By Joshua Lange | Executive Director
Vann is 36 years old and lives in Chheu Teal village in central Cambodia’s Kampong Thom province. As a toddler, Vann lost her right leg. Since that time she has walked with the help of an artificial leg. Similarly, Vann’s husband contracted polio and both of his legs are paralyzed as a result of the disease.
The couple is not able to own their own house, so they and their three children live with Vann’s mother-in-law at her home. Vann needs to go out to the rice fields every day to catch fish for cooking dinner at home. Her husband helps her with this work by fixing her fishing nets. Vann also needs to do the difficult chore of going into the jungle surrounding their village to find and cut firewood for cooking.
In early 2017, CWEF began providing BioSand Water Filters for the first group of families in their village and the surrounding area in partnership with local government leaders and two local Christian pastors. Through this project, Vann and her family were able to install a BioSand Water Filter at their home.
With the BioSand Water Filter, Vann and her family are able to safely drink water directly from the filter, saving them much time and energy they used to spend in collecting firewood for boiling the drinking water they collect from a nearby well. Their water is now clean and safe for drinking, cooking, cleaning and brushing teeth. This additional time every week means Vann and her husband can use more of their time to work and earn an income for their family.
Like so many other people CWEF has been able to provide with improved access to clean water, Vann and her family have been blessed with more time, renewed health, new opportunities for income, and greater hope for the future.
With the gifts received during the GlobalGiving Accelerator campaign, CWEF Cambodia Health Director Kanhchana Thoy is now working with our local partners in Kampong Thom province to expand the BioSand Water Filter project there to reach 200 additional families with convenient access to clean and healthy water in the coming months.
Looking into the future, we hope to reach even more families like Vann’s with the precious and transformative gift of clean water. Please consider another generous donation today: $100 provides clean water for an entire family.
In addition to the Biosand Water Filters, CWEF trains families in proper maintenance of their filter, along with education on proper sanitation and hygiene, and its effect on disease prevention and overall health. With proper care and maintenance, each water filter can provide a family with clean water for more than 20 years.
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