We found this family by introducing from TFC and they asked us to see. At that time, we interviewed that family. This family is near one of our students houses - Sinoun - and Sinous also knows her.
Mrs. Loeurm lives on her nieces land in what was a small chicken house. Her niece built that house for her chickens but Grandmother Loeurm asked to live there because she doesn't have a house. She is 77 years old and her husband died during the Pol Pot regime. She does not have job. TFC are supporting her with food every month through their Diamond Program.
Mrs. Loeurm has 6 children, but 3 died in the Pol Pot regime and 3 more others survived and got married but they never care for their mother.
The cottage that she is living in now is about 0.50 m x 1 m and about 1m high. The wall is from old palm leaves and the roof is from old plastic. The poles are from bamboo and floor made from bamboo. When she sleeps, she cannot put her body straight. She cannot sleep well when the rain comes down. Her niece has offered us to build a house on her land for her aunt.
On Sunday 10th September,2017, we went to do a community service which is in Rolous village in the Bakong district. There were 80 people or over that joining this mission such as Together For Cambodia students, and all CRST students. There were two Big Big Tuk Tuks and two Van from TFC.
In the morning Mr. Voan, Mr. Roeun, Dany, and I got up at 4:00am to prepare breakfast for our students. The breakfast was rice, fried fish, fried cabbage with pork and mango sauce. At 6: 00am we finished breakfast cooking, and prepared the tuk tuks and cars with all the building material. We arrived at the house at 7:45am and Sinoun introduced family background information. This time, we change the way how to introduce the family background because we want to inspire our students and their villagers. At 8:00am we spread everyone into different areas to work - cooking, main structure, wall frames, and flooring teams. Everyone joined in and worked very hard. We all really worked from the heart, and by 12pm we achieved 70% of the house.
At 12: 00pm we took a break to have lunch. The lunch was rice, soup, and the soup that we can eat with vegetable . We spent 30mn for eating, and then relaxing 30mn. At 1:00pm we started again. I looked TFC's and our member's faces look like hungry, but they still smile and talked happily. TFC looked really enjoy with us for building the house, and no one stopped until we achieve our goal together. Even though the sun was hot a bit, and they stood with us and worked with us.
At the end, at 4:30pm everything was completely finished. Sinoun gave a speech to say thank to TFC and our members for spending their time to build a house for Grandmother Loeurm who is her neighbor, because she had no place to live. After that Grandmother Loeurm made a speech to say thank to everyone with many wishes, even though she has nothing to give us back, but her kindness is shown in her face and there are millions of meanings for everyone. That house was completed successfully because of joining from TFC members, and CRST students. All of them really appreciate this activity so much.
THANK YOU SEAN HILDYARD from Australia
for donating $500 to build this new home for Grandmother Loeurm!!