Past Projects

Cambodian Assistance and Cultural Preservation Project Inc.

Past Projects

Kompong Cham 2004, distribution of packages containing clothes, money, medicine and food.

2005, Donations to the children of the Phnom Penh dump. These children live in the dump as orphans or with their families and scavenge for metal and plastic for pennies a day.

Rice donations have become a much appreciated event that we have managed to do at least once a year, sometimes twice a year, and would like to be able to consistently do two or more per year. Each donation is between 6 and 8 thousand pounds of rice and usually includes medicines, a protein that will keep such as canned fish, clothes, and a small cash donation.

These slides are of rice donations from 2000 thru 2019. Click the arrows to scroll through.

Feeding the monks and donations to the temples.

Bakheng Village

Bakheng is about 7miles northeast of Phnom Penh and it is the village that we live in during our visits to Cambodia . After feeding the monks and making a donation to the temple, we were able to distribute thirty 50kg bags (3300lb) of rice along with sarongs and medicine to families in the village, during our January/Febuary 2007 trip.

Phum Sambour

Phum Sambour in Kompong Speu province is about 55 miles southwest of Phnom Penh. There is no electricity, running water or sanitation. The children we spoke with, ranging in age from about 7 to 16, had little or no schooling. Since they are rice farmers they do not have a shortage of rice, however, their diet consist of almost nothing else and these children suffer from stunted growth and infections due to malnutrition, especially iron, iodine, vitamin and protein deficiencies.

We distributed sarongs, children's clothes, bread and condiments such as fish sauce, soy sauce and brahouk (a fermented fish paste) which can supplement their diet and has a very long shelf life. We are in the process of finding a source for the purchase of vitamins and iodized salt to be included in future distributions.

Phum Oh

Phum Oh is a rural village in Pousat Province about 125 miles northwest of Phnom Penh. It is also where our project coordinator and her family were relocated for internment and forced labor during the Khmer Rouge genocide.
We returned to Phum Oh again, and after feeding the monks and making donations to the temple, we gathered together the children along with some of their parents and distributed money, sarongs and school uniforms

Rice Donations

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Bikes and school supplies ready to leave Bakheng Village.

Arrive at Phum Sambour in Kompong Speu province.

Giving the kid a little money and some bread. Bread might not seem like much of a treat but when you have only rice it is something special.

Many of these children have never seen pictures of themselves or each other.

In rural areas making sure childeren attend school and not stay home or work in the rice fields is difficult.

Complacency and the disbelief in the possibility of socioeconomic improvement are as much an impediment as anything else.

We tried having the parents and children sign agreements supporting their commitment to have their children attend school.

Since split sessions are the rule in Cambodia, most of these children will share a bike with their siblings who have a different session.

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CAACPP supports children's education because we realize that the only way for Cambodian families to break the cycle of poverty is for their children to get a decent education.
After speaking to families and their local schools, we learned that the biggest material impediment to kids attending school is the lack of transportation, uniforms, books, and school supplies, which are not provided by public schools in Cambodia.
We try to help by organizing projects, such as this one in Kompong Speu, that provide these materials to poor rural families.

Supporting Education

(merit)

Earning "merit" is an important part of Cambodian Buddhist life. Buddhists in Cambodia earn merit by giving money, goods, and labor to the temples, or by providing one of the two daily meals to the monks, or by donating money and food to the poor. By accumulating good karma through earning merit and following the Buddhist path of meditation and correct living they understand that they can eventually achieve awakening and be released from the continuous cycle of births and deaths. Merit can also be transferred, by conscious intention, to others living or deceased.

CAACPP understands and respects this view and makes every effort to assist our Khmer donors in accomplishing their desire to carry out merit-generating charitable works in Cambodia. Below are just a couple examples of projects we've carried out that have been requested by some of our Khmer donors.

Our truck loaded with bottled waster and meat filled breads arrives at Kanthabopha children's hospital.

People line up for blocks sometimes waiting days to have their children seen and treated.

The disrtibution of bottled water and meat filled bread begins.

After the distributing the food and water we met with the hospital administrator to make a monetary donation to the hospital.

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Kanthabopa is a children's hospital in Phnom Penh that provides free care. We have had repeated requests by donors to direct their donations here.
Due to poverty and nonexistence of any type of health insurance, people line up outside the hospital for many blocks waiting sometimes days to get in.
For this particular donation we brought bottled water and a type of long bread loaf that is filled with meat to distribute to the people who were waiting. We then met with hospital administrators to make a cash donation, as requested by our donors.

Wat Neang Khmao is a Buddhist monastery in Takeo province that some of our donors have requested we direct their donations to.

The Wat and its head monk have been very active in taking in and educating orphan boys who wish to become monks.

An orphan who wishes to become a monk can come to Wat Neang Khmao and he will be fed, housed and educated.

Until recent times, wats were the main centers of learning with schools and libraries, where the Khmer culture and language was preserved and transmitted from generation to generation. They still provide a rigorous education for monks. Traditionally they have also provided somewhat of a social safety net for the poor, destitute and the elderly.

It is still considered desirable for all men to ordain as monks at least once in their lives, an act commonly seen as rite of passage for young men entering adulthood and society.

Wat Neang Khmao is currently housing, feeding and educating 400 monks, quite an amazing accomplishment in a country as poor as Cambodia, and they greatly appreciate any help they can get.

Wat Neang Khmao

Kanthabopa