We are excited to announce the Girls 2 Grannies Village.
In partnership with Cambodian Children’s Fund, World Housing is building a new community in the Steung Meanchey district of Phnom Pehn. Our vision for this amazing project is to support CCF’s proven strategy to end the poverty cycle by providing the important foundation of safe housing.
100% of the funds you donate will go towards building safe long-term housing.
We invite you to get involved with World Housing and help raise the funds needed to build the Girls 2 Grannies Village. This village is specifically designed for women and girls — it gives girls who have been orphaned or abandoned a supportive, safe place to live so that they can attend school instead of being forced to pick garbage to survive. It will also provide a home for the “Grannies” of the community where they can nurture the younger women and girls. This village will house 200 of these vulnerable women currently living in Steung Meanchey.
Click Here to visit our gift-giving page where you can fund housing and access to education for the Girls 2 Grannies Village.
We are changing ‘the rules for girls’!
“Chbab Srey”, or “Rules for Girls,” is a traditional moral code of behavior that dictates a subordinate place for Cambodian women in society. Cambodian girls face great pressure to drop out of school early to go to work in order to survive. They live in dangerous conditions picking garbage while living in slums surrounding the dump.
Before & After World Housing communities.
Significant inequalities also exist in accessing education in Cambodia and despite having gender parity at enrollment, the dropout rates for girls are much higher. When women & girls are given a secure and supportive place to live they can stay in school. This safe housing is the foundation and enables continued access to education that will break the cycle of poverty for the next generation of Cambodian women.
(left: girls thrive living under the mentorship of grannies; centre: Neeson Cripps Academy is located 180m from the Girls 2 Grannies village; right: girls graduate with qualifications to attend university)
Below: Sophy (in the red hat) was saved from the dumps by CCF. Read Sophy’s Story.
Steung Meanchey history.
The Steung Meanchey district of Phnom Penh was once one of the largest garbage dumps in Southeast Asia. Serving as the disposal site for hospitals, chemical companies and heavy industry, Steung Meanchey was classified as one of the most toxic and dangerous environments in the world. Despite closing in 2009, Steung Meanchey continues to serve as an entry-point in Phnom Penh for destitute families who have no option but to try and make a living by scavenging and collecting recyclables from the garbage dump. Living in absolute poverty in survival mode they are under constant threat of violence, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and disease.
This all changed when Cambodian Children’s Fund “CCF” was established back in 2004. Scott Neeson (shown above) founded the organization to address the unimaginable conditions which thousands of people were living in.
It all starts with a home.
We first met Scott Neeson back in 2013 at a time when CCF was experiencing rapid growth in all areas of their programming. They began to shift focus from just providing healthcare, to providing an award-winning education program to create the future leaders of Cambodia. There was a critical factor missing at that time and it was housing. Without a safe home, children were forced to work in the dumps in order for them or their families to survive. We were able to fill the one thing that was missing from Scott’s vision for the community. (CCF Housing Pyramid)
“The only way to provide lasting, generational change, is to ensure that whole families are lifted from poverty. CCF provides not only for the health and wellbeing of children, but for their families and community.”
– Scott Neeson, Founder Cambodian Children’s Fund
Our work to date in Cambodia.
Since 2013 World Housing Ambassador Donor partners have funded the construction of 460 homes providing safe and secure communities for over 2,300 people living in the community surrounding the former garbage dump.
Give the gift of a home this holiday season.
We invite you to help us continue our legacy of transformation in this community by selecting a gift below!
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