Victims

Victims and Handicapped

 Program for Landmine Amputees and the Very Poor in Cambodia

Cambodian Landmine Amputees and the Very Poor desperately need your help.

SEARDF, Inc. is dedicated to again give meaning to the lives of these destitute and handicapped people. SEARDF, Inc. relies on your support, your willingness to share and help our fellow humans and neighbors.

Contrary to the mode of operation of many aid programs, SEARDF, Inc. does not believe in "the distribution of wealth" and does not hand out donations free to anyone, including the poorest of the poor and landmine amputees. The reason: substantial experience has shown that the benefits of free aid handouts are only temporary. They directly cause idleness and, instead of using the aid and working hard to better themselves, people search for additional free handouts, and the cycle continues. The Tsunami disaster and aid distribution in recent history had this effect in many places. People sit back and wait for more free aid to come their way.

SEARDF, Inc.'s focus is on basic housing, training programs, financing worthwhile business ventures, and promoting sustainable livelihood for the very poor, orphans and amputees.

SEARDF, Inc. believes that there is really only one way to improve a community's standard of living, and that is through a combination of education, job training, and hard work. An in-depth analysis of what is necessary for long-term growth, vocational training, basic literacy skills, as well as personal financial management are promoted.

Today, the average income in Cambodia is still one of the lowest in the developing nations, approximately $25.00 per month and is non existing for most landmine amputees. Amputees, as well as the very poor who live in rural areas, have very limited access or no access at all to insufficient social program to assist them. Landmine amputees depend solely on their families.

Cambodians have had a difficult past, especially under the despotic rule of the communist Khmer Rouge, which turned the country into a forced labor commune, where the vast majority of people were forced to either work in the fields or become soldiers. At least 1.7 million people (mostly the educated and wealthy) died from execution, starvation, overwork, and disease from 1975 to 1979. Decades of civil war followed, further devastating the population and the country. Cambodia has made progress. But even today, injuries or even death of the bread winner, often come by courtesy of land mines, of which there are uncountable millions in Cambodia. So many "enemies" have planted millions of anti-personnel mines that nobody knows where they are. They keep farmers from their fields, orchards and homes. There are more mines in Cambodia than in Afghanistan, killing or maiming men, woman and especially children indiscriminately.

Please support SEARDF, Inc. All donations are fully tax deductible and are used 95+% for the benefit of the targeted groups. Please assist us in overcoming the genocidal legacy of the Khmer Rouge by providing former enemies with peaceful, sustainable alternatives to the lives of violence they have known for so long.