Les Enfants de la Rizière Orphanage is Full Tummy Farm’s first project in Cambodia. Located in Angkor Archeological Park Les Enfants de la Rizière currently has 49 orphans in residence & provides access to education for local children.

There is no electricity at the orphanage, but they have several generators to operate the well pumps.

They have a fairly well outfitted kitchen & dining area, donated by a family from Britain.В They have several wells & pumps, so lots of water.В There is a hand well in the washing area where they bathe & wash their clothes.В They have proper latrines, but they areВ squat toilets, which they flush with scoops of water.В The entire compound is immaculate.В The children always look clean, but sometimes their clothes need some mending.В We bought them an old Janome treadle sewing machine to help them out, and so that some of the children may learn to sew as a trade.

There is a small 2-storey dormitory for the little boys and a larger 2-storey dormitory for the girls.В These buildings are relatively new.В The eldest male orphans sleep in a hut with lattice walls, closest to the entrance to the orphanage compound.В The 2 teachers sleep in a hut with a banana leaf roof & no walls.В There are 2 single beds, a very old unfinished dresser & a table in the hut.

The Director, Muong Thy, has a small hut with aВ banana leaf roof held up by 4 poles.В В There are hammocks hung on 3 of the 4 sides.В In the space marked by the 3 hammocks is a very large table cut from a huge tree trunk, and some heavy round tree stump stools.В There are no walls, no bed or other furniture.

The children call him “Papa Thy”. Papa Thy used to work with the government, administering the orphanage program. His wife & family used to live in Siem Reap with him. When he retired, the people didn’t want him to. Seven years ago, he founded the Farmers’ Children Orphanage or Les Enfants de la Rizière . He lives here with the orphans. His wife & children now live in France. Papa Thy speaks English very well & is fluent in French, and of course, Khmer.

All of the children are very well behaved.В They all understand the value of a good, if basic education.В They all enjoy going to school & learning.В The younger children go to a school nearby.В Some of the older children must be driven to school in the tuk tuk or 1 of 2 donated vans.В They attend classes either 8am-noon or noon-5pm.В A few of the older orphans have finished upper school & are waiting to go to colleges, vocational training or specialized schools.В One girl is studying sewing & design, another girl is studying music at the conservatory & 1 of the boys is trying to get into the Paul Dubrule school to become a chef .

Whenever there is a visiting volunteer English teacher, all of the orphans take advantage of the lessons.В For part of the time that we were working at Les Enfants, they had a volunteer teacher from Britain, placed through an NGO called Real Gap.

They are actually doing quite well compared to some of the other orphanages.В Mainly due to the excellent budgeting skills of Papa Thy.В He feeds the 49 orphans & 5-6 adults working & living on the orphanage on a daily budget of $25 USD.В From that they receiveВ 3 daily meals of mainly plain steamed white rice, supplemented by fish & vegetables.В Although they raise chickens & ducks for eggs, they seldom eat the poultry.В They usually only get chicken or pork on special occasions, such as Khmer New Years.

They have a small farm in the orphanage, but did not have the skills to make it self-sufficient. The chicken house was built right on the ground. So, when it rains, the chickens all die from drowning or disease. Now the few chickens they have left mostly run free range. They have about 20-30 ducks, which also run free range. They raise them mainly for eggs. They have a small vegetable patch but it doesn’t look very successful and is way too small to support all the inhabitants. They grow some sweet potatoes, which apparently grow easily and almost wild. By far the most successful crops appear to be the numerous fruit trees all around the property - bananas, mangoes, cashews & willughbeia.

Over a 5-week period from March to May, 2011, the Full Tummy Farm Orphanage Food Project built & stocked a new farm for the orphanage, consisting of:

2 fish ponds, stocked with 6 kilos (18,000) fingerling catfish

7m X 4m raise chicken house, stocked with organic Cambodian & market grade chickens

2 new double pig pens with 2 new piglets

new roof for the duck pen

7m X 4m mushroom hut with the capacity to cultivate 2000 mushroom bags

all supplies to grow 2000 mushroom bags

3 months supply of pig, chicken, duck & fish feed

We have hired consultants to train them on mushroom cultivation, and any other farming skills they need to succeed.

At the end of the 1st month, they should start harvesting the catfish & mushrooms for consumption.В В They should have a surplus of catfish & mushrooms starting the 2nd month and be deriving an income from the farm.В They should also have surplus eggs to sell by the 2nd month.В The income generated will be allow them to buy feed for the animals & still have excess income.

Our goal is to bring them to self-sufficiency by the middle of the 2nd month & be income generating by the 3rd month.В Hence we have bought them sufficient animal feed & mushroom supplies for a minimum of 3 months.