Our Work

Twelve Years Later

Cambodia is one of the first countries where Samaritan’s Purse Canada began training partners to install BioSand Water Filters and more than 63,000 Cambodian families have now benefitted from this program.

Recently one of our partners visited communities where they first began installing BioSand Water Filters in 1998. In the village of Prek Chhmous, , these filters are still preventing water-borne diseases 12 years later.

Chan Chorn and his family were among the first to receive a filter 12 years ago. Chan works as a fisherman during the rainy season and a rice farmer during the dry season. He was always very busy and didn’t pay much attention to the health issues of his family. He remembers that someone would become very sick quite often and he would have to work much harder to pay for expensive medical bills.

“Sometimes we would boil our water and sometimes we would not,” said Chan. “People use our river to wash animals and raise pigs and fish. The water is dirty and has a bad smell.”

Once Chan received his filter, his wife began to rave about the quality of the family’s water. The river water, once filtered, became clear and had no odor. Chan noticed that he had more money to spend on his family and his home because of a lack of hospital bills.

Neighbors and relatives also noticed the success of the filter and the superior quality of water it produced. “We’ve had so many requests for the BioSand Water Filter as a result of the amazing testimony of these families who have been faithfully using their filters for so long now,” shared the project’s manager. In order to meet this demand, our partner is preparing to restart the project in Prek Chhmous.

“All of the families that I know who have a filter could not imagine life without them anymore,” said Chan.

Ways You Can Help
Pray Please pray that God will continue to provide direction to Samaritan’s Purse, as we respond to people’s needs, share the love of Christ, and serve the church worldwide.		Give The need is urgent. A child is dying every 20 seconds in the developing world from diarrhoeal diseases caused by polluted water. Donate Here.