Twelve years ago, Bok Weng was a problem struck village in the province of Kompong Thom. There was no water, almost no livestock, and children did not get proper education because the nearest school was many kilometers away. In 1995 however, Bok Weng was selected by CWS to be included in the community development project.

During the first year, community development workers spend a lot of time in the village. They built relationships and often spend many days in the community to familiarize themselves with the problems people experienced. Based on the experiences in this first year, durable solutions were sought to improve people’s lives. A cow bank was set up to supply livestock to the poor, wells were dug and a community development committee was created to oversee the changes.

“It was such a blessing that CWS came here”, To Lang, the village chief of Bok Weng told us. “At that time our village was still recovering from ‘the bad times’ and many basic needs were simply unavailable.” “Our water was often contaminated, many people did not have animals to raise and we did not have a school building here.” In 2005, after 10 years of CWS presence in Bok Weng, the community development project was phased out and handed over to the community. Now, almost two years later, the situation in Bok Weng has improved even more. “After CWS left, 32 cows were born which we have distributed among the poor members of our community.” “Our newest acquisition is a brand new village meeting room where meetings, marriage parties and other communal activities can take place” “We funded this meeting room by selling fish from the community pond and the profit we gained from the rice bank that was set up by CWS.”

Bok Weng is one of many communities that have successfully achieved many improvements in their village within a relatively short period of time. Through community development, people gained the means to take their future into their own hands and help each other improving living conditions.