Most NGO’s are started by someone with a passion to right a wrong or simply wanting to help improve a situation. New Hope Cambodia is just such a story.
The area of Mondul Bai, in Siem Reap, was once a military base. It was home to the soldiers and their families as well as a significant number of displaced people and sex workers. The streets were unpaved and crowded with Karaoke Bars providing entertainment.
A number of children did not have stable home lives, relying on relatives where possible, or simply surviving hand to mouth. For young women this often meant prostitution with all its risks.
Soth Kemsour, an ex Buddhist monk, realised that intervention was the only way to positively alter these often dire circumstances. Otherwise young woman would continue to become sex workers. Exposed to disease and without education they and the next generation would remain trapped in the poverty cycle.
New Hope Cambodia was my first experience of photographing for an NGO. Initially, I spent time at the school and visited the outreach programme in Mondul Bai.
It was challenging work capturing the stories of children living in houses with no running water or electricity. At other at times it was heartwarming, as I followed a group of young British students learning to build as part of the New Hope Cambodia volunteer programme.
A home in Mondul Bai.
An older gentleman receiving community support - with no social welfare system in Cambodia if you do not have family support you are reliant on organisations such as New Hope for support.
“I felt privileged being able to see the real world situation but it was equally important to me that I was there to achieve something. These people and situations deserve respect.”