“Since my involvement with FH Cambodia, I’ve observed that I’ve undergone substantial changes, such as learning how to save money and enhance my quality of life by practicing personal cleanliness, home hygiene, and drinking clean water. Consequently, my family, particularly my children, were healthy.” Said Mrs. Om Saray.

She confirmed that FH Cambodia staff urged me to start a small business selling groceries, therefore I did so. Since 2005, it has been successful. I sold between 300,000 and 380,000 Riel daily. During the current Covid-19 outbreak, however, I sell between 150,000 and 250,000 Riel per day.

In 2023, I will build a new six-meter-wide, ten-meter-long house with wood and other materials purchased with some of the profit from my business, which I will return to my savings group. As of now, I have saved a total of 6,000,000,000 Riel. On 18-03-2021, I borrowed 2,000,000 Riel from a savings organization in order to purchase a hand tractor because I had sufficient funds to expand another work. I contributed a portion of my income to a savings group and established a line of credit to assist my children’s education.

As a development partner, I was introduced to the FH Cambodia program through the promotion and selection village. In 2015, FH Cambodia formed a saving group, but I did not participate because I was afraid of failing as I had done previously. Later, in 2016, FH Cambodia employees and community leaders continued to mobilize and promote the savings group, at which point I decided to join. As a member of a saving group, I participated in training on topics such as the group’s function and responsibilities, health, sanitation, agriculture, animal husbandry, and home gardening, etc.

Before FH Cambodia began working in my village, the majority of the residents suffered from illness, diarrhoea, and the common cold because they drank contaminated water and did not properly maintain their homes’ environments. The town lacked a saving group and residents were unaware of development efforts. Due to a lack of knowledge on how to rear animals in a productive manner, animal husbandry did not yield desirable results. Each household lacked a garden, and the town lacked cohesiveness. Since FH Cambodia worked in my neighborhood, things have changed. I can see that the majority of families practiced good hygiene at home, drank clean water or filtered water, worked together as a community, had access to a toilet, and learned how to rear animals and cultivate a productive garden. In addition to changing these things, the FH Cambodia team is also facilitating the formation of a savings group and credit in the community so that we can save money.

Mrs. Om Saray says, “In the past, my family had a poor standard of living; we were unaware of cleanliness since we drank unclean water, we did not maintain a clean home environment, and animal husbandry was not productive due to a lack of techniques. I was also less involved in development efforts. Due to my fear of failing, I lacked the guts to participate in the group for saving lives. After learning from FH Cambodia in trainings or meetings, I realized that the advantage of a saving group is that it is much simpler for me to obtain a loan if I wanted to borrow money, because the terms are flexible and the interest rate is higher than at a bank or private institution. I saved a total of 6,000,000,000 Riel in 2020-2021.

I am thrilled to partner with FH Cambodia. I am ecstatic and appreciative that FH Cambodia and its personnel work in my town, Chann Hear, and that my family is able to receive new knowledge and engage in such trainings, which have improved our quality of life. She continued, “I am extremely appreciative of FH Cambodia and the staff members that perform house visits and encourage us. I am grateful for the provision of chicken, a water tank, and food items such as rice, fish sauce, soy sauce, canned fish, and cooking oil to Poor 1 and Poor 2 in my community during their time of need.