Church Brings Livelihood To 'AIDS Hamlet'

Posted: 26th August 2007

KOMPOT, Cambodia (UCAN) -- A small settlement at the feet of Mount Voa in southern Cambodia is unique in that all 10 families have members with HIV/AIDS.

From their point of view, this uniqueness is not a mere curiosity but a reality in which they do not face discrimination from other members of their community. And since the Church started a silkworm project here, they are able to earn money for their living expenses.

Voa hamlet in Kampot province, 140 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, was established in 2000 on land donated by a local traditional doctor who treated people with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which usually leads to AIDS.

In 2004, Paris Foreign Missions Father Olivier Schmitthaeusler, director of the education committee of Phnom Penh vicariate, started a project to support the residents with food and other necessities, along with a livelihood project.

Now, members of all 10 families work in a silk-production business. They cultivate mulberry trees and use the leaves to feed silkworms they keep in large flat baskets in a hut. UCA News visited the hamlet recently and spoke with several of the residents. "Feeding the silkworms is not a difficult job," admitted Noun Sareth, 44. The mother of three said her former husband infected her with HIV three years ago and has since died. "My new husband is not infected," she added.

Before coming to the settlement, Sareth used to work on other people's farms for 3,000-5,000 riel (US$0.76-1.27) a day. "It was very hard," she recalled. "I have decided to live in this place for the rest of my life."

Another resident, Ghet Vannak, 35, has had HIV since 1993. She recounted how people avoided her when she started getting ill. "Some ran away as soon as they saw me." However, she said her life changed dramatically when she moved here a year ago. "I feel loved. I do not feel anybody looks down at me."

Sem Pove, a 35-year-old mother of three, recently moved in. She used to run a small restaurant in her hometown until she contracted HIV in 2003. "When people knew about it, they didn't come to buy food from me anymore, and even didn't want to meet me or to look at me in the face," she said.

The main purpose in starting the silkworm project was for the residents to "have a more dignified way of life and not be looked down on by their neighbors," according to Moa Samron, the project director.

"Many of them didn't have any job or even a place to live in their hometowns," the 32-year-old Church worker explained. He told UCA News the Church also provides each family with 50 kilograms of rice and 50,000 riel every month, in addition to clothes and medicine.

Samron said about 60 people staying in the settlement died of AIDS before the Church launched the assistance and livelihood projects in 2004. The mortality rate has fallen sharply since then, he added.

The silkworm venture suits the residents well, in his view. "This work is not difficult for them, because they do not need much strength to perform it." They currently produce two kilograms of silk a month, which they sell for US$30 a kilogram. According to the project director, "We are planning to cultivate more mulberry trees and silkworms."

Several months ago, Father Schmitthaeusler built a kindergarten for the residents' young children. Older children go to public schools in the area, but Samron said these schools hold classes only two or three days a week.

Voa hamlet began when Thatch Sombo, a local traditional doctor to whom many HIV-infected people came seeking a cure, started giving away some of his land for the poorest among the people to build houses, according to Keo Phork, a young local Church worker.

Phork told UCA News that Sombo, now hamlet chief, eventually asked NGOs to supply medicine. In early 2004, he contacted Father Schmitthaeusler requesting rice. Soon other donors came and helped out.

Today the hamlet, all of whose 45 current residents are Buddhists, receives regular overseas visitors including tourists.

Article Source: UCAN