CCT’s Village Hive mobilises whole communities to strengthen families and ensure no vulnerable child is overlooked. In Kammakor Village in Battambang city, 12 extremely vulnerable families were identified. These families are homeless and the only site in their village they have been allowed to set up shelters was on top of the village’s old dumpsite.
Some of the families have been squatting on this site for over a decade, creating untold damage to their physical and emotional wellbeing. The children living in these families weren’t enrolled in school and were suffering from serious physical ailments including malnutrition.
CCT’s Village Hive model is designed in partnership with the community to respond to cases exactly like this.
The community rallied together to clean up the site. CCT’s construction team worked with the community to remove the rubbish, drain the toxic waste, fill in the site with new dirt. Now construction has begun on new, safe shelters for the families. CCT’s social work and medical team have worked with the families to ensure they have access to all their basic needs. All the children are now enrolled in public school and accessing other vital services such as nutrition, health care and daycare services from one of CCT’s Youth Centres.
This project was supported by funding from Australian donors including Family by Family founded by James Ricketson. Please head to our Donate page to help lift more vulnerable families out of extreme poverty.
Before CCT started the Kammakor Village renovation project, Heng, 10, and Khanha, 7, lived on a wooden cart in rubbish, mud and sewage.
Their mum, Thy, collects bottles to support her family, but the kids didn’t have enough food to eat and didn’t go to school. After we started the Kammakor transformation project, a social worker met Thy and invited the family to one of CCT’s Youth Centres so they could access their basic needs. Because the family were in such a vulnerable situation, they stayed overnight in crisis accommodation at the centre for several nights. We made sure they had food, water, blankets and were safe, while we helped to secure safer accommodation.
Heng and Khanha expressed that they wanted to start school so CCT social workers started the process to access their birth certificates. Teachers at the Youth Centre began providing tutoring to prepare them to start at public school. Now they’ve been able to start school, CCT has supplied their school uniforms, bags, shoes and books.
After we finish the Kammakor transformation project, the family will have a small, safe and secure home of their own and we will continue working with the family to make empowerment plans for their future.
CCT social workers conduct hygiene workshops with the children living in the Kammakor slum. Some of these children have grown up in this village and have never had access to proper hygiene and sanitation facilities. CCT’s social work and medical team are working with the children, and their families to teach them good hygiene practices.
For now, the children are accessing hygiene and sanitation facilities at one of CCT’s Youth Centres. When the Kammakor slum transformation project is complete, the children and their families will have bathroom and shower facilities at home.
Devid, 9, Daven, 8, and Davy, 5, live in the slum in Kammakor Village with their parents.
Since the Kammakor Transformation project began, CCT social workers enrolled the children into one of CCT’s Youth Centres. At the Youth Centre they can access basic needs that they don’t currently have at home, such as clean drinking water, nutritious meals, hygiene and sanitation facilities and access to healthcare.
The older siblings, Devid and Daven, were not going to school when CCT began working with them. Devid had been to school in the past when he lived with his grandma, but his younger brother Daven, who is 8 years old, had never been to school. A plan was made to get them enrolled into public school, and to enrol Davy into public preschool.
CCT social workers worked with the family’s Village Chief to register for birth certificates so they could enrol in school. While waiting for their birth certificates to arrive, Devid and Daven began tutoring and taking extra classes at the Youth Centre to help prepare them for school.
At the start of December, Devid and Daven started public school. Davy was enrolled in a public preschool. They will continue to attend the Youth Centre in addition to public school and public preschool each day.
Now the Kammakor transformation project is finished, the family have a small, safe and secure home of their own. CCT social workers will continue working with the family, including financial coaching, to make sustainable plans for their future.
