12 September 2011

Factory and Rice

In addition to the two stories in Ratannakiri and Kampong Chnnang, we have also been following the life of Khieu, a factory worker living in Veng Sreng Road, famous for its row of factories that stretch for miles along the highway, and located in the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Khieu, is the eldest of the three sisters working at a shoe factory. The family lives in a tiny room, not much larger than a small walk-in closet. The family is from Svay Rieng, a province two hours away from the capital. They came to Phnom Penh six years ago to work in a shoe factory. Like many others in Cambodia, this family is struggling to cope with low wages and the rise in the cost of living in an urban environment as well as trying to balance the need to make money in the city with the need to care for their family and their home in the countryside.

Like most of the factory girls, Khieu only makes 60 USD a month or 100 USD, including overtime. This is barely enough for Khieu to survive in the city, send money back home, or pay off the family’s mounting debts. In addition to her duty of providing regular income for her family, Khieu is also expected to return home to help during the planting and harvest season. This makes it difficult for Khieu and many factory girls to commit to their work and therefore to save enough money to finally escape factory life and return home. Khieu and many of the factory girls are therefore often forced to live their lives in between - in between the city and the country and between the factory and rice.















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