UPDATE - This project came to a close in early 2004.  This community is now self-sufficient and has completely changed from a "relief" status to a "development" status.  The project page at the time of our most intensive work is shown below:

DISASTER RELIEF EFFORTS
The "relocation camp" at Prey Saa

In late 2001, hundreds of families of squatters near the riverside were the victims of an unexplained fire that destroyed all their homes.  They were taken to a relocation area that had previously been deemed "unlivable" by international standards.   Without food, clothes, or any shelter besides a few tarps, each family was given a 5x7 meter plot of land to live on.   Without wells, bathrooms, or a place to find work, the situation was desperate at best.  


A typical family of 5 take shade in front of their "house."

 

    

     While many relief organizations stood in waiting, the RDI team leaped to action.  People in the camp were dying of preventable illnesses.  The situation looked to get worse as bathrooms were being built in unsafe areas.

     RDI is not a relief organization, but something had to be done, and quickly.  Since RDI is skilled at community health and education, the small RDI team stepped in and started a bathroom building project.  RDI distributed food rations and seeds, built toilets, dug wells, and personally visited and took a survey with every family in the camp.  

     Since then an education program has been set up, weekly distributions are taking place, the RDI medical team is making regular visits to help special needs, families are now harvesting the vegetation from the seeds, and a "taxi" service is being employed to get people  back and forth to the city for work.  Educational movies created in the RDI studio are being played each week on a big screen.  

     The project is ongoing and still needs improvement.  However, strides have been made in the overall health and well being of this desperate situation.


Dinner is served shortly after the first rice distribution.


RDI workers also set up a temporary school and worked with the displaced children.

 

    
An elderly woman from the relocation site carries her rice and fish to her new tent "home".

 
RDI implemented a work for food program for the camp residents to build bathrooms in sanitary locations.


As dusk arrives, the RDI team erects a makeshift movie screen for Wednesday movie night! Educational and entertainment films from the RDI studio are shown.


Finally, clean water!  Another RDI well and foot operated pump in action.
Most of the children on the 450 families had scabies until RDI could locate and distribute special medicated soap.  The results have been excellent!

 

STATISTICS

  • A large number of the women at Prey Saa have recently given birth or have babies on the way.

  • Fathers have been leaving the camp for days at a time to try to find work.

  • 18 women with children (all living together) in just one of the 17 sections are now widows or have been left by their husbands as a result of this ordeal.

  • Few of the 450 families have any member of the family who has higher than 3rd grade education.

 

NEEDS

  1. Short term volunteer groups to help build, teach, and help with medical needs.

  2. Lice and scabies soap.

  3. Rice

  4. Medication


A small child demonstrates a newly installed RDI pump.