Friday
Oct072011
Beating hunger
Friday, October 7, 2011 at 4:44PM
by Glenn Fawcett
Director of Field Operations
Nyak Srey Yaan is 17 and in grade 9. We met Yaan with her widowed mother at their humble one room shack home in rural Siem Reap, Cambodia. They were making coconut sweets from rice flour from their Girls' Access To Education (GATE) program rice support to sell in their village.
Yaan and her mother at home
They have no electricity and their only source of light at night is shed by a kerosene lantern. They defecate in the open and pull up dirty water from a ring well that needs filtering and boiling before it can be used. “Yaan's father, my husband, died when I was six months pregnant with Yaan,” says her mother. “She was my third child and second girl. I decided at the time I wouldn’t remarry as I know that men in Cambodia often treat their stepdaughters very badly.” (Sexual abuse is common in this circumstance.)
“I understand the value of education even though I only studied until grade 2 myself,” she continues. “It will prepare them for better jobs from which they will earn more, and work that is not as grueling. I also send money to my son in grade 11, who is being supported for food and accommodation at a Buddhist temple.”
Yaan has no bicycle and walks three kilometers to and from school every day. She has been in the Girls' Access To Education program for three years and received family rice support for two. “We have a small plot of land that doesn’t provide enough for us to eat,” her mother explains. “We make sweets and rice noodles at home to supplement our income using some of the 50kg of rice support we receive from Lotus Outreach. Yaan works on holidays and sometimes on weekends for $2.50 per day to help out, but we make sure work does not interfere with her studies.”
Yaan suffers from migraine headaches which impact her studies. Even so she has been able to buckle down and improve her class rank to the top 30 percent, assisted by program-provided tutoring in path, chemistry, Physics and Khmer literature. “I like physics because it’s difficult,” Yaan says. “I don’t know why but the more difficult the subject the more I like it. Tutoring helps me a great deal, but I sometimes have to use some of my stipend when I’m hungry.”
Yaan's mother making coconut sweetsWith one parent and little income beyond what their mother earns making sweets and brooms from local grasses, Yaan’s family are no strangers to hunger. Even with monthly rice support, they continue to live on the edge to keep the children in school. All of them are acutely aware their appetites must be kept in check lest they eat into their other needs.
And yet Yaan speaks of her future with a grin. “I want to become a primary school teacher, for which I need to finish year twelve – and which I am determined to do,” she says. “I plan to apply for the Teacher Training College at Battambang because it’s nearest to home, and safer since we have some family friends there.”
See more photos of Yaan, her mother and our GATE program in Siem Reap on Flickr.
Director of Field Operations
Nyak Srey Yaan is 17 and in grade 9. We met Yaan with her widowed mother at their humble one room shack home in rural Siem Reap, Cambodia. They were making coconut sweets from rice flour from their Girls' Access To Education (GATE) program rice support to sell in their village.
Yaan and her mother at homeThey have no electricity and their only source of light at night is shed by a kerosene lantern. They defecate in the open and pull up dirty water from a ring well that needs filtering and boiling before it can be used. “Yaan's father, my husband, died when I was six months pregnant with Yaan,” says her mother. “She was my third child and second girl. I decided at the time I wouldn’t remarry as I know that men in Cambodia often treat their stepdaughters very badly.” (Sexual abuse is common in this circumstance.)
“I understand the value of education even though I only studied until grade 2 myself,” she continues. “It will prepare them for better jobs from which they will earn more, and work that is not as grueling. I also send money to my son in grade 11, who is being supported for food and accommodation at a Buddhist temple.”
Yaan has no bicycle and walks three kilometers to and from school every day. She has been in the Girls' Access To Education program for three years and received family rice support for two. “We have a small plot of land that doesn’t provide enough for us to eat,” her mother explains. “We make sweets and rice noodles at home to supplement our income using some of the 50kg of rice support we receive from Lotus Outreach. Yaan works on holidays and sometimes on weekends for $2.50 per day to help out, but we make sure work does not interfere with her studies.”
Yaan suffers from migraine headaches which impact her studies. Even so she has been able to buckle down and improve her class rank to the top 30 percent, assisted by program-provided tutoring in path, chemistry, Physics and Khmer literature. “I like physics because it’s difficult,” Yaan says. “I don’t know why but the more difficult the subject the more I like it. Tutoring helps me a great deal, but I sometimes have to use some of my stipend when I’m hungry.”
Yaan's mother making coconut sweetsWith one parent and little income beyond what their mother earns making sweets and brooms from local grasses, Yaan’s family are no strangers to hunger. Even with monthly rice support, they continue to live on the edge to keep the children in school. All of them are acutely aware their appetites must be kept in check lest they eat into their other needs.And yet Yaan speaks of her future with a grin. “I want to become a primary school teacher, for which I need to finish year twelve – and which I am determined to do,” she says. “I plan to apply for the Teacher Training College at Battambang because it’s nearest to home, and safer since we have some family friends there.”
See more photos of Yaan, her mother and our GATE program in Siem Reap on Flickr.
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