The MSC Community Village aims to expand the scope of the Inclusive Education Program by providing purpose-built accommodation for young people with disabilities.
The MSC Community Village builds on two other Marist projects, the LaValla School (primary) and the Inclusive Education Program, by providing purpose built accommodation for young people with disabilities enrolled in high school or university. A further component of this development will be the establishment of a cultivation area for vegetables and fruit, so that students can undertake agriculture studies.
The success of Cambodian agriculture helped four million people out of poverty in the past decade. In a report issued by The World Bank (2015) the poverty headcount dropped from 50% in 2007 to 18% in 2012. However, while poverty has declined, the number of vulnerable people has increased. Most people who have escaped poverty still remain poor. The loss of only USD $ 0.7 per day would bring poor families back into poverty, and cause a doubling of Cambodia’s poverty rate back to 40% (The World Bank, 2015). Key to the growth in profitability in the Cambodian agriculture sector is the increased demand for non-core crop such as vegetables, cassava and maize (The World Bank, 2015).
Now, the MSC Community Village has taken its first steps to harnessing the rise in demand for vegetables by teaching their students to grow lemon, lemon grass, bananas, corn, eggplant, chilli and papaya on the new 1.5 ha MSC Community Village site. Central to the teachings are the students’ ability to understand how to manage the farms existing resources whilst minimizing output costs such as logistics and transportation. A rise in productivity would have the largest positive effect on farm incomes, especially if the shift from traditional to modern technologies is accompanied by increased use of quality seeds, fertilizers and irrigation (The World Bank, 2015).
With your support the Community Village can offer more than just a home, it can offer an opportunity for life. To help break to cycle of poverty visit: MSC Community Village
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