Humans of Clear Cambodia
I have spent the past three months in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as an intern for a local NGO. I was drawn to this country because of its unique role as being in the infancy of its development — be it in infrastructure, healthcare, or culture.
This country has lived through multiple lives. From an ancient Angkor empire teeming with state of the art irrigation systems, hospitals, and a booming population of over one million people… to the unforgiving agrarian society crafted by the Khmer Rouge which saw the death of one fourth of its population… to present-day Cambodia, rebuilding from the bits and pieces left from these past lives.
And where does the organization I interned for exactly fit in?
Since 1999, Clear Cambodia has been a leader in revolutionizing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in rural Cambodia. To date, over 1.1 million Cambodians have benefitted from their work: namely thanks to their success in the installation of both hardware and software in target communities.
Many of my coworkers have lived through the country’s multiple lives and it has been an immense privilege to witness the passion behind their labour. I hope the following gives a brief insight into their work.
I’m sitting in an air-conditioned room with polished wood tables and comfortable seats. When I first arrived in Cambodia three months ago, the only amenities I had imagined to receive from a water filtration NGO in a developing country were clean drinking water and maybe an electric fan, at best. But the Executive Director (ED) of an NGO has worked for such small luxuries to be present in his office and surely those did not come without sacrifice and grit.
ED scheduled in the interview towards the last few hours of the workday. I had given him the option of doing it the next morning but perhaps he wanted to wind down the day reminiscing about how his NGO, Clear Cambodia came to be.
With staff that were all born and raised in Cambodia — some hailing from the provinces Clear Cambodia works in — there is no debate that they have the local knowledge needed for successful implementation of the organization’s programs. This is especially valuable when trying to understand the context of the household at hand. Sometimes unsafe drinking water is the hidden culprit behind a family’s health problems.
Yim Viriya, current Executive Director of Clear Cambodia, began his career with Hagar International, where he worked to reintegrate street children and trafficked women of Phnom Penh back into their home provinces. Viriya’s role as a Shelter Manager was to oversee their training and ensure their homes were safe and sound to settle into.
“One day, I walked into a house that seemed normal. They had enough food to eat but the children had constant diarrhea and big, big bellies. And they didn’t know why.”
Viriya and the director of Hagar International at the time peered into the nearby water jug and noticed a red-brown tint to the water.
“‘Do you drink with this?’ We asked.
‘Yes.’ she said. Cooked and cleaned and bathed too.”
Unsafe drinking water often leads to immediate consequences such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. In rural Cambodia, these symptoms are often the precursors for more serious illnesses such as cholera, typhoid fever and other tropical diseases. Unfortunately, this isn’t an issue exclusive to Cambodia alone. Globally, the lack of advanced care available for treatment of diarrheal diseases results in the death of approximately 2,200 children under 5 every day (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
“If they become sick, they will become poor again… they will need to spend more money for doctors, medicine, healthcare. We had to do something.”
However, introducing new technology in Cambodia can be difficult, particularly in rural villages. As a foreign NGO, gaining trust of the community is one challenge. Teaching the community how to use new technology is another. What they needed was a simple, efficient way of filtering their water to prevent disease.
The BioSand Filter fulfilled the criteria. Made solely of raw materials that are easily accessed in Cambodia — concrete, gravel, and sand — the filter required no electricity and little maintenance following construction.
Beginning with merely 20 BioSand filters in the provinces of Kampong Thom and Kratie, beneficiaries were limited to the women and children Hagar International served. However, this was followed by complaints from the local community.
“Why do you give only to your beneficiaries? We want to become beneficiaries too!” echoed some community members.
Within 1 month, interest was garnered from government officials, village chiefs and provincial officers. In response to the interest, Viriya was able to expand operations and secure funding.
However, as Viriya’s water filtration project grew to include international donors such as the Canadian International Development Agency and Samaritan’s Purse Canada, it quickly became too large and niched to fit under Hagar International’s mandate. Viriya’s water filtration project was then offered the opportunity to become independent and localize as its own NGO — Clear Cambodia.
“No one thought Clear (Cambodia) would last 2–3 years.” — Yim Viriya
Doubts were inevitably placed on how long a local NGO like Clear Cambodia would survive. With the history of a difficult political climate, trust is better held in large and established western NGOs which typically have the credentials and funding to back up the work that they do. This was coupled with the question of how long Clear Cambodia would survive under the leadership of a man whose most senior position he had held was as a manager with Hagar International.
“I was hesitant to lead an NGO. I only finished high school and did not have a Bachelor’s degree. I had no experience in policy and no guidelines on how to run an NGO!
But with the blessing of God, the support of friends and the work of our staff… Here we are today.”
Viriya had a team at Hagar International willing to support him. That team was composed of a few current staff at Clear Cambodia, including my supervisor, School WASH Project Manager, Chhorvy Vanny.
Necru (Teacher) Chhorvy comes from a wealth of experience. She was a teacher in 1980s, and was then trained to be midwife in the very early 1990s. She came to know Viriya at Hagar International, where she worked mainly with women and children. In 2012, he invited her to join the Clear Cambodia team with a focus on WASH education in schools.
“I was very pleased to work with the Clear Cambodia team because [of the opportunity to] help school children by educating them on clean water, sanitation and hygiene… this has a very positive impact on their attendance at school.” — Chhorvy Vanny
She spent her first year in and out of meetings with the Department of Education, school principals, village leaders and other future beneficiaries to build trust within the community. From here, she quickly gained a network of schools that would most benefit from the School BioSand Water Filters Clear Cambodia sought to provide.
Since then, the school WASH program has expanded beyond solely providing School BioSand Water Filters. Additional hardware including latrines, hand-washing stations, and garbage kilns have been added to fulfill the need for a healthier school environment. More recently, basic hygiene practices such as latrine use and menstrual hygiene are now part of an education curriculum which Clear Cambodia uses to train principals and staff in target communities.
Once in a while, Chhorvy will make a surprise visit to certain schools, just to make sure that things are still running smoothly. One Friday, she dropped by a school that was a recent recipient of a BioSand Filter, latrine and hand-washing station. It was good news for her to see that he still took care of all the equipment they had received.
“I pity the students,” the principal said. “Before they were sick with stomachaches and diarrhea.. now, they will even take water home because they know that it will keep them healthy.”
Unfortunately, it is clear that Cambodia still has a long way to go in gaining access to clean water and hygiene for all. As of 2015, 1/5 of deaths in kids aged 5 and under are due to diarrheal diseases (UNICEF Cambodia) and 56% of households continue to practice open defecation (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation).
Reading these statistics feels like a slap in the face. But if statistics could speak, perhaps they’d attest to the success of local NGOs in preventing those numbers from being any more drastic than they already are. Maybe they’d give a special mention to Clear Cambodia for continuing to work so tirelessly in a climate where the demand for its programs far outpaces their ability to supply. If anything, the statistics continue to set the bar high for an organization that refuses to cease anytime soon.
if you are interested in learning more about Clear Cambodia, you can visit their website at www.clearcambodia.org
currently, they are generously supported by charity:water at www.charitywater.org
