Some years ago there was severe flooding in Kandas-Vihear in the Kampong Cham Province of Cambodia. This village is so remote that the Khmer government sent no aid. What was the community to do? There was no choice at the time but for the community to take refuge and wait for help.
Not long ago we visited seven villages in southeast Uganda and it tore us up. We came home, convinced that something had to be done on behalf of these kids.
In July we heard from one of our representatives in Cambodia that her father was very ill and that the doctors could not diagnose his problem. We were a bit surprised. This was a man that survived the Khmer Rouge regime and genocide. He has participated in so many manual projects for our ministry, none of us could imagine him sick and weak.
For centuries, maybe even millennia, African women have prepared meals by setting a cooking pot on three stones and shoving tree limbs underneath for fuel. Despite its long tradition, this method is expensive, inefficient, and unhealthy. Too many trees are coming down, most of the heat escapes, and all kinds of eye irritation and respiratory ailments crop up due to the smoke.