Fund raising for Water Filters, remote Cambodian farmers, Dec. 2013

Project name: "Pro LIFE": Long-Term Initiatives for Family & Education

We are at The Prohm Roth Inn, Prohm Roth guesthouse & Pro Angkor Travel start raising some funds for our community projects that’s located about 110 miles east of Siem Reap City. Trach village (of Sammaki commune, Brasat Ballaing district, Kampong Thom Province) is a very remote and depressing village, never seen a single foreign visitor, don't even mention about receiving any haze of benefits from Cambodian massive tourism industry. This poverty-ridden community of 170 families really needs help.

Why: Water = life. Good/clean water = good/healthy life. The rising pollution from un-treated water and contaminated soil start to hurt people’s life. The villagers don’t even boil water when they draw from the well.

What: Ceramic Water Filters: We plan to purchase from 150 to 200 units before the year end. 

When: We set to bring all the purchased Ceramic water filters to give to the villagers by mid of December.

Cost: This type of ceramic water filter is well-tested and recognized by W.H.O and cost $15/each including delivery.

Should you have any question, please contact Mr. MEANG directly via mobile +855 12 466 495, +855 97 933 4337 

Email: smart_khmer@yahoo.com 

We would like to invite everyone to support this project and/or join this JOURNEY for CHANGE!PLEASE take note that, the real benefactors of this JOURNEY are visitors and villagers, NOT us. We are merely MEDIATORS for our visitors and villagers to enjoy each other, share their culture, life and work.

Does your trip to Cambodia complete with just ANGKOR WAT, Siem Reap?

Our Swedish couple joined farmers planting rice '11

I know you have some great plan and time span already for each country, city and destination. You're such wonderful and brilliant people, wise travelers and great global trotters. Well, I am not here to ask you a hard and personal question that related to the size of your budget hidden in your pocket and suitcases. But here are some of the issues you can use as eyes-opener around Siem Reap:

1. This small and smart town is getting very touristic because of the temples and its small scale attractions, activities and blooming economy around the area..

2. Most tourists prefer to spend about 2 to 3 days here and roam around town center and temples: eating, shopping and sleeping in great places..

3. MOST tourists are moved around by buses, minibus, car and leaves very few percentage of travelers to take budget transports like tuk tuk, motor bike and bikes. So you can imagine that rich people and some foreign-owned companies take more share of tourist money. Of course, most poor local Cambodians can't afford to purchase such expensive buses, cars and vans..

4. Most area of Siem Reap province is heavily-saturated by tourists and their related activities but not everyone receive good share of tourist money here. Still they are immunized to all types of skin colors, nose shapes and hair styles....

5. And it seems that Siem Reapers are not really appreciated with the presence of tourists. They just take for granted and do not really value the importance feature of having visitors and do NOT know their roles of being as hosts.

6. And again, most of the money tourists spent in Siem Reap do NOT reach ordinary Cambodians and even worst, the money fly out of the town (country) even faster than the departure of its spenders. DEADLY SAD!

7. Some people also ask how come this province and its infrastructure, people and environment look so depressive and ugly despite of great sum of money brought in daily by thousands of visitors...

Will your visit create some (GOOD impression) POSITIVE impact in the local economy and bind great memory in your 'blood' that some poor local Cambodians are rejoicing because of your care? Would you and others like to LEARN more, JOIN and SHARE to create a happier/healthier world?

Please READ some MEANINGFUL activities that you can involve with:
Pro LIFE projects

Voices from Rural Cambodia: See a Problem, Share a Blessing!

I have a DREAM (Cambodian way)!

You may ask me “What is your DREAM, Meang? Truthfully, my dream is NOT about having a SUV, super beautiful lady around me or to be a political commentator. Due to heavy raging civil war, my parents decided to send me to a local Buddhist temple for a peaceful life and education. I was so sad and left my tiny and deprived village of about 100 families mid 1989. However, 20 years has gone, things and living standard has not changed much! Then you may react, hey, Cambodia is so peaceful now and a lot of developments are taking place around the clock. Unfortunately, it’s not. We still need a lot of HEALING and HELP!

Let me not present to you a huge and impossible assignment but some small elements that can be achievable as we join hands. Whenever, I visit my home village and other villages around, I cannot comprehend the sizes and shapes of problems, hurts and needs roaming around. Oh this is a very destitute community belong to Brasat Bailaing district, Kampong Thom Province. This commune (rural town) is called SAMMAKI which is comprised of 5 distant villages (approximately 800 families) filled with low standard farmers.

First, let me share with you some critical issues and needs: ( QUITE GENERAL here):

1^st problem: according to the local authority, domestic violent still one of the critical virus eating up such rural area. Illiterate parents can hardly raise up good and healthy children.

