Rin, her husband Jin, and their five children (aged 12 to just 14 months) must drink from a stagnant pond dug behind their house.
There’s never enough water during the dry season, when the family must pay for a fuel generator to pump water out, or buy it from a truck without knowing how clean the water is. And in the rainy season, their water is polluted with debris washed in by floods.
When you donate to WaterAid, you’ll help give families like Rin’s the most powerful gift on earth – clean water.
Sickness from dirty water is common here, and the impacts are serious. It’s especially worrying for 14-month-old Ponleu. Every sip of water puts little Ponleu’s life in danger.
Rin and Jin fish to make a living and feed their family. But when they get sick, they can’t fish - which means they can’t make money to give their family enough to eat.
Eight-year-old Ratana says, ‘’I want to be a doctor in the future. I study hard.’’ But when Ratana gets sick from the dirty water, she misses the opportunity of a full education.
In Cambodia and beyond, WaterAid are working to help provide resilient and sustainable clean water for communities, to reach families like Jin and Rin’s in the most challenging environments. Solutions like piped water systems, pumped wells and safe toilets will help families protect themselves from illness.
With water at the centre of their lives, Jin and Rin can build their children a brighter future. As Rin says:
My biggest hope for my family is all my children get higher education, my family has good health, and we have enough food to eat.’’
About WaterAid
WaterAid has teams in 28 countries across the world, working with our partners to transform millions of lives every year by improving access to clean water, toilets and hygiene.
Since 1981, we’ve reached over 27 million people with clean water. But we can’t stop there.
In the last 39 years, we’ve gone from strength to strength to become one of the most respected organisations dealing solely with water, sanitation and hygiene issues.
What do WaterAid do?
While installing taps and toilets is essential to our work, we do so much more. We convince governments to change laws, link policy makers with people on the ground, pool knowledge and resources and rally support from people and organisations around the world, making lasting change happen on a massive scale.
Why regular donations matter
Regular gifts provide us with sustainable income so we can plan projects and commit to helping more people.