha’s mom and aunt followed Jesus in water baptism.

Eang Un, an FH staff, visits Vantha’s family once a week. She says, “Every day, this family is embracing the amazing love of God and learning to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.”

WHERE

+ Democratic Republic
-- of Congo
+ Ethiopia
+ Kenya
+ Rwanda
+ Uganda

 

+ FH HISTORY:

FH began working in Cambodia in 1990. At that time, the country still had pockets of civil war as well as hill regions under the control of the Khmer Rouge, and thus did not have a stable government and had very little infrastructure. Many Cambodians who had fled the country during the previous years of war were living in refugee camps along the Thailand/Cambodia border. It was within these camps that FH first served Cambodians.

In 1993, FH transitioned to development work in two provinces, Kampot and Takeo, in southern Cambodia. By 2001, FH Cambodia's work had come to be centered primarily in two provinces, Chhuk and Angkor Chey. By 2003, this was narrowed even further, focusing on 19 villages within Chhuk district in Kampot province.

FH then expanded into Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province in 2007, an area in northern Cambodia not far from the border with Thailand. Oddar Meanchey was one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia, had no churches outside of the Anlong Veng district capital, had been the last stronghold and heart of Khmer Rouge operations, was a raw area with many former Khmer Rouge soldiers and newly relocated subsistence farmers, and in addition to all of this, was spiritually receptive..

+ cambodia's HISTORY:

There is evidence of habitation in parts of Cambodia as far back as 4000BC. The dynasty which ruled throughout the 12th and early-13th centuries, was based at the famous temple complex of Angkor Wat. French involvement in Cambodia came about through its colonial engagement in Vietnam. It became an Associated State of the French Union in 1949, achieving full independence in 1953. The overspill of the Vietnam war, in particular the massive secret bombing campaign conducted by the Americans against Vietnamese guerrilla bases inside Cambodia, served to destabilize the government.

In March 1970, two years after the bombing began, Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by a right-wing coup, which proclaimed a Khmer Republic under the rule of General Lon Nol. Khmer Rouge Communist guerrillas, allied with their Vietnamese counterparts, stepped up their military campaign against the government. In 1975, they took control. The real power behind the Khmer Rouge was the new Prime Minister Pol Pot, who had manufactured a unique ideology based on elements of Maoist thought and Medieval quasi-mysticism, rooted in the history of the Angkor state. The practical effect was the establishment of ‘Year Zero’ (in 1975), under which Cambodia was to be converted into a pure Communist state centered on basic agricultural production. Currency was abolished, intellectuals purged, churches and temples destroyed and thousands of urban dwellers driven into the countryside for ‘re-education’ and primitive agricultural labor. The outcome was a regime of horrific brutality, which was responsible for another of the 20th century’s genocides – it is estimated that one third of the population died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule.

At the end of 1978, the Vietnamese army – provoked by repeated Khmer attacks on their territory and sickened by the regime’s excesses – invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmers. A new constitution was declared in 1981. King Norodom Sihamoni has vowed to remain politically neutral and open to ideas from all Cambodians. Today Cambodia struggles with the many ramifications of poverty.

+ FACTS:

+ More than one third of Cambodians live below the poverty line

+ Landmines are a grave hazard for internally displaced and migrating children

+ Only 36% of Cambodians have access to clean drinking water.

+ Cambodia is home to Angkor Wat, a famous Hindu temple that to many is the symbol of Cambodia

+ Malnutrition affects most Cambodian children

+ Facts From: UNICEF, US State Department

LINKs