Sometimes it is easy to overlook the most obvious things. I had visited this family many times before I realised that they didn’t have a toilet.
They have lived in this house for over 20 years and their only means of convenience was the nearby bushes. As a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) we were able to pay for a new toilet for them. With so many needs out here you have to look at the little things that can make a difference and not what you cannot do.The family consists of mother and father,three sons and two daughters. One daughter and one son have left home and the youngest daughter(who has just dropped out of school) and their two other sons still live at home. These two young men are both mentally disabled and need special care and attention-which they are only really able to get from their mother.The father is a recovering alcoholic and unwell and unable to work
Now it certainly doesn’t look great but if you had not had a toilet in your house for over 20 years then I don’t think that you would mind too much about the outside appearance. The house itself is built on stilts as it is near to the river which floods during the rainy season. When the last big floods happened in 2011 the house was flooded up to the first floor meaning all their possessions on the ground floor were under water for a number of weeks.
Their main source of income was when the father was able to ride his bike as a taxi around Phnom Penh. This had a puncture which we got fixed for him but soon after he got ill again and was unable to work.
livingthedream 
Fascinating stuff Duncan and some people moan about such trivial things here, no tv is a disaster , if we have run out of toilet paper its a major issue, imagine giving our women a chicken that had just been killed and needed plucking and gutting before it could be eaten, they would think it was disgusting, most of them…. does make you think.