Thursday, March 08, 2007

The People of Steung Meanchey Dump

Flickr user primitivenerd toured Cambodia's infamous Steung Meanchey municipal rubbish dump and took several moving black and white photos of the people living and working at the dump.

Most of the garbage pickers at the dump are either from Phnom Penh or came to the city looking for work and ended up in the slums. There are an approximate 600 children living there with their parents or relatives. Adults on average earn US$1.00 to $1.25 a day while the children earn on average about half that amount.

Thankfully there are organisations like The Cambodian Children's Fund that are helping some of these poor kids. The Fund has a facility in Phnom Penh to house Cambodia's orphaned, abandoned or abused children. 85% of the children at the Fund come from the Steung Meanchey dump. You can read some of the children's stories here.

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