Twelve years later, a decision that changed a family’s life

If you had visited Rung Roeung 3 village in northern Cambodia a dozen years ago, you would have met a welder named Or Sereivuth and his wife Sok Yan, who earned a living by selling vegetables from her garden. Then in their mid-thirties with three children, they were struggling to make ends meet. As Yan recently told our team, “in those years we often didn’t have enough to eat!”

In 2006, Yan joined a CWS initiative where she learned about mushroom spore production. She decided to start growing mushrooms following the program. That decision, as it turns out, has turned life around for her whole family.

Now 46 and 47 and with four children between 4 and 25, Yan and Serevith are in a much better spot financially. Yan says, “from knowing nothing, I am now successfully running my mushroom business and I have shared my knowledge with my daughter and my husband – so both are helping me with the business. My family now has enough food for all year round and we have some savings, too.”

Yan took what she learned from the CWS program and added the expertise she has gained from more than a decade in the business. Now she has become a peer educator who shares her knowledge and skills with others who are starting mushroom growing businesses. She teaches others how to make compost and care for their mushroom spores for sustainable harvesting over time.

In reflecting on that life-changing decision from a decade ago, Yan says, “I now earn between $50 and $70 per week selling fresh mushrooms and my mushroom spores, and from the extra income I earn being an educator/trainer. This is so completely different from 10 years ago when my family relied mostly on my husband’s small wage from being a welder. That seems so long ago now, and I am so thankful to CWS for all the support through the years, and now using my talents and knowledge to help others learn – and get out of poverty. I am especially hopeful that others will develop the skills that enabled me to have my mushroom business so they, like me, can earn income to support their families like I help support mine.”