Samaritan’s Purse is helping impoverished families earn a living by caring for hens and roosters.
Lok Hul and his wife, Sar Sangvan, were having trouble making ends meet for their family of seven until Samaritan’s Purse taught them how to raise chickens. Now thanks to the training and supplies we provided, they are thriving and teaching others the farming lessons they learned from our staff members.
After living in the same village in Cambodia, for nearly 30 years, Lok Hul, 60, and Sar Sangvan, 58, suddenly faced a financial crisis when their tapioca crop did not do well. The poor yield didn’t just cripple them one year, but four in a row. With no savings and a burden of debt, the couple was forced to turn to manual labor jobs to provide for their three daughters and two sons. Collecting corn and wood, they earned just over $11 a day.
Lok Hul started trying to raise chickens as a supplement to their meager income, but the birds quickly grew sick because he didn’t know how to properly care for them.
Thankfully a year later, Lok Hul and Sar Sangvan met a Samaritan’s Purse staff member who took the time to teach them how to properly care for the chickens. Along with receiving two coops, two bags of feed, 74 chicks, an incubator, and various other supplies, the couple participated in a training course on poultry care.
“The key to success when raising chickens is maintaining a living space with adequate food, water, and cleanliness.”
“If Lok Hul raises these chickens in the same way as he did before, he will fail,” a Samaritan’s Purse staff member said. “The key to success when raising chickens is maintaining a living space with adequate food, water, and cleanliness.”
Thanks to our training manuals that emphasized these points, Lok Hul’s family quickly caught on. Samaritan’s Purse staff members were present to coach them along the way, and even more important, to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the last year alone, Samaritan’s Purse has equipped over 300 families with chicks and training.
Lok Hul and Sar Sangvan have already sold over 70 chickens, earning over $450, which they have used to pay for their water and electricity. They have also cut down on their own food expenses by harvesting 30 of the birds for their own table.
Sar Sangvan also serves as deputy chief of the village and is uniquely poised to help others in her community benefit from the training and resources her family received from Samaritan’s Purse. She’s already helped 10 additional families figure out how to raise and sell chickens. She has even convinced the traders that come to their village to buy chickens from all 30 of the families who have them. She’s also distributed four roosters to two families, and dreams of taking care of 100 hens of her own someday. Sar Sangvan wants to be the go-to person in her community when others decide to raise these profitable birds.
In the last year alone, Samaritan’s Purse office in Cambodia has trained over 300 families in chicken farming, providing them with more than 24,000 chicks. We praise God that, so far, 327 of these people have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Please pray for Lok Hul and Sar Sangvan and for all who are being touched by this project.
