Former Borei Keila villagers drive stakes demarcating plots on land near Oudong Mountain, the site of their future homes. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post
Just a few weeks after her house was bulldozed at Borei Keila last January, grandmother Both Choun was told she would not be granted land at her new home, a relocation site at the foot of Kandal province’s Oudong Mountain.
The documents the 70-year-old needed to prove she was entitled to a plot at the site – compensation from Borei Keila developer Phan Imex – had been destroyed with her house.
“I felt so angry when they demolished my home and sent me here – and even angrier when they denied me land,” she told the Post last week.
Choun, languishing under a small tarp in a hot, barren field 45 kilometres from the capital, faced eviction for a second time.
A year on, the 70-year-old still lives in that tiny tent and rarely sees her orphaned grandchildren, two HIV-positive girls who lasted just weeks at Oudong – where they could not get medicine – before returning to Borei Keila to sleep under stairs with their aunt.
But things are looking brighter for Choun, who along with 30 other families has moved her tarp to adjoining land bought by US-based Christian non-profit organisation Rock Foundation Cambodia (RFC).
“We feel happy that the generous people bought that land to distribute to us,” Choun said.
Just a few weeks after her house was bulldozed at Borei Keila last January, grandmother Both Choun was told she would not be granted land at her new home, a relocation site at the foot of Kandal province’s Oudong Mountain.
The documents the 70-year-old needed to prove she was entitled to a plot at the site – compensation from Borei Keila developer Phan Imex – had been destroyed with her house.
“I felt so angry when they demolished my home and sent me here – and even angrier when they denied me land,” she told the Post last week.
Choun, languishing under a small tarp in a hot, barren field 45 kilometres from the capital, faced eviction for a second time.
A year on, the 70-year-old still lives in that tiny tent and rarely sees her orphaned grandchildren, two HIV-positive girls who lasted just weeks at Oudong – where they could not get medicine – before returning to Borei Keila to sleep under stairs with their aunt.
But things are looking brighter for Choun, who along with 30 other families has moved her tarp to adjoining land bought by US-based Christian non-profit organisation Rock Foundation Cambodia (RFC).
“We feel happy that the generous people bought that land to distribute to us,” Choun said.