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Christmas Appeal - Give Hope – 10 Dec 2010

Red ants and snails. When hunger gripped Mol and Tol Tuch and their children in Cambodia, these were the options left available to them. In their village, that we visited last year, one in five children were dying from malnutrition.

‘I was shocked when I saw Mol and Tol’s children eat,’ says Ralph, who recently visited Cambodia. ‘It was as if they hadn’t seen food for a long time and would not see it again. There was something disturbingly “urgent” about the way they chewed and swallowed – as if their lives depended on it.’

A small amount of money can make such a huge difference in a country like Cambodia.

A gift of just €34 can provide a family with two pigs and five chickens, providing food and income for the future.

Mol and Tol have a field. They depend on this for survival. But the rice harvest enables them to grow enough food to feed themselves and their four children for just six months of the year. Then the food runs out.

Tearfund’s partner, the Wholistic Development Organisation (WDO), has begun working in villages across the region to tackle the problem of chronic hunger. Because of their support, things have changed in Mol’s village. ‘They (WDO) came here and helped us. This village was one of the poorest in the area. The work has changed tremendously the way people live.’

Tearfund has enabled its partner, WDO, to loan chickens and pigs to needy families. Mol and Tol are already breeding theirs. They will eventually give back the adult animals, keep the offspring and start a business selling chickens and pigs. Alongside this, WDO has provided crop seedlings – and trained families like Mol and Tol’s to use their land in the dry season, growing watermelons and vegetables.

‘They have helped our family completely’ Mol smiles broadly. ‘This is the outcome,’ he says, pointing to his field full of crops – a contradiction in a country where fields normally lie bare in the dry season. ‘You have helped us to thing of the future. You have given us hope,’ he says.

Could you give just €34 this Christmas? Donate here

Saving for the future

To cope with the uncertainty of the harvest a ‘rice bank’ has also been built. It is a secure shed on stilts used to store rice. In Mol’s village fifty families have already joined the scheme. The church runs the initiative – they were the only ones the villagers trusted to manage it.

‘I took my 20kg of rice to the rice bank’ explains Mol. ‘Then when I was lacking food, the rice bank loaned me 100kg. It really helped us. It is much cheaper than most other ways of getting rice.’

Because of the work of Tearfund’s partner WDO, the Tuch family now always have two meals a day. During the next five years, Tearfund’s partner WDO is on track to reach and mobilise every church in Cambodia to support its community and ensure people have enough to eat.

How your support can transform a community

• €124 can provide 30 families with seeds so they can grow up to eight different crops, which means they don’t just rely on one food group
• €61 can provide agricultural training for eight church volunteers, helping nearly 200 orphaned children to farm their own food
• €34 can provide a family like Mol’s with two pigs and five chickens, providing food and income for the future

• More about: Cambodia
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