Steung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is located in southern Phnom Penh, in a district of the city of the same name, Steung Meanchey. It is a part of the city with low-income neighbourhoods and slums. The dump itself covers about 100 acres, or almost 6 hectares. It is flanked by private property on which rubbish pickers build makeshift huts and are charged extortionate rents by landowners. Roughly 2,000 people, about 600 of which are children, live and work there. It is nicknamed “Smoky Mountain” because of the mist of smoke that the dump constantly gives off. At times it is literally on fire; the waste creates methane as it rots and the methane burns. In monsoon season and throughout much of the rest of the year, the surrounding area is swamped and the children live and play in fetid water.

Most of the rubbish pickers at Steung Meanchey are either from Phnom Penh or came to Phnom Penh looking for work and ended up in the slums. Many of the approximately 600 children have parents or relatives who also work on the dump and look after them. Some of them go to school, but most do not - at least not on a regular basis. It is safe to say that very few of them ever complete a primary school education. The school fees are too high and their families need them to collect rubbish to contribute to the family income. Adults earn, on average, 4000 to 5000 Riel (US$1.00 to $1.25) a day; children earn on average about half that amount. A whole family working together can actually earn more money than they could in the rural village from which they originally came.

Elim works in two of the villages at Steung Meanchey. We teach and play games with the children. Give them nutritional food and treat villagers with medical needs. We have begun to supply villagers with every day needs such as kettles to boil water and cloths for the children and adults. Where huts are in a dreadful state of repair we supply materials to weatherproof and improve the condition of the stilted homes. We also have been involved with rebuilding huts that are beyond repair.

Cambodia
What do you know about Cambodia. It is a beautiful country and its people are hospitable pleasant and are delighted to see 'foreigners' in their country. But Cambodia has a sad past. In my lifetime the country passed through an horrendous phase, experiencing a Holocaust where 1.7 million Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.


New People were civilian Cambodians who were controlled and exploited by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979. Generally, anyone who was from an urban area was made a New Person and people from rural areas were made Old People.

He began by declaring, "This is Year Zero," and that society was about to be "purified." Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism.
All foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign languages was banned. Newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios and bicycles confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All businesses were shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care eliminated, and parental authority revoked. Thus Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world.

When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, the rebels immediately abolished currency and private property and sent Cambodian city-dwellers into the countryside to work in the fields. Under the leader Pol Pot, the regime attempted to violently restructure the country as an agrarian, communal society. During his three year, eight month, and twenty day reign, out of a population of thirteen million, over 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, execution, disease, exhaustion, and starvation. The Khmer Rouge eliminated most of the educated and business class as enemies of the state, and by doing so, destroyed the economy. No intervention was made to stop the effects of the genocidal "killing fields" until Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, ending the Khmer Rouge's rule. In 1991, the United Nations sent 26,000 peacekeepers, police and civilians to construct a temporary government and organize elections. After the elections, the Khmer Rouge resumed efforts to regain control. During the years from 1978-1989, over 200,000 Cambodian refugees fled their country. Many died in the process. After years of warfare and strife, Cambodians are still at work clearing thousands of land mines, creating commerce, and reviving their culture. 1999 was the first full year of peace in 30 years.

Unfortunately, the effects of the Khmer Rouge continue today. The current situation in Cambodia, while vastly better than the previous decades, still requires outside help for improvement. Although the constitutional monarchy is making progress, 80% of Cambodians remain subsistence farmers or work for low wages in food processing and forestry.

In rural areas, most have no potable water, phones, electricity, or permanent jobs, and many have little food. There are only six national highways in Cambodia, and rural roads are often impassable even on foot. Today, Cambodia continues to be financially and morally challenged by widespread corruption, the presence of one of Asia's highest HIV infection rates, and the support of thousands of victims of land mine injuries.

In just three years, the Khmer Rouge killed nearly all educated Cambodians. By 1978, there were no teachers, writers or scientists in the country. A whole generation of literate role models was eliminated. In its Millennium Development Goals, two of the Cambodian government's top major goals are to achieve universal primary education and to promote gender equality and empowerment of women.

According to the United Nations Development Program, 80% of Cambodians attend primary school; however, only 19% continue on to secondary. One of the obstructions to educational development is the extent of child labor. The vast majority of child workers in Asia work on family-owned farms in the rural areas, although child labor can be found in many other sectors of the economy as well. Indeed, children in Cambodia, as well as other parts of Asia, can be found in virtually every type of occupation - begging, scavenging for recyclables, baggage-carrying, garment manufacture, carpet weaving, mining, commercial sex, fishing, brick-making, and construction work.
Between the ages of ten and thirteen, 10% of Cambodian children are engaged in primary levels of labor. Between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, the rate climbs to 42%. Half of all young girls and one third of boys work; as a result, for every three boys attending secondary school, only one girl attends. Some reasons for this discrepancy are that families consider a boy's education to be more economically rewarding, that over-educating a girl can be a handicap to marriage prospects, and that the likelihood of a girl's abduction while commuting to secondary school is great.

Only 5.4% of Cambodian villages have a lower secondary school. Only 2% have an upper secondary. Students who want to attend secondary school must walk miles to reach the nearest school. The Khmer Rouge was the ruling political party of Cambodia—which it renamed the Democratic Kampuchea—from 1975 to 1979.

A personal passion of mine is to provide under-privileged children with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and taking control of their lives. So at Elim Phnom Penh we provide free English lessons taught by qualified foreign teachers whose mother tongue is English. Plans are in place to establish a computer room in the Elim Church Centre where computer and key board skills will be taught. Phnom Penh is a developing city where there is a growing demand for English speaking, computer literate young people. We see education as a key gift we can bestow upon these amazing people.

The Cambodian Festival of Pchum Ben

We're coming to the end of the annual Festival of Pchum Benh. Most Cambodians will have had a few days off and have headed out to the country side to visit their relatives both alive and 'dead'. Many, many businesses and shops in the city close.

Prachum Benda ("Ancestors' Day"), more commonly known as Pchum Ben, is a Cambodian religious festival

On one main day, Ancestors Day, most Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives. People cook meals for monks, bring offerings to the temple and throw rice near the temple early in the morning, believing that their ancestors will receive it. Cambodians believe that although most living creatures are reincarnated at death, due to bad karma, some souls are not reincarnated but rather remain trapped in the spirit world. Each year, for fifteen days, these souls are released from the spirit world to search for their living relatives, and to meditate and repent. Ancestors' Day is a time for living relatives to remember their ancestors and offer food to those unfortunate enough to have become trapped in the spirit world. Furthermore, it is an important opportunity for living relatives to meditate and pray to help reduce the bad karma of their ancestors, thus enabling the ancestors to become reincarnated and leave the torment and misery of the spirit world.
Participating in the Pchum Ben, whether as a host or participant, is a very important aspect of Cambodian culture. It is a time of reunion and commemoration. It is a time to express love and appreciation for one's ancestors.

Thus, one can then begin to sense the problems Pchum Ben brings to new Khmei Christians. Non-Christian relatives can become unpleasant, even aggressive at their perceived betrayal of faith, family and culture and dead relatives. It seems the young Christain men receive strongest opposition and persecution. One young Christian man, Sotean, was made to leave his family home because of his brother's objections and insistence that it is either Christianity or his family. He has left home and for that I believe God will honour him. The leaders of our church pray with our young Khmei Christians at the onset of the festival trusting God will protect and guide them and use their new lives as a witness. I have great admiration for these young Cambodian people who have made the decision for a new life in Christ.