Savings allows for an improved diet. It allows people to eat at least twice a day and provides a varied diet other than just rice.

Price: $20.00 |

Normally eight to ten people drink from one shared metal container, waiting their turn. For a family to drink out of glass instead of metal or plastic is seen as a family's first step out of poverty.

Price: $5.00 |

A family usually shares the same cooking pot. For a hungry family eating their only meal of the day, eating off plates and dishes can help bring domestic harmony.

Price: $15.00 |

When you have to use your only set of clothes to dry yourself off, a small towel can make all the difference. Towels are cheap and are available locally, but even that small amount is hard to save.

Price: $.50 |

Price: $5.00 |

Price: $2.00 |

Price: $10.00 |

Most families who join the Tabitha Savings program own only one set of clothes. New clothes are too expensive and seldom purchased but second-hand clothes are cheap. An outfit for a small child can be obtained for less than $1, progressing through to an adult at $3.

Price: $15.00 |

There is a misconception that Cambodian people prefer to sleep on a mat on the floor, however, like most of us they would prefer to sleep on a bed. Old people, in particular, would enjoy the comfort of sleeping on a bed.

Price: $120.00 |

Price: $25.00 |

Price: $60.00 |

If even the crudest bed is out of the question, a plastic sleeping mat provides a little softness from the hard ground or floor.

Price: $10.00 |

Tables and chairs are rarely seen in the poorer communities, although, like most people, everyone would love to have a set. They are placed at the low end of a family's list of priorities but the attainment of these items is a very real psychological move out of the poverty cycle.

Price: $25.00 |

There is no electricity out in the rural communities and,therefore, no means of keeping food fresh. An icebox or cooler, similar to what we would take on a picnic, is invaluable to a poor family.

Price: $15.00 |

Mosquito nets are very important to protect a family against mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. However, though they are a much desired item, they are not a priority when compared to pots and pans, drinking glasses, clothing and towels.

Price: $15.00 |

In Cambodia school uniforms are mandatory. The rationale behind this is that no-one can distinguish between the rich and the poor. This is yet another obstacle and financial burden on a poor family.

Price: $5.00 |

Although text books are provided by the school, because they consist of newsprint they are very easily damaged and each student must pay for the replacement.

Price: $5.00 |

Pencils and writing pads are yet another financial burden.

Price: $2.00 |

Each child must pay several hundred riel a day in school fees (R200 R300 in the countryside; R500 R1,000 in urban areas). If a family's income is less than USD0.50 per day, the cost of sending two or three children to school is prohibitive.

Price: $50.00 |

Children in Cambodia attend school for half a day, which means the bicycle is not only utilized to travel to and from school, but is also available to generate income. A child must be able to contribute to the family's income if they wish to attend school.

Price: $40.00 |

Motor bikes are a very expensive purchase for a family, so most people buy secondhand vehicles. With access to a motor bike, a family's income will double or even triple.

Price: $250.00 |

The majority of Tabitha families do not have access to a well and must travel, on average, three kilo-metres to potable water. The waiting period to obtain that water, whether it is near or far, is up to three hours. This means that most families have to send a family member out at about 3.00 am to fetch enough water for the family's daily needs.

Price: $15.00 |

Only 1 percent of families associated with Tabitha have access to clean potable water near their home. Not only is everyone entitled to access to clean water, but such access dramatically reduces the incidence of diarrhea and infection and doubles a family's income. During times of drought, water can be pumped and used to irrigate the fields. The impact of a well has both immediate and long-term effects and serves five families.

Price: $85.00 |

A mechanized water pump allows families to irrigate their field during the hunger months (the end of the dry season/beginning of wet). One water pump can irrigate up to ten families fields, allowing them to grow vegetables for both food and sale, which can double their annual income and double the nutritional value of their diet.

Price: $95.00 |

Price: $200.00 |

A toilet improves a family's hygiene and doubles as a bathing room. The toilet design is a typical squat-style, water sealed, with a water trough made of cement and tile, which is used to bathe.

Price: $45.00 |

Price: $60.00 |

Access to an amount of money large enough to do something substantial like build a home, buy a motor bike or bicycle, or even get out of debt, is difficult to come by. One possible means of doing this is to develop a live piggy bank . A family can buy two piglets, raise them for 4-6 months and then resell them for eight or ten times the original cost.

Price: $30.00 |

Farmers in Cambodia are still reliant on plough animals to work their fields. Without their own, farmers must rent the village or neighbour s plough animals, which cuts into their own food supplies. A farmer must grow enough rice to sustain the family during the six hunger months. Once a cow of buffalo is acquired, they are NEVER sold.