2^nd problem: A lot of fathers, roughly 70% tend to spend late afternoon with other men drinking local palm juice wine (freshly collected). They become so irresponsible by letting their children staying and doing tones of chores with their mothers at home.

3^rd problem: verbal conflicts arise when mothers cannot handle all the work loads and scold children in the presence of the fathers. Often times, the heavy head & drunken fathers either go straight to sleep or make noises in the house. They ignore and neglect their house’s duties and sometimes trigger physical conflicts after no-winning debates with the mothers.

4^th problem: children are encouraged to go to school but parents cannot help them with their basic school needs or take time to tutor them more at home. Most kids don’t have proper (new) clothes for their school, not to mention about having clean & neat uniforms of white top and blue skirt or pant. Some go to school barefoot. Heart breaking conditions.

5^th problem: sanitation, clean drinking water and health education are far from their grasp. About 10 out of 100 families may have owned shabby toilets. About 20 per cent of 100 households prefer to boil water for drinking. And about 20 per cents of 100 people care to wash their hands before eating.

6^th problem: average size families have 7 members with one or two mosquito nets. Coincidentally, 2007 was the heaviest year for Cambodia to be invaded by dengue fever. However, 2008 was much lighter and yet we don’t know about this year because July, August are yet to come.  
7^th problem: the commune has 5 primary schools and a middle school but all the young teachers are from other far towns while the resident teachers are typically passed the golden age.

 8^th problem: Although they are farmers, still half of the 800 families do not have enough rice for their whole year needs. They totally depend on rain falls for their farming works. “No rain, no planting of rice”. For them to survive, they turn to plant fruit trees, seasonal vegetables and raise animals at home. 

How can you partner with us in solving this matter and math problem and improve quality of life and make a different in such a remote community that seen NOT a single visitor so far?

Please read more information from our website Pro LIFE projects

Thank you! (Orkun)

Flights from Madrid land in Siem Reap

Is it a good sign for Cambodian tourism or for the ASEAN region for 2012? Are we moving forward or kicking backward? THREE BETTER NEWS below.

BIG NEWS: Cebu Pacific launches Manila-Siem Reap flights
Budget carrier Cebu Pacific launches its maiden flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia from Manila in a bid to further expand its Asia-Pacific network. On Thursday, April 19, Cebu Pacific aircraft takes off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) at 7:45 p.m. and will land in Siem Reap International Airport at 9:30 p.m.

The Gokongwei-led low-cost carrier will serve the route every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The regular return flight departs Siem Reap at 10:30pm, arriving in Manila at 2:10am.

Lowest year-round fares for this route start at P3,499. Cebu Pacific set a promo one-way fare of P888 when it announced the new route last January.

Siem Reap is the gateway town for the famous World Heritage, Angkor Wat.

The number of tourists to Siem Reap soared further after the government liberalized its aviation policy and allowed foreign airlines to fly in the visitors. Siem Reap alone is visited by over 2.5 million tourists a year, more than double the tourists that go to Boracay, an idyllic island in central Philippines.

Cebu Pacific, one of the most aggressive no-frills airline in Asia, wants a piece of this tourism traffic. It also wants to be this route’s first entrant as the Philippine aviation market becomes more competitive with the entry of Malaysia-based AirAsia’s Philippine unit.



BIGGER NEWS: Flights from Madrid land in Siem Reap

Planes carrying more than 1,000 Spanish tourists landed in Siem Reap on Saturday, in what tourism officials called a positive signal from Europe during a time of economic instability. The tour that brought 1,290 tourist in on four chartered planes saw some of the first direct tourism-oriented flights from Madrid, Spain. It also brought some of the largest planes – three Airbus 330s and one Boing 767 – ever to land in Siem Reap.
“It’s the first time big planes land here. I hope it will attract more European tourists,” said Kong Sangvar, managing director of an agency that helped organise the trip. Although there are no plans for direct flights, the chartered flights have put tourism potential from Spain on some officials’ radars. “Permanent flights needs long-term research because it is based on passengers from Spain,” Tith Vanna, Siem Reap International Airport director, said. Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said the trip signifies that Europe was not a dead market for Cambodian tourism.



BUSIER NEWS: Tourists to Siem Reap up 48%

Siem Reap province, home to Angkor Wat, experienced a nearly 50 per cent year-on-year increase in tourists during the first three months of the year, according to official data.Foreign tourists visit the Bayon temple in Angkor National Park, Siem Reap province. Photo by AFP
Experts said more direct international flights had fuelled the jump, led by Korean and other regional tourists.
More than 1.1 million tourists visited the province between January and March, a 48 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2011, according to Siem Reap’s Tourism Department.

Siem Reap City: Real People, Real Story

“What's all relational endeavor”

Despite of existing troubles & social issues, global and local economics struggles; we see courage, grace, joy, love, peace, and prosperity! There is always endless ray of hope and solid reason to live!

