Children playing under school building, which are flood during raining season, located in Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia

Ratha YOUS/Save the Children

Education
Kanha (11) with her sister Lyza (9) at their home on Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia

Kanha is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her family in a floating house in a community on Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. The family of seven includes the parents, Kanha, her three sisters and a brother, and they live in a small house that consists of one bedroom, a kitchen, and a storage area. Every day, Kanha and her sister Lyza, 9, take the boat to go to the local floating school, where she attends grade 5. The children love the local floating community and Kanha is happy to see the community getting bigger and more people living on the lake. She, however, is very concerned about the pollution in the Tonle Sap Lake where she sees litter and trash floating, and numbers of flooded forests in constant decline. Kanha is aware that flooded forests serve as a habitat for fish, and that their decline affects her parents’ fishing activity, which serves as the main source of income for the family. She is also troubled by the impact of trash on the health and wellbeing of the community, and its effect on the prospects of making Tonle Sap Lake a tourist destination. Powered with these concerns and knowledge of the importance of environmental conservation, Kanha joined other children in her school to build biobars; a barrier made of used bottles and nets to trap trash in the waterways, which is then collected and disposed of outside of the lake. She and other children in the community collect empty bottles, drop them off at school, and join working groups to build the biobars. Kanha believes that she is making a change in her community and the world by spreading awareness about the dangers of pollution and picking up trash. She describes herself as gentle, calm and caring, and wants to be a doctor when she grows up to save patients and help her country. Sacha Myers / Save the Children

Social Protection
Meughong, 9, at his school on Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia

Linh Pham / Save the Children

Child Poverty
A boy with his mother participated in Caregiver session in Kampong Cham, Cambodia

Ratha YOUS/Save the Children

Child Protection
Ratana, 12, and her classmates collect rubbish from Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia.

Every morning, 12-year-old Ratana sets off from her home on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake by boat. She’s heading for a floating school supported by Save the Children – but she’s got a vital job to do before she gets there. As she rows she picks up friends along the way – and together they work to clear the rubbish that litters the lake. “When we row the boat to school we pick up the trash, put it in our boat and burnt it after that,” says Ratana. She and her friends care passionately about cleaning up the lake because of the eco lessons we’ve helped introduce to the school’s curriculum. “I have learned about pollution, deforestation, and garbage,” she explains. “I’ve learned how to clean the environment.” She is also spreading the word to her community about climate change and protecting the environment. “The elderly and adults should listen to children because we are now aware of the environment,” Ratana says. It is children like Ratana and her friends that are this fishing community’s best hope of saving their lake and livelihood. It is her generation that is leading the fightback against climate change across the world. Linh Pham / Save the Children

Our impact for children

Icon - Save the Children brand asset

In 2023

140,860 people, incl 79,670 children.