Building city a world away [From America to building a city in Cambodia]

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BILL GEORGE of Church of God World Missions addressed Rotary Club of Cleveland on Tuesday. He updated members about Cleveland-based People for Care and Learning’s three-year project to build a city in Cambodia. The construction will provide homes and infrastructure in hopes of breaking the cycle of poverty in sections of the Southeast Asian country. Banner photos, JOYANNA WEBER

by JOYANNA WEBER,
Banner Staff Writer

Read how you can help and donate at www.buildacity.org.

As growth comes to Bradley County, the impact residents are making on the world is also increasing.

People for Care and Learning, based in Cleveland, has taken on a three-year project to build a city in Cambodia. The city will provide homes and infrastructure to break the cycle of poverty for more than 1,500 families in Andong, Kondong Kaw, Cambodia.

Bill George of Church of God World Missions presented information on the project to the Rotary Club of Cleveland on Tuesday.

“In 2008 ... we began working in a housing situation. We had a very unfortunate situation that came to our attention where a lot of people were relocated from where they had [been living] out into a field where they had nothing,” George said. “They had lived down the river in the capital city Phnom Penh.”

These people did not own the land, and had built ramshackle shelters out of scrap materials. According to George, the Cambodian government decided to allow a Taiwanese developer to build a resort on the land.

“The slum was invaded by bulldozers and machines like that at 4 o’clock, 4:30 in the morning. In about three hours, the settlement where 1,000 families had lived was on the ground,” George said.

The United Nations worked with American Red Cross International Services, People for Care and Learning and Habitat for Humanity to build houses for these displaced people.

“What happened was these people were moving into the homes, but they still had the mentality that they had moved there with, so within a short time you’d walk by the houses and they began to look very different,” George said.

These houses were surrounded by shelters similar to the ones they had moved out of.

“They are in a kind of poverty that is almost impossible to get out of. They can’t get jobs, and so they have a low personal income, which results in less access to food and water, which results in hunger and poor sanitation.

“The cycle just keeps repeating itself,” George said.

Build A City by People for Care and Learning seeks to break this cycle by completing a city that not only meets the physical needs of these Cambodians, but also provides vocational and educational opportunities.

Each family will receive a deed from the Cambodian government for the land their house sits on. The city will be complete with needed infrastructure such as clean water, roads, a sewage system, business development center, school for preschool and kindergarten (a school for higher grades is already accessible to the children) and playground. A two-story marketplace will provide a place for the community to come together and sell food and other items.

The first phase of construction has already begun, George said. Most of the building that will house the business development center has already been completed.

“All of the infrastructure will be built during the first year,” George said. “The first houses won’t be built until the second year.”

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Online:

www.buildacity.org

www.peopleforcare.org