Stacks of cassava cuttings lay out neatly in the yard beside a newly built house that Ms. Em Chanthea now proudly calls home—a symbol of starting a new journey of life after years of living without land of her own.

Without land or a home of their own, Ms. Chanthea, her husband, and their two daughters shared a small plot with her parents in Bak Srei village, Kampong Thom province. Three families lived together on a small piece of land barely wide enough for a house, leaving little space for farming.

“We can only grow a few vegetables, lemongrass, and herbs,” Ms. Chanthea recalled. “There was no room to grow fruit trees or expand our business activities.”

Like many other rural families, Ms. Chanthea and her husband depended on irregular daily wage labor to support their living costs. Some days, she planted cassava for other farmers. On other days, she and her husband tapped rubber trees or collected cashew nuts during harvest season.

The work was physically demanding and unstable.

On good days, they could earn more than 70,000 riel (around $17). On other days, their income dropped to 30,000 or 40,000 riel (around $10). More challenging still, work was not always available. Sometimes they had a job for a day and then remained unemployed for several other days.

“We lived from hand to mouth,” she said, adding that when anyone in the family got sick, life became even more difficult.

Despite facing such hardships, Ms. Chanthea still held the dream to own a piece of land where her family could build a home and earn a living from farming.

Fortunately, her dream became reality in late 2025 when the Royal Government, through the Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development Project III (LASED III), allocated residential and agricultural land to her family. Under the project, 813 landless and land-poor families in Koul and Tumring communes of Sambo and Sandan districts were selected to receive land.

“When I received the land, I was overwhelmed with joy. My dream had finally come true,” she said.

On January 6, 2026, she moved to her new residential land with her family and started building a new house using construction materials provided by the project. For the first time, they had land they could call their own.

“This place is spacious,” she said. “My children are happier because they have room to run and play. It is completely different from our old village.”

Now, Ms. Chanthea is committed to building a better future. She has nearly completed preparing her agricultural land of two hectares and plans to plant 500 cashew trees and cultivate cassava across the land. On the remaining land around her home, she intends to grow vegetables and fruit trees to support her family’s daily needs.

Most importantly, she no longer worries about depending solely on irregular labor.

“Working on my own farm is better than working for others,” she said. “When we grow older, we will still have land to live on and farm. This land is a valuable asset for the future of our children.”

Ms. Chanthea has two daughters, aged 10 and 6. Like other parents, she dreams of providing them with better opportunities than just growing up.

Looking across her newly cleared residential land, she sees more than soil and crops. She sees security, dignity, and hope.

“Before, I had nothing,” she said. “Now I have a home, a farm, and hope for the future. I am sincerely grateful to the Royal Government for granting families like us a chance to build a better life.”

(Story and Photos by Leak Ratna, Communications Specialist, LASED III/MLMUPC | May 28, 2026)