Slum families survived the fire but not the eviction

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.

click here to read the Phnom Phen Post report

Waiting For Eviction

Hundreds of families living in homes perched precariously on the banks of the Siem Reap River in Siem Reap town are to be relocated in a bid to “beautify” the town. The land belongs to the government and the squatters must leave officials said. Provincial officials have concluded a survey of families living along a 2-kilometre stretch of the riverbank in preparation to truck the families to a relocation site between 30 and 40 kilometers away in Banteay Srey district. No money will be offered to the villagers if they reject the social land concession. This community is living here since the early 1980s. Sometimes 3 generation living together in the old metal or wooden shack houses. The youngest just was born a week ago while the oldest almost 90 years old survived Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and barely can walk. hat makes the people most worried? They lose there homes and jobs in the same time and most of the children have no chance to continue the studies at the same school. Tailor, hairdresser, bicycle repairer, TV and radio mechanic, dentist, psychologist all of them are small business owner and running businesses in the slum and make a bit of earning. How long………?