After leaving her husband, single mum Sreyleap and her four young children ended up on the street. They lived near an old train station on what used to be a garbage tip. During the rainy season, the whole area would flood with rubbish, sewerage and refuse from the nearby village. The environment was so toxic that her children were often very sick with diarrhea, skin rashes and coughs.
To provide for her children Sreyleap worked several jobs, day and night. Yet no matter how hard she worked, she still couldn’t put three meals on the table each day or save enough to send her kids to school. Her dream of raising her children out of poverty seemed impossible.
Two years ago their village chief alerted CCT to the vulnerable state of this family to see what support was available to them. Our first priority was to improve their living conditions and get the whole family medical and nutritional support. With regular visits from our Medical Outreach team and social workers, the family’s physical and mental health started to improve.
The children started attending our CCT Youth Centre programs every day and the older kids were enrolled in public school. Sreyleap worked with our Family Finance team to learn financial literacy and identify a job that would support her four children.
Today this family is on the path to the future Sreyleap always imagined. Her business selling fruit and vegetables is going so well that she is working with the Family Finance team to expand to selling hot food also.
Sreyleap says she starts every day with a smile. Getting up in the morning and seeing her children in their school uniforms gives her the energy to keep on fighting for the best future possible for herself and her children.
With the right support, families have a remarkable capacity to help themselves.
