Every year as monsoon season brings flash flooding to Cambodia, it also brings a myriad of other problems. Flooding and drought have a huge impact on water-borne diseases, primarily diarrhoeal disease (viral and bacterial gastroenteritis, dysentery, cholera and other manifestations of gastrointestinal infections). Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death for children under five in Cambodia.

Flooding also directly impacts the ability of our student’s families to earn a living as roads and businesses come to a standstill. Not only do roads become impassable, but many inhabitants become preoccupied in dealing with the flooding as it wreaks havoc in their homes, leading to the economic activity slowing down. Where flooding persists for multiple days or weeks, economic disruptions worsen – people can’t go to work and students can’t go to school.

To ensure we fully understand the situations our students and their communities face during this time, we strive to do as many community visits as possible. Our social workers conduct regular community visits and focus on:

• Interviewing student’s parents or guardians about the impact of flooding on their income and living situation
• Learning more about the routes and methods of transports our students will take to school during flooding
• Educating families about water-borne diseases and hygiene and sanitation practices
• Learning more about how ISF can support communitites during floods

By engaging with our local community, we are working together to improve communication and understanding and ultimately strengthen all aspects of our programming. We believe that projects operating a community-based model like this, work to increase the capacity of communities and to also increase their ownership over projects, ensuring that our work doesn’t exist in a vacuum but serves to foster overall community development. Our goal is to create a good foundation for the children in our programmes and opportunities for their families and wider communities so they have the skills to change their own lives for the better.