Solidarity : Shanty Town Spirit will Help Abandoned Mothers ~ Shanty Town Spirit Ermine Norodom Association

Two sisters actually try to survive in the shantytown of Boeng Trabek in Phnom Penh, Mao Srey Pich and Sreymom. Mao Srey Pich has three children, Srey Leap (3 yo), Srey Nit (10 yo) and a baby of three weeks. With her husband, Mao Srey Pich used to work as a ragpicker around the streets of Phnom Penh, in order to support the three children, and to pay the tuition of the elder Srey Nit. Unfortunately, when she was five months pregnant, the cancer took away her husband, leaving her alone with her three children. The young mother decided to return to work alone, a job that allows her to earn only a few dollars per day... she also decided to ask the grandmother to take care of the youngest...

From left to right, Sreymom and Mao Srey Pich

Sreymom sad story is quite similar, except that it's not cancer that left her alone with her children but her husband, violent and unscrupulous person who left home and kidnapped one of the three children. Sreymom will also go back into the rag business. Both brave sisters are neighbors and try to help each other, but their little earnings barely help to support their small family and the tuition. Both families also live in deplorable conditions of hygiene...This is why Shanty Town Spirit, the slum family support program, managed by Ermine Norodom, will help them through the supply of food and items, and by paying the tuition of the little Srey Nit.