Life saving aid reaches hundreds of families hiding in Cambodian jungle

"If you didn't turn up when you did I feel certain quite a few of our young children would have died in the next week."

That was the message from the village chief in a remote corner of Cambodia's poorest province Oddar Meanchey a couple of days ago to our project director Pastor Abe and his team when they risked their own lives to deliver hundreds of bags of rice and emergency medicine to more than 200 families hiding in dense tropical jungle.

These are the forgotten victims in the Thai/Cambodia border dispute who, with no transport of their own and no offer of support from their Government, have been forced to stay within the conflict zone and take shelter under the cover of local rainforests.

Most of the families from the village surrounding our Oddar Meanchey primary school were able to make their way to evacuation camps hundreds of kilometres away near the Angkor Wat temple tourist town of Siem Reap, but these 1,000 or so residents were left behind.

It was a desperate phone call from a big-hearted village chief that alerted Pastor Abe and his team to their dire situation and a plan to get emergency supplies to them was hastily formulated, despite Abe still nursing four broken ribs and a fractured arm from his serious accident late last month.

Worried about Thai fighter jet and drone attacks, these families abandoned their ramshackle homes and instead retreated to the jungle where they could hide in the dense foliage, but it meant getting emergency aid to them was not easy. Armed with hundreds of 20kg bags of rice, fresh pork (which these families would rarely eat) and medicine to combat malnutrition and malaria that is rife in the wake of the wet season, Abe's team were greeted by understandably very emotional families who had lost all hope of survival.

Originally we had planned to provide support to the families who had made their way to the evacuation camps, which we are hoping to still do, but for now we will focus our energy and resources on supporting the jungle refugees. Because the employment lifeline in Thailand has been severed since July when the border dispute flared up, our OM families have had their backs against the walls for months now and their children have become more and more malnourished. When our team arrived at their makeshift jungle camp many families had not eaten a single thing in days and some of the youngsters were barely alive. Our team was able to negotiate with nearby farmers, who have stayed on their properties to protect their livestock, to allow these village families to access their cassava (tropical potato) crops to supplement their diets in the weeks ahead.

Our team were also escorted by the Cambodian Army to inspect our school which remains undamaged, but there is real concern that being such a beacon in that landscape it may attract attention from the Thai military. It was during this very quick visit, that Pastor Abe learned that a number of the soldiers who have perished in this conflict were the fathers of some of our students so we are particularly saddened by this news. Many of the frontline soldiers are living in deplorable conditions so we extended our emergency aid program to support them too by providing bottled drinking water and rolls of pipe so they can access clean drinking water on a regular basis from now on.

Thankfully, our high school boarding house is further from the conflict zone and although still within the identified danger area is relatively safe for now and has a number of families sheltering there.

I have a small number of hastily taken pics to share, but because of the very real threat to their lives, especially while in transit, our team didn't get a chance to take many.

I am so proud of our project director Pastor Abe and his team for daring to go into what is very much a war zone to pour some love and compassion into the lives of these forgotten families and I personally pledge that Supporting Cambodia will do everything in its powers to ensure they are provided for as long as is needed.

We would love for you to consider partnering with us in an array of great projects across two of Cambodia's poorest provinces by making a tax deductible donation today (or any day). You can contribute directly into our Australian working account ‘Supporting Cambodia’ BSB: 015-600 Account: 1967 91878 (Please include your name and email address in the transaction for a tax receipt) or with a credit card on our donation page.

All the best for the festive season,

Rob