Stung Meanchey

An essential but heartbreaking part of any trip to Cambodia is a visit to the Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump. While it sounds odd to plan a visit to the dump, Stung Meanchey is home to hundreds of children.

In 2003, David Barboza wrote for the New York Times:

“It is one of the saddest sights in this capital, a sprawling 100-acre garbage dump where trash fires burn and plumes of black smoke choke the air with toxic gases.

The workers here are mostly children, hundreds of them, ages 7, 10, 13 and all ages between.
Some of them, like Kong Siehar, 13, work in the dump barefoot and shirtless, combing through mounds of rubbish for tin cans, plastic bags and other recyclable goods.

'I'm looking for something good, something I can sell,' the boy said one day as he poked his stick in a small mound, strewn with crushed milk cartons, detergent and condoms. 'I know it's difficult work, but I want to help my family. I need to help my family.'

Children toil for about 50 cents a day here at the Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump. It is perilous work. The waste is soggy, and huge bulldozers rumble through here, dumping pile upon pile. The children show up at local health clinics with rashes, infections, cuts and bruises.

'This is the closest thing to hell on earth I've ever seen,' said David Pred, an aid worker who is trying to assist orphans from the dump site. ''I don't understand how people can allow a place like this to exist.'”

Barboza's words become real when you walk around Stung Meanchey and talk to the children who live there. We will visit Stung Meanchey while in Phnom Penh. A part of your tuition goes to help fund Pour un Sourire d'Enfant , a charitable organization located less than a mile from the landfill.

Pour un Sourire d’Enfant organizes school and vocational training for several thousands of children from the dump. Every morning in the school near the dump they provide complimentary breakfast to several hundred children. We will also help our students, if they like, to raise funds in their schools or communities to provide additional aid.