After 15 years of shooting images of the poor of this world you would think that a photographer would become hardened and somewhat calloused to the sights and smells of poverty. But it was hard for me not to weep into the eye piece of my cameras today as I walked through some of the worst slums in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia. Every where I stepped a cloud of flies would rise up from the slimy filth that covered the ground and swarm around the children that followed me as I walked.

Trapped in poverty, the families that dwell here choose to stay because of the close proximity to the odd jobs they might find in the streets of the city. The children help out by spending hours in the hot sun, combing through the nearby city dump, looking for bits of metal or other things that might be recycled or redeemed for a little rice.

Even if they could make it to the government school a couple of kilometers away, it is doubtful that the parents would be able to afford the necessary uniforms or school supplies. With no running water, sanitation facilities, poor nutrition, and lack of even the most basic health care, the child survival rate is very poor. Sickness and disease was almost as rampant as the layers of grime caked to the bodies of the children. No one should have to live like this! Angels must weep as they see God’s children walking barefoot through the slime.

The Seventh-day Adventist mission in Cambodia, with the support of a non-profit organization called Adventist Southeast Asia Projects, (ASAP) has begun a work in these communities, that is starting to make a difference. Small buildings have been rented to start literacy programs for the children. Instead of spending all of their time at the dump, the children gather around a teacher for a few hours every day and with eager expressions on their faces, learn the basics of reading and math. As part of the program, each day the children receive a nutritious meal.

It is simple programs like these that save lives and break the cycle of poverty. Sometimes we may be tempted to think that the problems of poverty are too big to solve, that they are too far away, too complex, too overwhelming, for us to make any significant impact. We might convince ourselves that the agencies that work with the poor are so top-heavy with administration costs that very little of our donation would make it through to the people in need. With this rational we try to justify doing nothing, and carry on with our privileged lives, meeting our friends at Starbucks or a day of shopping at the mall.

Adventist Southeast Asia Projects has been working in the countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos for over ten years, directly meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of some of the poorest people in the world. If you were to check independent sources that monitor the effectiveness of humanitarian agencies and how much money actually gets through to the people in need, you would discover that ASAP has one of the highest ratings possible. If you would like to make a contribution that you could be sure would reach children living in a cloud of flies, please visit the ASAP website today. www.asapministries.org/