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07 Jan

By: giant

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Prey Veng Province
1,145,979

Population

43,669

Household BioSand Filters Installed

217,371

Humans Benefiting From Household BioSand Filters

3,032

Household Latrines Built

13

School Latrines Built

99

School BioSand Filters Installed

48,158

Students and School Staff Served

115

Handwashing stations Installed

12

Trash Incinerators Installed

07 Dec

By: giant

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Chrak Svay Primary School

Chrak Svay Primary School invested in a School WASH package from Clear Cambodia, 2 years ago. The Chrak Svay school currently serves 571 student from the district surrounding the school. The school’s principal, Mr. Chhap Sarin, has worked at the school since 2005 and has been the school principal since 2014.

The school has a well, but the water that they are able to pump from the well is muddy, and the water has a unpleasant smell. They have tried other filters in the past and even tried a Household BioSand filter to get clean drinking water for the students. While the Household BioSand filter produced high quality clean water, it simply was unable to meet the daily water demands of over 500 children in a hot, humid climate.

Before investing in the School WASH facilities, the children had no place to wash their hands. Teachers would place basins of water outside each classroom once a day so children could wash their hands, but only a few students could wash their hands before it became muddy and dirty as well.

The latrines in the school were broken, which forced the students to find places behind the buildings and in the grove of trees behind the building to go to the bathroom. Older female students would often skip school during their periods as there were no working latrine facilities to give them the privacy they needed to meet their hygiene needs.

In 2016 Mr. Chhap talked with a friend who worked at Clear Cambodia and learned about their School WASH program. He submitted a request to his district education office, and their school was selected to receive the facilities due to the intense need of the students and staff.

Mr. Chhap says he made the request to get the School WASH facilities because the people in his community had invested in Household BioSand Filters for their individual homes years before and he knew that the technology worked. After looking at the brochures he knew that the bigger school system would be able to provide enough water for his students and staff.

In addition to the large capacity BioSand filter, the school also received a hand washing station, a new latrine building with 6 stalls, 3 for boys and 3 for girls. They also received a trash incinerator to help the school effectively dispose of trash, using the incinerator means the trash is burned quickly and efficiently and the high smoke stack on the incinerator prevents the smoke from drifting into the classrooms and interrupting class.

Mr. Chapp says that the facilities they received from Clear Cambodia have improved student health. Their teachers have received training on how to educate the children about hygiene, and access to materials to help them teach hygiene to the students. The environment around the school is cleaner thanks to the trash incinerator and the new latrine building.

He says that the school staff really like the clean modern design of the latrine building and parents are proud to send their students to a school they can trust, that has good hygiene facilities. Attendance has increased for the older girls that were skipping school before because of menstrual hygiene issues. Also the pass rate for final exams has risen from 80% to 85 – 90% depending on grade level.

Mr. Chapp is currently mentoring another principal in the area and helping him complete the process to get School Wash Facilities for his school from Clear Cambodia.

07 Dec

By: giant

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Kunthy’s Story
07 Dec

By: giant

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Saveun’s Story

Our family has lived in this place for over 20 years. My husband and I moved here when our oldest daughter Kol Rany was three years old. Back then, we survived on what we could grow.

Now, 20 years later, my husband works part-time in the local government’s environment office. A lot has changed in the 20 years we have lived here.

For the first few years we had an open well that we could draw water from with a rope and bucket. The water was always dirty and made us sick.

Eventually, we were able to pay for a borehole well, but even with a better well the water was still not safe to drink. We spent a lot of money for the new well and we were still sick often.

Back then, we used a two-step process to make our water drinkable. First, we would let the water rest in a sediment jar to get as much dirt out of the water as possible. Then, I would boil the water for 15 minutes.

To boil the water, I would have to gather firewood to burn. Each day it was my responsibility to boil the water so my husband could have clean water to drink.

Often my children and I would drink water straight from the well because we didn’t have enough firewood to boil water for all of us.

When we were drinking unboiled water straight from the well we would get skin rashes, and the children always had diarrhea. I was often sick as well. I didn’t have very much energy and struggled to do my housework and take care of my children.

We were fortunate to be able to scavenge for things to burn, because back then we did not have any income. We lived on the rice and vegetables we could grow, the fish we could catch, and the eggs our few chickens produced.

Nine years ago Clear Cambodia started working in our village to provide BioSand filters for families and build latrines in the community. To get the filter we needed to invest $5. The filter cost $60 but Clear Cambodia would cover the rest.

My husband sold some of the rice we had grown and we invested in the BioSand filter. We felt we really could not afford the $5 but it was also expensive to be sick all the time.

Since we invested in the BioSand filter, our lives have changed so much. My kids don’t get sick as often and don’t miss school. My husband and I have a lot more energy and can work more in the field.

Before we had clean water we often had to spend the little bit of money we could save on medicine for us or our children. Once we got the water filter, we were finally able to start saving money and improving our family situation.

