Tabitha program

The Tabitha organization has a very successful program that families can participate in if they want to. It starts with a garden pump that will water 5 acres of farm. This will supply enough for two families. The family has to help put in the well and agree to a savings plan. Each week they add a small amount to their account and after a few weeks it is returned to them to buy supplies. Tools, seeds chickens or what ever is next in their plan. The farm we visited had started 5 years ago with the well and they have from living in the shack pictured below to the house they now live in. They make more money from selling their crops in a month than they used to make in a year.  They do all the work themselves with what they have earned and saved.  It's amazing to see how quickly they have become prosperous. After five years they graduate from the program and hopefully have learned now to save and plan for their future.  This is a new concept to the people here.  We saw their pump which was donated by a woman and her daughter who are from Germany. When her husband died she asked that in lieu of flowers all money be donated to wells in Cambodia. It was very touching to watch them as they saw one of their wells for the first time. What a wonderful way to remember a good man. 

The crops the families were growing included green and hot peppers, mushrooms, eggplants, rice and frogs from a pond. All water comes from that well. They had a cow, a pig and some chickens.