I received word from our friends from Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC), our Cambodia project, in regards to our donations in late 2011 in response to the flooding there.

Dear Siobhan,

In 2011 The Collette Foundation kindly donated to our Emergency Appeal to help us carry out relief and recovery work in response to the regional floods. I’m writing today to direct you to our latest project update where you can see how you helped make a difference.

The road repairs were completely finished in February 2012, and it has been used for many different activities by villagers. On March 30th, 2012, Community Liaison and Assistance Team spent a full day to conduct observation and interviewing with some different people using the road. In total we observed 354 people using the road, mostly using bicycle or motorbike, showing it is well used.

The most common uses of the road were children going to school, going to the market (to buy and sell) and going into Siem Reap town to work as a laborer. All of these activities are important for people’s economic situation. Other than these common uses we also found people travelling to the  health clinic, visiting family and going to work in another area. Everyone interviewed agreed that with the road rebuilt recently it helped and supported their travelling to their destinations quicker and felt safer on the smooth road.