Building Homes, Bringing Hope, Changing Lives

To everyone else who sees it, Oum Leap lives in a bathroom. But for this widow, she calls it home.

“It’s my home. It is much better than being homeless. My children and I were homeless for two years.”

At age 50, Oum Leap has been an HIV patient for over 10 years. Her husband died of AIDS in 2000, leaving her to raise their teenaged children on her own. She tried to make ends meet but when she couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore, she and her family ended up living in the dumpsite in Stung Meanchey District in 2007. Here, she expected to earn enough to feed her kids by collecting recyclable materials. When they first arrived, they spent two years in a tiny structure without walls in a shantytown next to the landfill. One organization that runs a school near the dump site took pity on her and allowed her to stay inside the school grounds to protect her family from roaming gangs, drug addicts, thieves and inclement weather. Since there was no space inside the school for a family, she and her children set up their makeshift home next to the abandoned toilet. It was under these living conditions that the Home Care Team of Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE met Oum Leap in 2010.Oum Leap’s life the last couple of years has been about living and working at the landfill. She earns $2-$3 per day collecting recyclable materials. The family has to endure the stench from the dumpsite 24 hours a day. Daytime brought thousands of flies and nighttime meant thousands of mosquitoes.

But she did not worry much about food and shelter.

The rainy season brings relief from the stench but this one brought the family another misfortune. The rains had made the grounds muddy. Oum Leap slipped and broke her knee, leaving her unable to work at the dumpsite.  Read more