Kim Hang has worked for the Cambodian Education and Waste Management Organisation (COMPED) since 2003. Kim, in his sixties, has the energy of a teenager. He joined our workshop, via an introduction from a friend in Germany, and was able to share a great deal of local knowledge and hands-on expertise with the Spirit team and the participants.
His organisation COMPED works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In cooperation with the NGO One Earth One Ocean COMPED works to prevent plastic from flowing into the ocean. Kim Hang lived in Germany for many years and is still involved in the Thuringian Cambodian Society. Spirit had been introduced to Kim in late February and our agenda was already tight for Cambodia by that time. We had planned to go directly to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. But, as things tend to do with The Ball, when en route to the World Cup, we were convinced to take a sizable detour. It was well worth it.
Kim was pulling all the strings. He had connected us to COMPED’s operations team in Battambang and to the NGO One Earth, One Ocean. We only had one full day and what a day it turned out to be. In the morning we visited the garbage tip where COMPED is based. COMPED’s sorting team divides waste that their collection teams have pulled out of the Mekong River (or that has been left lying by people along the river banks). Pure organic waste is turned into fertiliser. Plastic and other waste is recycled or turned into energy.
COMPED has an educational facility next to their recycling centre, with classrooms, play areas and a mini football pitch. About 30 children receive an education here. These children live directly on the giant rubbish dump, just hundreds of metres away, in the most appalling conditions. COMPED gives the children a chance of a better life. The children that participate are fed and clothed.
They play football here and are also taken to the SALT Academy (a local Christian based football-for-good NGO that we also visited for a fair football tournament) for regular training and games with local children, who refer to them as scavenger children. Circus training is provided by the famous Phare Ponleu Selpak, and learning English is also on the agenda. It is a chance and an escape for them, otherwise they too would be working with their parents, scavenging for a livelihood, battling the incessant flies and the radioactive waste on the rubbish dump that they call home.