Development Program
Having come to love the people and communities within which we work, our Program seeks to also give back to these communities through sustainable development. Our development work addresses four primary issues:
- Food security & nutritional health ( especially to address children's nutritional needs);
- Bio-Diverse Gardens (in order to provide income generation, food security, and eco-friendly alternative to current practices);
- Environmental Protection (to promote fauna and flora education, bio-diversity preservation, and eco-friendly development); and
- Educational, medical and health support to the Phnom Kulen Villages.
Food security / nutritional health
The food security and nutritional health component will focus primarily on infants and toddlers (i.e., children under 5 years of age). Most villages in rural areas of Siem Reap Province suffer from transitory food insecurity caused by limited seasonal access to food. Villages in Phnom Kulen are especially vulnerable to acute and chronic malnutrition due to limited to no road access, dangerous terrain and extreme poverty. The World Food Program (WFP) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have recorded acute and chronic malnutrition levels as high as 20% and 49% respectively among young Khmer children.
Beginning in June 2010, our Child Nutrition Program (CNP) will address undernourishment issues of infants and toddlers. By addressing nutritional issues early on during these crucial development years, the CNP seeks to provide these children a fighting chance at normal physical and mental development, health and a brighter tomorrow.
Bio Diverse Gardens (BDG)
Our Bio-Diverse Garden (BDG) provides a sustainable means of food security, income generation, and eco-friendly alternative to slash-and-burn mono-cropping practices. A BDG involves companion-planting of nutritious edible trees (i.e., Moringa Oleifera, a tree where leaves, seeds, flowers and fruits are edible) as cash crops for income generation as well as a constant source of food. Companion-planting involves creating a micro ecology of organisms that complement one another (i.e., nitrogen fixers with fruit-bearing trees) that synergize to build the soil as well as bear a harvest. Moreover, BDGs directly fight against deforestation because it will minimize, if not eliminate the need for slash-and-burn practices that rapidly depletes nutrients within the soil.
Environment Protection
Environmental Protection, addressing the issue of deforestation in general, will work towards rehabilitation and regeneration of Phnom Kulen's indigenous forest. Partnering up with APSARA and local communities, our reforestation efforts will use archeological sites as the point of origin for forest canopy regeneration. Established in the process are "ecological buffer zones" (EBZ) that will serve as natural barriers for archeological sites. These EBZs, comprising of existing indigenous trees (i.e., Leechee/ Kulen trees), are themselves safeguarded along with the temple compound around which it protects. Moreover, these Kulen trees, properly maintained and harvested, serve also as a cash crop for local inhabitants.
Educational, medical and health support of Phnom Kulen Villages
Educational, medical and health support of Phnom Kulen Villages involve both tangible and intangible intervention. Tangible interventions to date include construction of a 3-classroom school building to expand Anlong Thom Primary School, material support for Anlong Thom Health Centre, and creating a tree nursery. Although education is not confined to any structure, providing adequate space and creating an environment conducive to learning is integral in the educational process. Along the same lines, material support in medicines and hiring a trained nurse to manage the Anlong Thom Health Centre helps offset the severe deficiencies of the National Health Department in this region. The tree nursery, like many of the other interventions, are tangible inputs towards a myriad of intangible cross-cutting objectives (i.e., education, stewardship, and environmental protection).
All the activities addressing these four primary issues share one cross-cutting goal, to create an empowered Kulen civil society that is able to organize, implement and decide their own development.