Mekong Big Builds 2013 — Vietnam and Cambodia

Mark these dates in your calendar: August 4 to 10, Tien Giang, southern Vietnam and November 3 to 9, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Make a difference in your life and in the lifes of families in Vietnam and Cambodia by joining us for Mekong Big Builds 2013.

BANGKOK (April 15, 2013) — Have you caught the wanderlust but also wanted to volunteer? The Mekong Big Builds are a happy solution to do both. Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, with its local partners, invites you to provide low-income families with decent homes and sanitation facilities to help break the cycle of poverty in Tien Giang province, south of Ho Chi Minh City.

Tien Giang, which means ‘The River in Front’, is located in the Mekong Delta region in southern Vietnam. The province is prone to disasters such as flooding and drought.

Many families, who are living from hand-to-mouth, have hardly any money to make house repairs after disasters, let alone have savings to build secure homes. From August 4 to 10, the Mekong Big Builds will bring together Habitat volunteers and 25 families to build new homes in Cho Gao district.

For more information, please contact [email protected].

There is also the special build at Smile Village, about 30 minutes’ drive from Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. The closure of Steung Meanchey dumpsite in 2009 left hundreds of families without homes and their source of income — as garbage pickers — in Phnom Penh.

Many now live in shacks hugging the dumpsite’s fence, and others are dispersed across the city; all live in substandard housing struggling to make a living.

From November 3 to 9, Mekong Big Builds volunteers will work at Smile Village, or Phum Kdey Nhor Nhem, helping to build affordable rental homes for these families. Smile Village is a 2.2 hectare site just 11 kilometers, and within cycling distance, from the city center, providing easy access to jobs, schools and opportunities to develop new skills.

Please contact [email protected] for details.

For general information on the Mekong Big Builds, please get in touch with [email protected].