Searching for Hope in the Stench of the Trash Dump 

Every day Toy, her 11 siblings (ages 3 to 28) and their parents head to work in the Steung Mean Chey municipal Waste Dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It takes the entire family of 14 working every day to make enough to pay the $100 monthly rent and electricity for their home.

Toxic gases burn constantly, the ground is spongy and infested with bugs, and the stench is absolutely unbearable. A lot of the kids don’t even have shoes to wear. There are a lucky few who have a pair of rubber boots, and if they are really lucky, a light for their head.

For hours, usually starting at 3 a.m. when the new load of trash is delivered, this family takes turns combing through the 100-acre trash dump. Using a steel pick to look for items they can sell, most of them make a mere 50 to 75 cents a day.

Toy, only 11, is like many kids throughout this area of Phnom Penh…she must work in the dump because there are no other options for her family.

Providing Another Option
When Joyce Meyer Ministries first visited the trash dump in 2007, words couldn’t express the devastation we felt while watching children live in such a horrible place. They were working and living in a dangerous, disease-infested environment with no guarantee of food or shelter.

After our attempts to buy land and build feeding centers failed, the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries funded the purchase, gutting and remodeling of two tour buses to serve as mobile feeding centers. These buses provide hope for 300 children, including Toy and three of her sisters, Gnagn, Harin, and Cloup.

Classroom and Cafeteria in One
The buses—one for the older children and one for the younger—drive along the edge of the dump and pick up the children. After all the kids are on board, the bus stops and the air conditioning stays turned on. For five days a week, 150 children from 8 a.m. to noon and 150 children from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. learn English, life skills and arithmetic, and receive a nutritious meal. There is even a shower and toilet on board.

On the day we visited the buses, the children were encouraged to come up to the white board and write the letter “y.” They were also taught a Bible lesson from Genesis about God creating the world, and the teacher asked the students about many kinds of animals and flowers. They then sang 8 songs, including “This Is the Day,” “Father Abraham,” and “Thank You, Jesus.” They even watched a video on the story of Ruth.

A New Future
Cambodia is a country in transition. When walking the streets of its largest cities, you can see the visual reminders of the years of war, occupation and fear that held this nation hostage for so long. Roads are filled with car-size potholes, and skeletal remains of buildings at every turn, each filled with the stories of those who died at the hands of evil.

People don’t like to talk about what happened here. As a result, the younger generations are ignorant of the past. Few know the extent of the death and destruction of the genocide that reigned for years before they were born. But even though they don’t know about it, many are experiencing the aftermath of the more than 30 years of civil war, including this beautiful family of 14.

But even in the midst of all that, these 4 little girls are beginning to experience hope in a direct and personal way. You see, the feeding program is keeping them healthy, and gaining an education will give them more options than their parents had. They will be able to escape life in the dump.

Thank You
It is through our relationship with our partners and sponsors we are able to fulfill the Great Commission, serve the poor and feed the hungry. Partners are a critical part of our outreach. We could not be in Cambodia without partners, and we could not share the love of Christ with children like Gnagn, Toy, Harin, and Cloup.


You Can Help
We want to continually help even more children just like Toy and her sisters. And we can’t do it without you. We encourage you to pray and consider donating to help programs like the feeding buses in Cambodia.

Please consider doing everything you can.