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Will Cambodia Follow Ethiopia’s Step?

Posted by: CARE on July 17, 2008 at 10:19AM EST

Sorotha Chan from Cambodia is working for CARE Germany’s Press Department in Bonn. For the next 2 months, the journalism student will write a diary about his country – the daily problems the kingdom is facing and the challenges its people are dealing with.

The 10^th of July was the opening of photographer Phil Borges' "Women Empowered" exhibit at the Kunst Museum Bonn in Bonn. Some of these pictures are about women and girls in Ethiopia. Twenty pictures were hung on the wall waiting for audiences, while those in Africa are in need of help. The pictures tell me about the difficulty and the struggle for surviving. Some of the portrayed look so sad, while some are smiling with positive expectation. For me, I know nothing about Ethiopia except gender discrimination and the current food crisis.

In the press, Ethiopia was described as a serious spotlight of food insecurity. Skyrocket inflation, drought and conflict are tearing Ethiopia’s economy and standard of living. For millions of people, there just isn’t food available, but in many cases even where food is for sale on local markets, the price is highly excessive for the poor. People are resorting to desperate measures, including migrating to towns in the search of jobs, looking for aid, and selling valuable assets. Some parents even pull their children out of school to find food or to look after the other children while the parents are hunting for jobs. People eat watery porridge with salt. Some families reduce the number of meals per day. Even some of the government staff cannot feed their families with their monthly wage. The whole month salary that a policeman gets can only pay for a meal. At the same time, diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea, meningitis and measles compound the situation.

Abay, 29, of Awash Fontale, Ethiopia, ran away from her family at the age of 12, in order to avoid female circumcision. Eight years later, she returned to her village and began work as a station agent for CARE, supervising the opening of a primary school and a health clinic, and the construction of a well. After five years, she finally convinced one of the women to let her film a circumcision ceremony. She showed the film to the male leaders. They had never seen a female circumcision and were horrified. Two weeks later, the male leaders called a special meeting and voted fifteen to two to end female circumcision in their village. Photo credit: ©2004 Phil Borges

This information alerts me about the future of Cambodia. In Cambodia, the soaring price for food is attacking everyone. My family and other neighbouring families now have to limit their expenditure. Our purchasing power parity is becoming weaker. In the past five years, my mother could feed me and my other four siblings with $2.5 U.S. per meal. But now, we need to spend up to $5 U.S. for the same number of people while the salary is the same as before, or has just slightly increased. “Everything is so expensive” is whispered among women at the market all mornings. Over the past year, inflation has spiked to 10.8 percent, which has driven up the cost of food and other staple goods and has worsened the poverty.

Even though Cambodia is said to be an agricultural country, where farmers account for 75 percent of the population, we still import many goods. In markets, I can see imported vegetables and fruits from Thailand and Vietnam, rather than local products. Each Cambodian farmer has only a small basket of fruits or vegetables to sell, each early morning. In addition, Cambodia has to import all agricultural equipment. How can we afford these things any longer, if they become so expensive?

Send This | Categories: Cambodia

(1) Comments

Posted by: Rosanee on August 1, 2008 6:37AM EST

from now on your strong government can support
the people to improve live better than before.