1. Personal: I am Meangsophean Suon, “Meang” briefly schooled in a brutally war torn village of Trach, Krayea commune, Stoung District, Kampong Thom Province. A teacher of mine was injured and heavily bled as he was running toward a group of kids who were running around outside our ‘poor school’s classroom. He told them to stay flat on the ground when the fighting erupted but the kids were too terrified to take his words so he had to risk his life the young blood.

2. Developmental: At the age of 9, I left home: my parents, brothers, vegetable garden, chickens & pigs for a peaceful place – Buddhist temple about 10kms away from our village. Well, it’s not as peaceful as many thought. There’s no place that spared from fighting. A year later, I was ordained as Buddhist novice monk. I was the youngest, smallest and cutest among 50+ new monks – drew much attention and weird feelings from different people.

3. Struggle: My senior monk teacher had me & my uncles with him as he was invited to live in a much remote monastery near Preah Vihear province. I was his favorite among the 3 young monks from the same poor village. But of course, all of us were forced to leave the temple along with 17 other monks, and the whole commune of 7 villages. We’re made to walk quick and straight along the path. For safety, we obliged with much sorrow in our hearts. A few people step on landmines as they tried to escape and return home. Some escaped with no bruises. Fighting was along the way, powerful sound of fire arms, rockets landing so close our convoy. We went through thick jungles under heavy rain, thunder and then blue sky, deep & cold rivers, clear & calm streams then huge craters of US bombings which left from 1970s. After full day of walk, we arrived a tribal village whose dialect is not understood. We thought we’d be all died there. Arriving at an inhabited area about 8pm didn’t give us a feeling of joy or relief but deeper worries.

4. Survival: After becoming the MOST favorite & adorable little monk to the people in Preah Vihear province about 7 months, we were allowed to return to our original temple in Kampong Thom Province. Such opportunity was opened due to my grandfathers and father’s fearless effort in negotiating with some (military) officials for our return. They took big risk in going to meet us at unknown and war-raging place. Thankfully, they found me alive & chubby that’s very contradicted to hundreds other evictees who were died from malaria or severely got sick there. Among 24 people in our group who stayed in that particular temple, the one who’s spared from catching the virus was Meang – thank GOD!

5. Rebuilding: Well, I and everyone who knew me thought that I was the strongest boy that wasn’t sick of such decease but I was attacked by malaria when I got back to our home village. That’s so scary and my family was seriously concerned about me. At the age of 16, I moved to Phnom Penh. No family, no friends, no place to stay, but hard-headed me still pack my books and asked my another senior monk to bring/escort me there. Survival kits: eat whatever I have, study hard, make friends, gain self-confidence and go farther than I think I can be. After moving around a few Buddhist temples, encountered dozen of struggles, I didn’t lose hope in life and I was so fortunate to meet an Australian-British couple. We became friends; they helped, inspired and encouraged me with my studies & life challenges. Their small amount of investment in my life paid out so well. I wished I knew where Mr. Richard and Caroline H. Brown are now. I desire to thank them for providing me hope and strength when I had no one there to help me.

6. Philippines: I also wished to express my most sincerest gratitude to a few dozens of great people for supporting me when departed my little ward in Phnom Penh for my studies in Manila. My professors, friends and school’s staff were such a great instrument in shaping my life and making me grow. I owe you guys so much. “Thank you so much for taking good care of me when I was severely sick of Tuberculosis”. Dr. Chuck Quinley and his faculty members were so gracious and kind. Your kindness and compassion taught me to serve & love others with much depth and strength.

7. Family Factor: I come to realization that I cannot survive well and live a happy life without spending time taking good care of my family and close relatives. I had to return home for a few main reasons: my 2 adorable youngest brothers – Luch & Sampouv; my other younger brothers & sister; and my other cousins. I knew I had a calling to me a role model for my family & relatives, most important than that is providing them with education and fatherly care!

Business for Education

The idea is RAW. I own nothing, but I owe many things to others including you - dear readers. My intention in establishing this venture is not for riches, fame or farther fortune of this world but as an expression of my mission, passion and dedication toward my family & close relatives. So below are our happy & well-mannered recipients of YOUR strong confidence in MEANG;.

A. Rin Rotha: 19 years old, 12th grade student. A hard working boy whose father was a Khmer Rouge soldier. He was 3 when the former fighter left him, his baby sister and his mother for much painful and tearful war. And he didn’t return home but live happily somewhere else when the war was over.

B. Pha Phally: 19 years old, 12th grader. A sweet & obedient boy of many siblings. He’s a super strong boy even when his mother was dying of cancer in his arms. He closed her eyes and told everyone that she’s just left us. He’s not distracted any longer as we’re always at his side and supporting him.

C. Pha Vong: Younger brother of Phally. A boy of many scars. He’s working hard for his grade 11th this year and looking forward to finishing high school next year.

