According to "Cambodia - Funding law approved for hydropower dams" by Vern Weitzel, "Cambodia remains starved for power and must import most of its electricity from Vietnam and Thailand"

According to "Sustainable Cambodia", their goals for Cambodia is to get: 

• "Fresh Drinking Water Wells
• Biosand Water Filters
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Vegetable Gardens & Irrigation
• Pass-On Farm Animal Program
• Micro-Business & Crop Micro-loans
• Beekeeping
• Village Healthcare Program
• Sylvia Lasky Memorial School (300+ grade-school students)
• Kravanh Bright Futures School (240+ grade-school students)
• University Scholarships (for grade-school graduates)
• Village Preschools
• Adult Literacy
• Mobile Libraries
• Vocational Education"

This list makes me feel sad because Cambodians living in Cambodia don't have freshwater that's accessible compared to us. Also in that list, is water filtering, so even if they have access to water, the water isn't even safe to drink and might even cause a deadly illness or disease. This list is very long, but has many ways to think of resourceable ways to keep things clean with a small price. From my previous post about children works picking up recyclables, if these volunteers teach  them about filtering and how to make them, they can affoard to get water no matter what. One thing I just do not agree with, is the scholarships, mainly because half the population in Cambodia aren't in school, so the money should be put more into get teachers.

According to "Brookline Cambodia Partnership", Education is the key to bringing about significant and lasting change and progress to the people of Cambodia."

According to "Brookline High Teacher Spur Drive to Build Cambodian Schools" by By Neal Simpson/staff writer

• "Staff and students at Brookline High School are helping to build a new school in Cambodia"
• "Brookline Cambodia Partnership to raise about $24,000 to help fund
  construction of an elementary school in a rural area of nation of about
  14.4 million people."
• "Cambodia is roughly the size of Oklahoma"
• "educational opportunities are limited"
• "more than half the population of nearly 14.5 million are under age 21"

Cambodia is in need of help with, not only the works and jobs, but also the education. From my previous and past posts, children in Cambodia are forced to do labor to make money for their family to live and because teachers need to be paid also to teach, the kids dont have a oppurtunity to go to school. Their aren't many school that are free left in Cambodia, so seeing people trying their best to give Cambodia an oppurtunity makes me happy because it's my family's native country and I love seeing all the support people give them.

According to 'Help The Cambodian Children', 17% of Cambodian children aged between 10 and 14 years are in full time employment to support themselves and their families.

According to 'Help the Cambodian Children' and 'Oxfam International'

• "Children in Cambodia are suffering quietly"
• "nearly two thirds of the planet struggling to survive on less than $2 a day'
• Billions have been poured into the country since 1980. However, most of it have ended up in the pockets of corrupt officials.
• "we are unable to accept such donations (such as childrens clothes, toys, shoes etc.) due to Cambodian custom tariffs."

There are many people donating to Cambodia because it is such in a poor, ruined state. As stated aboves, the country is under a corrupted government who seems to care more about tourist money than their own people. Also because the Cambodia government wants more money, they have such high tariffs that it would just be better to send money and buy the items from there but it seems like a waste doing that.

 According to "Cambodia e-gov", "Cambodia lacked significant industrial development, with most of the labor engaged in agriculture".  This is one of the reasons why the government is kicking out residence in areas around Phnom Penh to make room for tourist.

According to the article "Cambodia: Poverty on Smokey Mountain" by John Brown, he has stated, "Stung Meanchey opened more than 15 years ago to serve as the city dump and today some 2000 registered workers, including 600 children, work at the site sifting through roughly 700 tons of waste that arrives each day."

