Habitat News

TOP: Kurow’s Roger Slee (left) and Nelson’s Rob Silcock (right) were 2 of 153 Kiwis in the Khmer Harvest Special Build Event. MIDDLE: Dave Reyburn, Retiring Northland Chair, found his first GV build to be a “buzz”. BOTTOM: Sreymom enjoys a new life away.

Global Village: Bumper harvest

November’s Khmer Harvest Build in Cambodia saw a bumper number of Kiwis take part in this Special Global Village Build Event. 153 of them in all! They, together with 140 other international volunteers, successfully completed the challenge of building 22 homes, a community hall and working farm in the Oudong Province in just five days.

This achievement has provided families with a safe, decent and affordable place to live and work, away from Phnom Penh’s infamous Stoeung Meanchey Dumpsite. Habitat NZ CEO Pete North was delighted to see retiring Affiliate Chairs Julian Shields (17 years Nelson Chair) and Dave Reyburn (17 years Northland Chair) taking part. “Julian is a regular attender of GV trips and for Dave it was his first overseas GV build,” Pete says.

David highly recommends the experience to anyone who has not been on a GV trip. “It enabled me to appreciate the wider work of Habitat,” he says, “and realise how good we have it here. The living conditions of families prior to the build were really substandard and I was amazed at how little it cost to house one family compared to a New Zealand family. The new home owners were really appreciative of the opportunity to enjoy a better way of life and it was such a buzz to work with people from so many cultures in making it happen.”

31 year old Chea Sreymom used to share an 18m2 room at Stoeung Meanchey with eight other relatives. Sreymom is now able to live under the roof of her own house with pride and a great sense of ownership. She works at the new farm nearby earning US$3 daily and also works part-time as a manicurist to help save for her new home. Her mother, Bun Sophurn, who at 60 years of age was living beside busy railway tracks, has also moved in.

“I am very happy and grateful to all the national and international volunteers that came to build my house,” Sreymom says, “I will never disappoint the people who helped me.”