D. Chok Jess: A son of former Khmer Rouge soldier. He’s in grade 12th this year in the same school of Vong. The boy whose father was gone is doing well at school and dreaming to go to university next year. Who dares to help him and wish him well then.

E. Hel Chantha: My another cousin of former Khmer Rouge soldier & physician. He’s in town with us for his university. Despite of poverty, he is considered luckiest among my other cousins as he’s still have father & mother around him.

F. Suon Phors and Suon Kosol: my 2 younger brothers who are freshmen at a local university. I am so grateful for their hard work in helping managing/running our daily business operations.

G. Suon Davin: My father’s youngest brother – so my youngest uncle. Another freshman of the same university with Kosal.

Beside these 8 boys, through your patronage over 2 years, I also take care of school fees of my other 4 cousins, and we even extend our hands toward a few dozen kids in our home village as well. Real faces and further updates will follow before year end.

NOTE: I am fully responsible for their lodging, schooling, and daily needs except Chok Jes and Hel Chantha who still receive minor/light assistance from their families.

*** I'll post these 8 boys' photos ASAP. So please remind me in case I am too busy and delay in uploading them.. Thank you so much for your time in reading this long writing..

Illiterated Khmers' View about Cambodia Floods 2011

This is just a personal, NOT a political or religious view

There are so many things that some thinkers cannot of. What are those things? I am sorry, I don't know them because I am not one of those great thinkers..
However, these come to my major concern.
I was told that when GOD created the world, she was all so beautiful, flawless, serene and green but not too long after one man's wicked & sinful rebellion against HIM, she was left to be on a different course. That course indicated her destiny toward POLLUTION  & DESTRUCTION under that man's hand.
So, we heard of countless PAINS vs. GAINS from the all around the world..
My questions: Who got the PAINS; Who got the GAINS and Who are the FIXERS/HEALERS of the problems? PLEASE help me count some of them.. I am not taught to know all of them.

Again, we know that the world is heavily abused. She is in coma now after the SEVERE CANCER. You great thinkers are well-aware of that. She cannot take good care of her children anymore - Global environmental/natural disasters. She cannot contain all the tears that poured down from heavens any longer - Various floods. She cannot hold us any stronger - Earthquakes. She cannot feed us with any healthier foods - Global food shortages/famine. She cannot cover us any better - Global warming.

Man hurts man! No animal on earth can stop ignorant, greedy and sightless man from self-hurting acts & attitudes and habits of persecuting others.

Man has been blindingly abusing GOD's 2nd greatest gift - nature. Man was demonized and made blind to slaughter God's greatest gift - Jesus Christ the Savior, but he was NOT dead under man's hands.. Consequently, man is living under the results of his dirty actions and his children are suffering immensely from it.. God's 2nd greatest gift is NOT retrievable by any short action by now when man is still holding the world with such manner.

Would anyone in the wounded wide world want to stop all or some of current natural disasters?
It's simple, START REPLANTING TREES and SToP cutting trees and refilling lakes/rivers and canals NOW.  I would recommend our great Cambodian government to start the "TREE PLANTING CRUSADE and be the same to other leaders around the world by now!

If we will NOT stop such horrible habits today, we should prepare for more floods, flush floods, storm/typhoons, earthquakes, famine, ..droughts and million more global issues will arise and shine through everyone broken bones..

We human, is cheaper than any type of animal when we underestimate all environmental impacts from our acts..

Please read more from The Phnom Penh Post
Once again, we are so grateful to our government's greatest effort in helping all the floods affected areas and pay attention to all the cries of the helpless & poor Cambodians.

We all clearly know which group of people really reap the benefit of such disasters.. and know so well also who really the victims from the mass development projects after massive deforestation.

Siem Reap Flood Has Receded...

Good morning from Siem Reap, (updated)

It's just a great relief after seeing much of the water has disappeared from our house and our street this morning! Thank GOD for pushing the mess away and make us stay dry again after over a week long of submersion in HIS MERCY RIVER OF LOVE!
However, we know that there are hundreds of houses in Siem Reap, not to mention other heavy areas in Cambodian, still under water and several street also still flooded, but it should be gone soon as the sun is shining loudly. As of us, yeah,,, clean up time.... It's a real big mess..
One more good thing is that tourists will be able to enjoy their temples time again - sunshine, no water and no rain.. It's a great, beautiful day as we woke up...
Once again, my brothers and I would like to thank everyone for their kind support, messages and lovely encouragement all the way... I told you guys, we will survive for sure..
So that's all for now.. Talk to you soooon!

**** We are enjoying great weather: beautiful sunshine, blue sky and great cool wind.. So please come to visit Siem Reap now.. We all welcome you with a wide open arms..

Super Fighter

Our youngest brother, Sampouv

Much love from Meang and brothers