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Cambodia landmine survivors
April 2008 |
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Soeun Rem, 27, O Cheurkrom village, Pailin, Cambodia.
‘Maybe the mines washed down the mountain with the rains,’ says Soeun Rem, who for years planted soy beans with her father in the same field. They never knew there were landmines.
She was digging the land and talking to a young boy when she stepped back and changed her life forever.
‘After the accident it was difficult to do basic things, like go to the bathroom. It took me two months to learn how to walk.’
She now runs a grocery shop in Pailin, started through a micro-loan from the Australian Government funded Landmine Survivor Assistance Program, which provides economic support to mine accident survivors. The AusAID program has provided micro credit to 14 families and 156 more families have received small grants that have been used to rebuild their lives.
‘In the beginning, business was very good because I was the only shop on the street. Now there is lots of competition,’ she says. She earns about US$15 a day from her business.
‘My wish is for a “light life”,’ she says.
Photo: Somira Sao/Australian Red Cross
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