We heard from a lot of people about woman who lives in a very old house near Honour Village. The womans name is Chom Sok. She is 28 years old and she is mentally ill. She has three brothers, and all of them got married, and went to live with their wives, so she was living alone for a long time. Her parents died around 10 years ago.
She was a construction worker and supported herself. In that time she loved a man, and they lived together for a short time. After some time the man told her he wanted to go and visit his home town, but he never came back. She was pregnant with his baby and gave birth to their son this past month.
The problem: she lives in a very old house. The walls are broken, and the frames are very old, they are about to fall down. Every night, she always ask her neighbors for a place to sleep because she is afraid of someone coming to annoy her, and she also afraid of the wind that can make her house fall down while she is sleeping - her house can not protect her from the weather and bad people. Moreover, she just gives birth to her son, so she cannot move to sleep at her neighbours house every night.
Our purpose: we want to help her by building a new small house for her - we cannot repair the house because the frame of the house are very old. We know that when we build a new house it will cost a lot of money (the average prices to build a new small house in Cambodia around $250 to $300). The village headman also tried to help us by collecting some money from the villagers, if we can do this project. As a result, he got $100, but he needs to take $50 to help Mrs.Sok when she gave birth to her son, so they have $50 left to help us, if we do this project. Finally, we will try to use our money effectively, and with the help from villagers, and we will try to use some old wood from the old house, So we still need $199.
UPDATE:
On Sunday last week. it was a very happy day for Mrs.Sok, for she got a new house, which was supported by our NGO and the villagers in the commune.
After our students understand about Mrs.Sok problem, they really wanted to help her by building a new house for her and her son. Our students happy to help Mrs.Sok, so they worked very hard. When the evening came, the whole house was finished and they were very happy, with everyone havnig tears in thei eyes - it is not because we are sad, but because we were very happy. Now I understand that when we help somebody, we do not care they will help us back or not, but we still happy to help someone in need, and I think that this happiness may be a very good gift that we got from helping someone.