Life on the Edge
December should be a nice weather time for many part of Cambodia but last December 2009, it was not. I was on a mission to Banteay Meanchey province during the last week of December and had the opportunity to see how my Cambodian fellow’s life is over there. This area was formerly occupied by Khmer Rouge and was integrated to Cambodia the latest in 1998. People might wonder that being the latest area to be re-integrated, people here must all be the former KR soldiers. The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. There are considerable amount of migrant families settled in the areas and less than 50% of the population of the village I visited are the local people.
I met with one family with seven children who is living in a remote village just about 1Km from Cambodia Thai border in Malay district. The couple looks not older than 40 years old but they have 7 children and the oldest son is 17 years old. We saw five children with them while visiting, none of which attend formal education. The eldest son is still studying at lower secondary school in the commune while the 14 years old daughter stopped school few years ago and is currently working daily in Thai side to earn income for the family, as well as support her older brother studying.
Both parents explained to me that they do not possess any farm land for rice growing and solely depend on their wage labour work in Cambodia side and at the Thai side for daily livelihood. They cannot afford education for all the children and are not hoping that their children will end up doing wage labour work. The wage labour fee level for Khmer workers is lower than the Thai workers. Visible exploitation is right in front of one’s eyes but people accept this because that is the mere option available to them.
In this locality, quality of education is very low. Children who are finishing grade 4 or 5 are not able to properly read and write the simple sentence. One organization is operating in the village and has opened the bridging class for children who are not able to catch up with the school curriculum and as a result running behind other students in the class. This bridging class aims to equip them with additional support and time to strengthen their capacity back at school. However, all other children in the village who are not enrolled at the public school also attend this class; this includes a 3rd child of this family, a daughter of about 11 years old. “When she goes to class, all the4 younger siblings of her are also brought to class because there is no one else at home to attend them” said one of the teacher in the bridging class.
One village might spread on a landscape of 7km and along the road there are still a lot of sign of DANGER of area suspected of land mine. Life is the area is not just living on the edge of a struggle for survival but also at the edge of risking the loss of life at any moment.
I met with one family with seven children who is living in a remote village just about 1Km from Cambodia Thai border in Malay district. The couple looks not older than 40 years old but they have 7 children and the oldest son is 17 years old. We saw five children with them while visiting, none of which attend formal education. The eldest son is still studying at lower secondary school in the commune while the 14 years old daughter stopped school few years ago and is currently working daily in Thai side to earn income for the family, as well as support her older brother studying.
Both parents explained to me that they do not possess any farm land for rice growing and solely depend on their wage labour work in Cambodia side and at the Thai side for daily livelihood. They cannot afford education for all the children and are not hoping that their children will end up doing wage labour work. The wage labour fee level for Khmer workers is lower than the Thai workers. Visible exploitation is right in front of one’s eyes but people accept this because that is the mere option available to them.
In this locality, quality of education is very low. Children who are finishing grade 4 or 5 are not able to properly read and write the simple sentence. One organization is operating in the village and has opened the bridging class for children who are not able to catch up with the school curriculum and as a result running behind other students in the class. This bridging class aims to equip them with additional support and time to strengthen their capacity back at school. However, all other children in the village who are not enrolled at the public school also attend this class; this includes a 3rd child of this family, a daughter of about 11 years old. “When she goes to class, all the4 younger siblings of her are also brought to class because there is no one else at home to attend them” said one of the teacher in the bridging class.
One village might spread on a landscape of 7km and along the road there are still a lot of sign of DANGER of area suspected of land mine. Life is the area is not just living on the edge of a struggle for survival but also at the edge of risking the loss of life at any moment.
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