The BioSand filter removes bacteria like e-coli and parasites that make us sick. It also removes the fertilizers and pesticides that seep into the groundwater and cause skin rashes.

We use the water for everything. We drink it, we wash our hands with it, we wash our vegetables with it, and we bathe with it. We also learned about hygiene from the classes taught by Clear Cambodia in our village. After hearing about the benefit of latrines in class, we saved and built a small latrine for our family.

My younger daughter Kol Puti is in the 7th grade at the district school. She is responsible for washing the vegetables we grow in our garden before we take them to the market.

Because she is healthy and able to attend school regularly, in 6 years she will be able to attend university. She wants to study to be a teacher. Now, she is taking extra classes after school to learn English.

My oldest daughter Kol Rany, has moved to Phnom Penh for work. I care for her twin sons Chan Soklap and Chan Cheat.

With the money we have been able to save, we recently paid to have 2 fish ponds dug on our property so we can grow fish to sell at the market. We used the extra dirt to continue expanding our gardens.

With more people in the family and a larger garden we decided to invest in a second BioSand filter.

“Clean water has given us health and that will change our family for generations.” — Saveun

My husband says “It is amazing the difference good health has made in our lives.”

07 Dec

By: giant

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Sophea’s Story

My name is Sophea. I live in Svay Rieng province in Cambodia with my mother, father and older brother. Every morning I wake up at 5 o’clock to start my chores and help my mother before school starts.

Each morning, I am responsible for doing the dishes and the laundry for our family. I hang up our laundry to dry and when I get home from school, I take it down and put it away. I am also responsible for helping my mother water the vegetables and for sweeping our yard to keep it clean.

Before breakfast, I make sure our BioSand filter is filled with water so we can have clean, safe water to drink for the day. My mother and I make breakfast for the family. Today, my grandfather is here with us because my father has traveled to another district to build another family a new house.

After breakfast, I get ready to go to school. I change into my uniform, comb my hair, and get my school bag loaded into my bicycle.

Today is a special day. One day a week my mother gives me money for school fees, alms for the monks, and a little money for me to spend.

On the way to school, I stop at my friend Srey Lang’s house and we ride to school together. My school is a 4 km (about 2 miles) bicycle ride from my house.
Before school starts, we help clean up the school yard, by sweeping and picking up leaves and trash that blew into the school yard over night.

At the start of each school day we line up for exercises, songs and announcements. As one of the older girls, it is my responsibility to help one of the classes of younger children line up and to help them with their exercises.

When it is time to sing, students take turns leading the singing. Today, it is my turn to lead all of the students in our songs. We sing our national anthem, a Buddhist song of worship, and our hygiene songs.

We started singing the hygiene songs two years ago when our school got the new water filter from Clear Cambodia. Our school also received a new latrine building and a hand washing station. Now our school has enough toilets and we all have a place to wash our hands.

Before we got the filter at the school we had to drink the water straight from the well and I often had a stomach ache or diarrhea. Because of this, I often missed classes and my parents had to spend money from our small savings to take me to the doctor and to buy medicine to make me feel better.

Clear Cambodia trained our teachers and provided posters and books, so our teachers could teach us how to have good hygiene and take good care of our bodies. I learned to always drink clean water from the filter, and that washing my hands with soap kills germs. I also learned to always use the latrines when I need to go to the bathroom. All of these things help me stay in school and help my family save money when I don’t get sick.

After our singing, we go to our classrooms and study.

We get 2 breaks each morning. During breaks, some of us have chores to do, like sweeping the school yard and tending to the school garden. Often, you can find the younger boys playing marbles in the dirt on the playground. I like to jump rope with my friends and play soccer between classes.

Our school has changed a lot in the last two years. Students are sick less. My friends and I are able to come to school regularly and we are getting better scores each year. We all have water bottles and can drink as much clean water as we want. In between classes you can always find children filling their bottles from the filter in the middle of the school yard.

My classes this year are math, science, geography, history, art, and Khmer language. Khmer language is my favorite class.

“I really enjoy school and I want to be a Khmer language teacher when I grow up.” — Sophea

EPILOGUE:
Sophea’s principal Mr. Chan Sam An says that the school’s performance has made big improvements after installing the water filter.

The school applied for the Bio-Sand filter, latrines, hand washing station, and garbage incinerator in 2014 and received them in March of 2015. The school had to contribute the materials for a shelter to protect the filter and the labor to construct it. They also had to contribute the water tank and its support structure to hold water for flushing the latrines.

Clear Cambodia also provides Principal Chan with a complete hygiene education curriculum – complete with handouts, posters and guidebooks for teachers. Clear Cambodia has also developed songs to help the children remember good hygiene habits.

The school currently has 1006 students. Half of the students go to class from 7:30am to 12pm and the other half attend class from 1pm to 5:30 pm.

