Toilet talk

Did you know that most village people in Cambodia do not have a toilet in their home? Not even an outhouse! Their homes are a small one room hut where everyone sleeps on the floor, and underneath the house is where they usually do their cooking. But nope – no bathroom facilities whatsoever! I like camping, but after a couple of days I’ve had enough. So imagine living in one of these villages where you spend your entire life having to relieve yourself out in the open.

When visiting one of the remote provinces recently, and in need of the loo, I had to wait until we visited someone who had been in the Village Entrepreneur (VE) program long enough to afford to install a toilet (pictured below). But no – not the flushing kind. Just a simple squat toilet. This is luxury for the people in the villages and the improved hygiene is saving lives.

When locals become VEs, it is expected that by the third and final year of the program they will not only have grown a sustainable business and sent their children to school, but that they will also have installed a toilet and a water pump at their house (yes, many homes also do not have running water, let alone electricity!)

There are no services in the remote communities – no postal delivery, no street signs, no roads and no rubbish collection. People have to dispose of their own rubbish – food scraps go to the chickens and everything else is incinerated or dumped behind their homes.

This really makes you realise just how good we have it in Australia and how much we take our blessed lives for granted. If you would like to help a Cambodian villager to lift their family out of poverty by creating a micro business, visit ve.org.au.

Villagers are lucky if they have one of these at home.

Queeenslanders Credit Union staff have raised enough money to sponsor six Village Entrepreneurs, including the husband of this woman who wasn't home when we dropped by. Here she stands with her daughter out the front of their home. This style of house is very typical for people living in the provinces.

80% of Cambodians make their living as backyard farmers. These animals aren't for eating - they are used to harvest rice.

No roads. It's a very dusty, bumpy ride on a bike!