I just saw Carolyn O' Neill's photos about the burned shack houses at the riverside in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Very sad news, because this people had lost everything they earned in the past. Most of the families were living here almost for 20 years. Sometime three generation lived together and many of them were running small businesses in the house. At the beginning of 2010 I started to document the life of these slum families. I hired a local monk whom I knew well to join to my project as a fixer. By his help I got access to visit the shack houses inside and take some photo. These days the local government announced to beautify the city and evict hundreds of families living in shack houses at the riverbank. It looks they were lucky survived the force eviction until now. By the Phnom Penh Post article, the fire were caused by an electricity fault in a spirit house then it spread to a gas container. Today the Siem Reap based fellow photographer Eric De Vries dropped me a line that the reconstruction of stilt houses had started. Fortunately no one injured in this tragic fire.
Just a note: my pofile picture was taken inside one of the slum house in 2010
Whether you are in the area or elsewhere and heard about a charity to help these people, do not hesitate to contact me. I offer some of my photo for sell on an exhibition or joint charity event to help the slum community.
