The Le Tonlé community
Le Tonlé was founded by the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) to provide training and access to employment for disadvantaged Cambodian youths. Now, Le Tonlé income helps CRDT to continue its work in the local community.
CRDT's vision is a Cambodia free from poverty and environmental degradation. Its mission is to sustainably improve food security, incomes, and living standards of subsistence rural communities in support of environmental conservation throughout Cambodia.in undertakes community development, natural resource management, ecotourism and social enterprise projects.
Income at Le Tonlé helps CRDT's mission in the following sectors:
Food security
To ensure that households have access to nutritious foods all year round, CRDT provides much needed training to rural communities to improve agricultural techniques. We introduce new crop varieties to diversify household diets, and increase crop production. We have over 20,000 beneficiaries with improved food security.
Home garden tomatoes for food security
Scaling up vegetable production
Income generation
CRDT trains farmers in agricultural techniques, bookkeeping, and enterprise, scales up their production, and facilitates access to market. We set up local business clusters for vegetables, chickens and fish. Seven thousand members of 220 farmers groups have joined.
We establish village savings groups to provide capital for small-scale agricultural project. Two thousand members in 68 groups now have affordable access to capital.
Our ecotourism projects on islands along the Mekong River brings both domestic and international income to families in remote communities.
Water scarcity
Regions where CRDT operates suffer prolonged periods of water scarcity. CRDT ameliorates the hardships of the extended dry season by supplying solar-powered water pumps, water storage ponds, and irrigation systems.
Cambodian village water supply system.
Climate change adpatation and mitigation
CRDT reduces impact on climate change though the use of solar power and bio-digesters which produce methane for domestic cooking. We introduce climate-smart agriculture to help farmers adapt to climate change.
CRDT recently started an agroforestry project on 2,500 of land. Farmers will plant long-tern crops such as cashew, rubber, fruit and five species of hardwood on previously degraded land. This protects the land from further degradation, diversifies crops and earns income from produce and carbon credits.
Cambodian hardwood trees.
Hygiene and sanitation
Poor hygiene is a longstanding problem in remote communities and the resulting diarrhea can lead to malnutrition. CRDT trains in WASH, and has dug wells and installed ten village water supply systems for five thousand villagers. Villagers maintain their own water systems with a sustainable business model.
CRDT has combatted open defecation in villages by installing over 10,000 latrines.
Household piped water.
Health and nutrition
Acute malnutrition afflicts one in ten Cambodian children. CRDT improves the health of entire communities with safe water systems, latrines, home gardening and animal raising. We train women on the importance of well-balanced diets to secure the health of their families.
Squash / Pumpkins for nutrition and health.
Environmental Education and Waste Management
CRDT works with municipalities to improve waste managements, especially reducing plastic waste through the 3 R’s of reduce, reuse and recycle. We set up new waste management processes in remote communities.
Waste collection on Koh Trong Island
Other
CRDT also has programs for youth engagement in civil society, community research to identify causes of poverty.
Youth engagement meeting.