• "35% of Cambodia’s population of around 14 million exists on less than $.50 USD per day"
• "12 hours per day scavenging through this sea of waste may earn as much as 10,000 riels, or the equivalent of $2.50 USD"
• "Heavy air polluted by the constant smolder that generates toxic byproducts"
• "Workers are seen coughing or sneezing, and most of the youngest children have runny noses, inflamed throats, and watering eyes" (John Brown)

 According to Nigel Dickinson, these workers work for 24 hours a day, which means no rest at all.Not only are children working in these sites but also "Waste scavengers have dramatically shortened life expectancies and many have poor health".These kids are forced to work in order to survive. They don't think about the damage that work does because unlike us, they don't have time to think about the future and if they did, it would seem like a dark future is ahead waiting for them. Their is never time for them to breathe because while they are taking a break, those other 100 people are finding the recyclables that you would be holding right now. Even if it means working in a location that can easily kill you, you have to think about the other people who are depending on your earnings. 

"families depend upon even the youngest worker’s incremental income" (John Brown)

According to the article Cambodia's Scavengers Face Eviction by Claire Truscott, "Scavenging for bits of plastic, metal and glass that earn them an average of $10 a month". 

I have done research on Cambodia and the causes of why Cambodia is going through a economial depression or
in other words, poverty.

The first couple reason aren't surprising because this how things are across the world too.

• Government: they are kicking residents off their own land to make room for their own benefits.
  

• Government's Benefits: Shopping centers, Luxury apartment, Office space, and more. (LICADHO)

According to LAND GRABBING & POVERTY IN CAMBODIA: THE MYTH OF DEVELOPMENT by LICADHO,

• "In the capital, Phnom Penh, 133,000 people – more than 10% of its population – are
  believed to have been evicted since 1990."

• "In 2008, according to Amnesty International, a further 150,000 Cambodians were at risk of forced relocation nationwide"

• "As of 2004, it was estimated that 20-30% of landowners held 70% of the country’s land, while the poorest 40% occupied only 10%; in the countryside, 45% of families were landless or near landless"

 Using this evidence, not only are people in Cambodia is suffering through poverty, but they also have to deal with the government. The government is wasting money to get rid of people out of their homes to just build new places that "foreigners" or "rich people" can afford to go or live in. According to the article, Cambodia's Scavengers Face Eviction, not only are they evitcing people, but they are also getting rid of the #1 spot where these "poor" people get their money, their survival and their job. 

Citations: 

LICADHO. LAND GRABBING & POVERTY IN CAMBODIA: THE MYTH OF DEVELOPMENT,
2009. Jan. 2010

Truscott, Claire. "Cambodia’s Scavengers Face Eviction". Jakarta Globe May 26, 2009 :http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/cambodias-scavengers-face-eviction/277315

During my research i've found that in Cambodia, 70% of the people there live in ruined houses or incomplete houses. They are people who don't take money advantage because most of them lives on $1-2 a day which is is about a bottle of soda here. Not only are the people there are poor and don't have a lot, most of the kids there can't even finish school cause they can't complete their education. The government kicks people off the land just to make room for new building that they could be spending on the citizens.

What I want to find out next is what is the real reason people are in poverty there. Is it because their isn't enough imports and exports, or is it because of the government.

Commune Poverty Rates Compared with the National Level Poverty Rate

According to WFP VAM, from 1998, about 66% of Cambodia is below the ‘national level poverty rate.' The dark redish area is where most of the poverty is at and looking at this map, most of the poverty is in Phnom Penh where is where 'Smokey Mountain' located

In cambodia, there is poverty in almost step you take. There is no escape out of the poverty in cambodia.

 Some issues that causes poverty are 

• the government
• the people
• the environment
• the money
• the support

According to Business For Millennium Development , in 2009, “5.6 million or 40% of Cambodians live below the national poverty line”, but “over 70% of urban dwellers live in slums.” This evidence shows that the poverty rate decreased from 1999 but 70% lives in slums or also known as the ghettos or just like dangerous or broken down neighborhoods. From these 2 statistics, the poverty rate may decrease but we can and cannot assume the people who escaped the poverty rate are barely on the line of poverty.

Poverty in Cambodia seems like its with everyone. No one can seem to get rid of the chains that are attached to them and must keep doing what they do to survive this place they call their 'homeland'.