CLS is located in Chumkriel, just outside of Kampot on the coast in Southern Cambodia. The village is home to over 1,000 families, including the nearby salt fields in the coastal tidal marsh area.
Although living standards have improved a lot in Chumkriel in recent years, especially those families who live and work in the salt fields struggle. Their homes are very basic, often without a toilet or running water, roads are mostly poorly maintained gravel tracks in this area.
These uneducated workers have very low incomes from labouring in the rice paddies and the salt fields, or on construction sites. After paying for food and basic living expenses, family income may be inadequate to pay for uniforms and basic school supplies.
This, and a failure to appreciate the value of education, can see children fail to complete schooling.
Quality education is the way out of poverty for the children in these families. For these children transport to school is only possible because our small school truck (our ‘school bus’) picks them up and drops them back home.