By Overseas Team | Member of Overseas Team
Summary
Imagine if a single cow could change a child's entire future. In the Samlout district of Cambodia, vulnerable families are breaking the cycle of extreme poverty through our innovative "Cow Bank" project. By providing livestock, essential veterinary care, and hands-on training, we are helping families build sustainable livelihoods so their children can thrive.
The Challenge: A Daily Fight for Survival
For many families living in the rural Samlout district of Cambodia’s Battambang Province, every day is a struggle to survive. Decades of conflict have left deep scars, and many households remain trapped in a relentless cycle of poverty.
Consider a mother like Sokha (a composite of the families we serve). Despite working from dawn until dusk, her income is incredibly fragile. A single unexpected crisis—a poor harvest or a sudden illness—can mean her children go to bed hungry. Even worse, it often means pulling her children out of school to help the family work. For these vulnerable families, the lack of a reliable asset means they are always one step away from disaster. They don't need a temporary handout; they need a sustainable lifeline.
The Solution: A "Living Savings Account"
Enter the "Cow Bank" project. In collaboration with our international partner, The Right Hands, and the local Baitong Agricultural Cooperative, we don't just give families money—we loan them a healthy cow.
For a rural Cambodian family, a cow is a "living savings account." It provides fertilizer for their crops, offspring that can be sold or kept, and eventually, a steady stream of income. But we don't stop at just handing over an animal. Our comprehensive support includes:
Hands-on Workshops: We bring families and agricultural experts together to build trust and share best practices.
Active Monitoring & Veterinary Care: Raising a cow is hard work. Our cooperative's trained veterinary staff regularly visits each of the 25 households currently in our program to check for skin diseases, loss of appetite, and other health issues.
Sanitation & Disease Prevention: We guide families on creating safe, hygienic environments for their animals, including providing mosquito nets for cow sheds and teaching proper waste management.
When a family achieves financial independence through the Cow Bank, everything changes. Food security increases, dignity is restored, and most importantly, children can put down their tools and pick up their schoolbooks.
Why We Need Your Help NOW (The Urgency) The rainy season in Cambodia brings a severe increase in mosquito-borne illnesses and skin diseases that can be fatal to livestock. During our most recent monitoring visits, we already identified several cows suffering from loss of appetite and early stages of illness.
If a family loses their cow, they lose their entire safety net, jeopardizing their children's education and well-being. We urgently need immediate funding to deploy more veterinary medicine, supply protective mosquito nets, and conduct emergency sanitation workshops before diseases spread further. We cannot wait—the health of these animals is directly tied to the survival of these families.
How Your Donation Will Be Used Every dollar you give goes directly toward building self-reliance for these families. Here is how you can make a tangible difference today:
$15 provides a heavy-duty mosquito net to protect a family's cow from deadly insect-borne diseases.
$35 covers the cost of a veterinary check-up and essential medicine for a sick animal.
$75 funds a comprehensive livestock management and sanitation workshop for an entire farming family.
$150 equips the local agricultural cooperative with a full month of emergency veterinary supplies to serve 25 vulnerable households.
$500 helps sponsor the loan of a new, healthy cow to a family currently waiting to join the Cow Bank program.
About Terra Renaissance
Founded with the philosophy of "All lives living in peace and with dignity," Terra Renaissance is a certified Japanese non-profit organization with over two decades of experience in peacebuilding, landmine clearance, and self-reliance support. We believe that true peace is built when people can stand on their own two feet. By working closely with local communities and trusted partners, we ensure that our solutions are culturally sensitive, highly effective, and sustainable long after our intervention ends.
Take Action Today!
You have the power to rewrite a child’s future. By supporting the Cow Bank, you aren't just saving an animal; you are giving a family the dignity of self-reliance and giving a child the chance to stay in school.
Please, don't let these families face these challenges alone. Click the "Donate Now" button below to make a secure contribution through GlobalGiving. Whether it is $15 or $500, your generosity will create a ripple effect of hope that will last for generations.
Together, we can build a world where every life can smile.
Links:
By Overseas Team | Member of Overseas Team
By Risa Tsuda | Cambodia Project
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
