Welcome to Cambodia, where your faithful support is enabling local churches to overcome poverty in remote communities.
In Cambodia and across the world, it’s the poorest and most vulnerable people who benefit most from savings and loan groups. They save small amounts and take out low-interest loans from the group. Members use the money to start businesses, pay for family medical treatment and children’s education.
Your support helps people lift themselves out of poverty. Regular givers like you make a World of Difference by enabling people to take control of their money, save and start small businesses.
Watch this short video where Pastor Sambo, a church leader in Cambodia, welcomes you to his country and tells you about the work your support is enabling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRuv0r7zLs
Because of your support, local churches are being empowered to work with their communities to tackle poverty using the resources they have. Such as farming unused land to grow food for the community.
Your support is equipping Christian organisations, churches, Bible schools and church leaders by developing workshops and training programmes. This provides the knowledge and skills needed to care for God's creation.
Thanks to you, we’re partnering with Christian organisations and church leaders to encourage them to work together. Conferences and church surveys bring people from across Cambodia together to seek an end to poverty.
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in mainland South-East Asia that borders Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and the Gulf of Thailand.
Slide 1 of 3: 17,840 people have been supported and inspired by the Transforming Communities training
Slide 2 of 3: 446 local churches are partnering with us to develop community projects to bring transformation to their communities
Slide 3 of 3: 15 facilitators have been trained to teach Transforming Communities principles and practices to others
17,840 people have been supported and inspired by the Transforming Communities training
446 local churches are partnering with us to develop community projects to bring transformation to their communities
15 facilitators have been trained to teach Transforming Communities principles and practices to others
Your support is helping families to live life to the full…
Svay Yon lived through the brutal Khmer Rouge but is now building a better life for herself
Svay Yon was 23 years old when the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital Phnom Penh, then forced around 2 million people into the countryside to farm the land. The Khmer Rouge was a brutal Communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, during which at least 1.6 million Cambodians died of starvation, torture and neglect. Destruction and mass murder happened throughout the whole of Kampot province, where Svay Yon lives.
For those five years, religion was banned and all aspects of life were subject to regulation. People were not allowed to choose their marriage partners, couldn’t leave their place of work or select their clothes to wear. Money was also abolished.
Life is very different today for Svay Yon from Sathen village, now aged 72. Far from being banned, money is helping to transform lives in her remote, rural village. Only now it is managed fairly and generously.
Religious freedom is part of the country’s constitution and people are usually free to worship. This proved to be life-changing for Svay Yon 20 years ago. She fell sick and was comforted by her sister-in-law, who invited Svay Yon to church. It proved to be a turning point in her life, as she became a follower of Jesus, and later the church helped her to become economically secure too…
Svay Yon’s savings and loan group meets weekly to pray and read the Bible
After her sister-in-law invited Svay Yon to church, she accepted and started going. ‘I didn’t know how to go to church,’ she says. ‘So, I just followed them and, a year later, my husband came with me.’
Sadly, two years ago, Svay Yon’s husband died. It was a difficult time for Svay Yon without her husband’s income, but help came when she joined with others facing economic hardship.
‘All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.’
Savings and loan groups encourage members to share and be generous with their earnings. For Svay Yon, it meant she found stability and fellowship with other believers to support her through a difficult time.
‘I was earning very little. But saving together as a group is a great help, we support each other. For example, when I have no money, I can get a loan to buy the things I need and that keeps me going.’
There are currently 13 members in the group. ‘We meet and pray together once a week.’ If a member is in difficulty, the rest of the group discusses how they can help them and gives them a loan if needed. ‘We try to support each other. I have used a loan to spend on household items and [her grandchildren’s] school fees. Nobody is too poor here now.’
Through the support of her savings and loan group, Svay Yon can support her wider family
‘When someone needs a loan, they can take it immediately!’
Compared to banks and other credit schemes, the interest is much fairer: ‘Our interest rate is lower,’ Svay Yon says. ‘When someone needs a loan, they can take it immediately.’
Given the troubled history that Cambodia faced, and Svay Yon lived through, the renewed hope that her group now enjoys is all the more remarkable. ‘Since we started the group, nothing bad has happened to anyone. Never!’
Thank you for your faithful support, which is helping to make whole-life transformation possible for Svay Yon, her savings group and thousands more like them across the world.
Spice up your life with Samlor Korko, one of Cambodia's national dishes, a soup traditionally made with pork, vegetables and a spicy paste.
As you prepare, cook and enjoy, pray for Svay Yon and her community.
Pastor Eng (pictured with his family) has been leading Ang Krasang New Life Church for 20 years
Twenty years ago, Yee Sokeng (Pastor Eng) started Ang Krasang New Life Church in his community in Angkrosaing village, Takeo province. He didn’t have any footwear, so when he rode his bicycle, he wore shoes made out of discarded sugarcane drink straws.
Starting up and running his church had its disadvantages. ‘People believed that everything depended on the pastor,’ says Pastor Eng. ‘And this mindset didn’t change. So, people thought, if the church was started by Pastor Eng and the land is owned by Pastor Eng, then Pastor Eng has to do everything.’
Pastor Eng is teaching his church to become more active and self-reliant
This changed after the church took part in Tearfund’s Transforming Communities training. ‘If you compare the difference to a degree angle, it’s a hundred degrees better. It’s really far from where we started.’
The church and community were particularly inspired by Jesus feeding the five thousand in Matthew 14:13–21. ‘In the passage, Jesus lifted up the loaves and fish to thank God and asked him to multiply…’ Pastor Eng explains. ‘This is how the training taught the church and the community about how to use the resources that we have. That’s where the changes started.’
The villagers didn't traditionally farm fish. However, after being inspired by the training, they decided to use a church member's unused pond to start a fish farm. Everyone chipped in: some with money to buy baby fish, others with leftover food or chopped vegetables. This was a new way for them to share resources.
Pastor Eng says that his church and community are starting to work better together
For Pastor Eng, the key is not whether the community can successfully farm and sell fish. ‘What I see as important is not if they succeed in farming fish. Their success is in starting to work together. That’s what I see. It’s not about the fish, it’s about using resources together. That’s what they are good at now.’
Through your prayers and your giving, you are equipping our local church partners in communities like these in Cambodia and across the world to help families put the past behind them and build a brighter future. Poverty is not God’s plan. You are. Thank you.
Want to see the difference your monthly gifts are making in other countries? Explore past updates and see how your faithful gifts are making a World of Difference.
See destinationsWe hope you’ve enjoyed your time in Cambodia. Look out for your next inspiring community coming soon… but we’re not saying where that is… yet!