http://351543andrewgray.smugmug.com/gallery/7412953_6e4E7/ Andong Village begain In 2006 when 1400 families were forcibly displaced from Sambok Chap in Phnom Penh. They were relocated to an empty field 24km from the city center without jobs, clean water, a school, or any public services. Abraham, a Cambodian leader, has been working at Andong Village from the start. He and a group of village volunteers helped build more than 400 temporary homes, put in drainage pipes, and formed a school. The school is an oasis of smiling kids who seem genuinely happy there. They could easily be mistaken for the children of middle class families, except for telltale signs -- fraying hems, scattered dirty shirts... Follow the children home across a field strewn with trash and enter the rows of shacks. These homes were built as temporary dwellings. Now they are falling apart, the rainy season is four months away, and the cost to repair them is daunting for most. Giant barrels marked "UNICEF" hold pond water for sale, because the local well water is contaminated with heavy metals. Now the owner of the land that the school rents wants to sell, so the school has to move or close. They would like to buy a field nearby, but prices have escalated. The cost is $90 thousand dollars, but the NGO only has $135 in the bank. http://www.smugmug.com/img/feed-icon.png Cambodia Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:42:56 -0800 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:25:44 -0700 http://www.smugmug.com/ Copyright 2009, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. http://www.smugmug.com/img/smuggy64.gif http://351543andrewgray.smugmug.com/gallery/7412953_6e4E7/