MaD Cambodia

Creating financial opportunities is crucial to helping impoverished Cambodians build a better life for themselves... it certainly is a far better way to create sustainable lifestyles for families than simply lending them money, which often incurs huge interest rates and given they have no income for most of the wet season simply means they NEVER get OUT of debt.

Another train of thought is charity hand outs! Give them $ or bags of rice.

We all have a level of human dignity and living off handouts for even the poorest of people is NOT what they want and they often feel marginalized as a result of being forced to accept such handouts.

The MaD Piggy bank addresses this on another level... we donate a Sow to a family. They raise her, and breed with her and get to keep 50% of all the piglets to sell and or carry on their breeding program. A single piglet costs US$50 to buy. So can you DONATE A PIGLET TO THE MaD Piggy Bank?
$50 is equal in our community to possibly 2 months hard labour income, assuming your family didn't eat. Based on feeding and taking care of a family $50 as a saving may be what can be achieved over a year if they have no other debts or complications during that time such as a death or serious illness, in which case it may take a couple of years to have enough $ to buy a piglet.

As is the case with most families - it never happens because they simply do not earn the money and nor can they save the money.

SO the MaD Piggy bank is here to help these families. Through our MaD Supporters we aim to supply each family with a piglet. Total investment required? US$2,500 will allow us to buy 50 piglets. That will give 50 families a good income in 6 - 10 months time when they have their own piglets.

Given an average of 10 piglets per sow - the MaD Piggy Bank will generate a nett income per family within 12 months of US$250 minimum and 5 piglets for other families.

Over the past few weeks, the process of transplanting Moringa trees to Prolit village has begun in earnest.

The first time we walked through the village with the Moringa trees in hand, the villagers oohed and awed and before we knew it, a gaggle of children and adults had gathered behind us, eager to watch the trees take root in local soil. After digging holes, adding water, soil, and mixing in cow manure, the trees were delicately placed in the ground and the roots of MaD’s Moringa trees made their first contact with Prolit’s soil.

A total of 13 Moringa trees have now been transplanted and the results have been heartening. Many of the trees are sprouting nicely and maintaining their rich green colour – signs that the roots have integrated with, and are drawing nutrients from, the local soil. As expected, however, there have also been some trees that have not handled the transplant as well, as indicated by yellowing leaves and wilting. After analyzing which plants have succeeded and which have had more difficulty, we started noticing a pattern: the plants that were struggling were almost always exposed to more direct sunlight than those that were flourishing.

A critical part of our WASH project is the training sessions that we conduct with each family that receives a water pump or sanitation unit. During these sessions, we engage in discussions with the adults of each household and use demonstrations and interactive activities to help them understand the importance of drinking clean water, using toilets (rather than going in the forest), and engaging in other hygiene behaviours. The presence of this knowledge within the community is crucial to ensuring that the benefits of the project are sustainable, which in this case means having improved hygiene and sanitation behaviours maintained over time.

In May 2010, MaD launched its nutrition project and announced our plan to cultivate and ultimately transplant two amazing plants – Moringa and Amaranth – to the rural communities that we work with. Over the past few months we have been nurturing young Moringa trees in our organic garden at MaD Base Camp. When they are young, Moringa trees are incredibly fickle and are extremely sensitive to moisture levels (though once established, they are extremely resilient). As a result, it’s no small feat seeing these plants from seeds through to established trees. Thanks to the expertise of our Khmer team, however, our Moringa nursery is now bursting with beautiful, green Moringa leaves ready to be transplanted, and our Amaranth seedlings are slowly starting to sprout.

In merely a week, the MaD team has managed to construct the beautiful, traditional Cambodian home you see pictured above! As part of MaD’s continual effort to improve the efficiency of our work in Prolit Village, this facility – fittingly dubbed the MaD House – will serve three important functions.