In 2014, before the filter was installed, the school had a daily absence rate of 7.5%. In 2015, after the filter was installed, the daily absence rate dropped to 5.0%. In 2016, it dropped to 3.5%.
The amount of students who complete the requirements and move on to the next grade has gone up as well, with the installation of the fixtures and implementation of the hygiene curriculum. In 2014, before the program started, the pass rate was 79% over all of the grades. In 2015, it rose to 82%, and in 2016 it rose again to 85%.

The surrounding communities have noticed the changes and recently, families have begun to move into the district so that their children can attend Principal Chan’s school.

Principal Chan attributes these changes to the access to clean water and hygiene education that Clear Cambodia has provided in the community. He says that access to clean water and community hygiene education reduces the financial strain on families as well as the community. It does this by preventing diseases that take away productive work and school time and reduces the costs families pay for hospital bills.

By educating the students on good hygiene they are able to educate the community. Because of the health education that the children are receiving, most families in the community have now built a latrine for their own family’s use, and most have also invested in a home Bio-Sand filter to clean their drinking and bathing water at home.

“The most important thing we have is our health. If people have good health they can do anything.” — Principal Chan

07 Dec

By: giant

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Srey Mao’s Story

My name is Srey Mao, I live in a rural area of Prey Veng province. I have lived in this district my whole life. Two years ago I moved to this  village to start a new business with my family. Before we moved to this village I knew I wanted to open a restaurant. I love to cook and serve the people of my community. We saw that this village was on a main road with lots of traffic everyday and there was no restaurant to serve the community and the people traveling through.

I live here with my husband, and my 4 children, I have one daughter and three sons. I really love this community because it is in a rural village and not crowded. Most of my neighbors are rice farmers, and most of my customers work close to here.

Each day I wake up at 5am to prepare breakfast for my customers. After my last breakfast customers leave, my family and I clean up the restaurant, wash the dishes and begin preparing food to serve for lunch. I am able to purchase the vegetables and meats I need from my neighbors.

Last year we chose to make an investment in our business that has really made our lives easier. The water from our well has a lot of minerals that affect the taste of the food we serve and water we serve our customers. So for most of the first year we were in business we purchased large 20 liter jars of water to cook with and to serve our customers. We also boiled some of our well water to make it safe to drink.

Eventually we heard from our village leader that we could invest 20,000 riel($5) and get a Biosand water filter that would provide all the water we needed to run our business and to supply our family needs. My husband invested a few days helping construct the filters and then paid 2000 Riel to have it delivered to our restaurant.

The filter has been a wonderful investment. I no longer have to boil water to make it safe to drink. The filter removes all the iron, minerals, and bacteria from the water and makes it clear and ready to drink and cook with. Now I don’t have to waste money buying water to serve my customers. They can drink as much as they like and it costs me nothing.

“The filter is very good, easy to use and good for your health. It is easy to maintain just pour in the water and it makes it clean.” – Srey Mao

My dream for my restaurant is to make it bigger and eventually build a more modern and nicer restaurant where I can serve my customers.

07 Dec

By: giant

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Sophal’s Story

My name is Rorn Sophal, I am 12 years old and in the sixth grade at Chrak Svay primary school in Prey Veng province. I live on a farm with my grandparents. We grow rice, chickens, ducks, pigs and cows. My parents live in Phnom Penh and work selling fruit door to door to make money so my brothers and I can go to school.

I start school at 7am each morning. To start the day all the students and teachers gather around the flag pole to raise the flag and to sing our national anthem. The students take turns raising the flag and leading the singing of the anthem. We also do some exercises to help us prepare for class and be awake and ready to learn.

I really enjoy school. My favorite class is Khmer Literature. I love to play soccer with my friends between classes.

2 years ago our school got a big water filter, nice latrines, a place to wash our hands and a place to burn trash. Before we got the big water filter I had to bring a bottle of water from home, if I drank it all I had to wait till I got home to get another drink because the water at school was bad. Now I can drink all I want at school, there is always enough water.

Before we got the latrines there was no place for us to go to the bathroom. We either had to wait till we got home or find a place to hide behind the school. Now we have really nice latrines and places to wash our hands so we don’t get sick.

When we got the new latrines our teachers began teaching us about hygiene and how to keep ourselves healthy. We learned about how to wash our hand well, with soap, and to clean under our fingernails and in between our fingers. We also learned about only drinking clean water and that the germs in dirty water can make us very sick.

I have many chores to do at home to help my grandparents. I am responsible for taking the cows out to pasture and bringing them home and for making sure they have hay and water when they are tied up at home.

We get our water from a well, but it comes out of the well very dirty and smelly, like the water used to be at the school. So we use a filter to clean our water so it is safe to drink. I am also responsible for making sure our water filter is clean and full so we have lots of clean water to drink.

I love my grandfather very much. He takes really good care of me and my brothers. Last year he built us a new latrine in our home so we had a nice private place to use the bathroom and take baths.

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