Price: $150.00 |

Price: $180.00 |

Price: $250.00 |

Price: $400.00 |

With the purchase of livestock comes the need to provide an animal stall; without shelter, cows get sick and die. Alternatively, when floods occur, animal stalls need to be rebuilt.

Price: $35.00 |

Chickens and ducks are raised by a family to supplement their diet and also to generate income at special times of the year like Khmer New Year and the Water Festival.

Price: $15.00 |

If farmers do not have any rice seed left from the previous season, they must borrow from the money lender to buy seed. This debt has to be repaid at the end of the harvest with one sack of rice out of every ten. Families on the Tabitha Savings Program save money to buy rice seed.

Price: $40.00 |

Tabitha families plant one rice crop per year; the rest of thetime the field lies fallow because they do not have access to vegetable seeds. Vegetables supplement a family's diet and also provide a good source of income. People who have access to wells and can grow vegetable crops quadruple their annual income.

Price: $25.00 |

With the use of fertilizer a farmer can double his harvest per ton. On average per year, 1,000 Tabitha families save for fertilizer and 1,000 save for vegetable seed.

Price: $50.00 |

The majority of Tabitha families do not have access to any farming imple-ments: ploughs, scythes, watering cans, etc.

Price: $20.00 |

Price: $15.00 |

Price: $10.00 |

When the rice is harvested, it is essential to provide an elevated mud shelter, which is waterproof and rat proof.

Price: $45.00 |

There are many single-women households in Cambodia. During rice planting and harvesting they must pay for extra labour. This is especially true of single mothers with children who are too young to work long periods in the field. Without a rice crop these families would starve.

Price: $30.00 |

Price: $30.00 |

Generally, it will take about two and a half years for a family to save enough to buy posts, wood for the frame and tin for the roof of their own home. They will then construct that and live in it without any walls for a further two and a half to three years. (An average house measures 4m x 5m.)

Price: $100.00 |

Price: $450.00 |

Price: $100.00 |

Price: $120.00 |

Price: $150.00 |

Price: $60.00 |

Although farming provides the main income, for a family to work its way out of poverty, it is necessary to have a supplemental income. Tabitha families use the Savings Program to save to start up their own business or enlarge an existing business.

Price: $50.00 |

Most economic activity occurs on market days, which are held three days a week. Without a stall, a vendor just sets up shop on the ground, but this is not as successful as having a stall. With a stall, a vendor is not subject to paying excessive bribes, nor can the local authorities expel them. The annual cost of a stall must be paid in advance.

Price: $100.00 |

Supplemental income for a large number of families is usually in the form of some type of buying and selling of fruits, vegetables etc. Before a family can start such a business in their home, it is essential that they have a weigh scale. If they cannot weigh their produce, no-one will buy from them.

Price: $35.00 |

In most families the older girls have little opportunity to get a job other than on the farm. The purchase of a sewing machine allows these girls an independent income, which allows them the option of working in the garment industry in an urban centre or tailoring in their own neighbourhood.

Price: $45.00 |

The head weaver in a village buys all the raw silk and distributes it to weavers at a charge of 10 percent per month, over and above the full premium, which has to be repaid in one amount. The head weaver determines the selling price of the end product and the weavers are then repaid in more raw silk and perhaps a sack of rice. The silk is placed on consignment at local markets and takes an average of three months to sell.

Price: $35.00 |

Due to the severe flooding that occurs in a number of Tabitha project areas, small boats are essential to move household goods to higher ground, as a means of transportation (especially when someone is ill) and a source of getting food, other than fish.

Price: $30.00 |

Price: $100.00 |

Cambodia is surrounded by water—e.g. Tonle Sap, Mekong—as well as irrigation dishes and ponds. During the six months of floods, fishing is the sole source of income for many families, so a fishing net is essential, especially in Prey Vang, Siem Reap, Kandal and the port families in Kompong Som.

Price: $35.00 |

Many families living on the coast fish for crabs, shrimps and other crustaceans. This provides work for hundreds of Tabitha families, who live in or around fishing villages. These families buy the product from the fishermen, clean and shell them and then resell them to the canning factory for a small profit.

Price: $25.00 |

Children in Cambodia attend school for half a day, which means the bicycle is not only utilized to travel to and from school, but is also available to generate income. A child must be able to contribute to the family's income if they wish to attend school.

Price: $40.00 |

Motor bikes are a very expensive purchase for a family, so most people buy secondhand vehicles. With access to a motor bike, a family's income will double or even triple.

Price: $250.00 |

Ninety percent of Tabitha families are farmers. The very poorest of these families do not have access to farming implements or any means of moving their rice from one place to another. To transport their rice they have to rent and pay others, so whatever profit they make is eaten up by paying others for the use of their equipment transport.

Price: $40.00 |