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Each morning the 14-year-old helps her father fishing.
Her job is to cast the net, which she does for a couple of hours before heading off to school.
Later in the day, her father takes their haul of fish off to sell, making sure he keeps some behind for them to eat at home.
However, Makara, who says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, has noticed that the family seems to be catching less, which means less for them to eat – and less money coming in.
‘I’m very happy that I help with fishing, because this means that I have given a hand to help my family,’ explains the schoolgirl.
‘But I am worried about climate change,’ she adds.
‘Because it reduces the fish-catch amount and also reduces income.’ It’s hard to imagine what it must feel like to have the effects of climate change make such a noticeable impact on day to day life.
Especially when your country has done little to contribute to the crisis – in 2018, Cambodia’s CO2 emissions represented just 0.06% of the world’s total.
However, that’s not to say that wealthier nations aren’t immune.
In the last 12 months we’ve seen the brutal damage caused by wildfires that have devastated parts of Australia and the US.
Meanwhile the Atlantic has experienced unprecedented tropical storms, which have created untold damage and ‘historic flood events’.
Even here in the UK, flooding has left many homes and families devastated.
Such events demonstrate only a fraction of the huge and destructive changes the climate emergency is bringing to poorer countries that have limited resources with which to combat it.
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Each morning 14-year-old Makara helps her father fishing. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Makara with her mother Keo So Phana and her younger sister. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ ActionAid)
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But there’s further casualties in such devastation – although climate change
affects entire nations and regions, it’s women and girls who tend to be
disproportionately affected.
Least responsible for the climate
crisis, they are left suffering some of the worst consequences, desperately
trying to hold onto their livelihoods and make their way out of poverty.
In
Cambodia, women and girls tend to work in industries like fishing and farming,
which are being threatened by extreme weather such as storms, flooding and
droughts.
Typically, after the dry season, farmland is replenished
with freshwater brought in by tropical storms and monsoon rains.
Increasingly,
though, these areas are instead becoming inundated with floods of seawater,
which have a devastating effect on entire regions.
The growing
unstable climate, which causes floods, storms and rising sea temperatures, is
taking a heavy toll on fish stocks in Cambodia, resulting in huge losses of
income to those whose livelihoods depend on fishing.
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When families are desperate, they may have no choice but to take out loans they cannot afford to repay.
Then, they become trapped in a vicious cycle of debt and bonded labour – a form of modern slavery that compels people to work off their debts without pay – as they try to survive after climate extremes have ravaged their livelihoods.
Makara’s mother Keo So Phana says that there are lots of obstacles when the family goes fishing, like rain and storms and they can’t escape how changeable the weather is.
Sometimes it’s very dry, other times the water level is very high and there are no fish to be seen.
Several years ago, Keo So Phana took Makara fishing with her when suddenly a storm came.
It became very dark and the mother and daughter couldn’t see anything.
‘No one could help until the storm finally weakened and my husband came to pick us up in the middle of the river,’ she remembers.
‘No matter what, all I want is for my children to live on the land, because life is very hard for everyone living on the river.’
It’s a memory that has stuck with the family, but despite their trauma, there is hope that Makara will be able to thrive in a world altered by climate change, rather than succumb to it.
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Floating schools are just one of the initiatives created in the
wake of climate change in Cambodia (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Children now take a boat to get their education. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Students at a lesson on a floating school.
(Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Gardening classes at a school in Kampot, Cambodia. (Picture: Cindy Liu/Action Aid)
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Each provide alternative livelihoods – especially to girls – so they no longer have to rely on traditional farming and fishing jobs.
Ouk is 12 and goes to one of these schools.
At the moment she is learning to tailor, but, like Makara, she really wants to be a teacher.
‘Me, when I grow up, I want to be a teacher,’ she says.
‘I want to be a teacher because I can make money to help myself and also I can provide knowledge for other children.’ As well as life skills, the international charity is also encouraging schools to teach children disaster survival skills, including drills.
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Ouk, 12, says she would like to be a teacher when she is
older. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Ouk is being taught to tailor at school.
(Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Given the immense disruption flooding can cause to children’s education, this is a powerful way of ensuring they can keep learning, no matter what the climate crisis may bring.
Also crucial in inspiring the next generation of girls to become self-sufficient, is a network of Women Champions, also created by the charity to help girls build brighter futures by supporting their communities.
Each ‘Champion’ represents and highlights the needs of women and girls when important decisions are being made at both community and government level.
One of them is a woman called Hok, who works as a farmer.
Her family’s crop has been destroyed by prolonged droughts and subsequent flash flooding.
Like most people in her village, Hok has taken out numerous loans to make ends meet.
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Hok’s family’s crop has been destroyed by prolonged
droughts. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Working as a Woman Champion, Hok highlights the needs of women
and girls when important decisions are being made. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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‘As a Woman Champion, I am able to improve my community’s
knowledge about health, disasters and domestic violence,’ says
Hok. (Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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Hok has inspired her daughter Siengelee.
(Picture: Cindy Liu/ActionAid)
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This year, she raised money alongside other Women Champions to rehabilitate an irrigation canal so that her community can continue growing rice during the dry season.
‘What motivates me to do the work I am doing is the common interest,’ explains Hok.
‘If we build irrigation canals, we can grow vegetables and raise animals – and it can feed us and the generation to come.
‘As a Woman Champion, I am able to improve my community’s knowledge about health, disasters and domestic violence,’ she continues.
‘I am actually quite tired, however, I would do whatever it takes to help improve my community’s living conditions as we are still struggling.’ Hok’s dedication has also inspired her daughter Siengelee, 10, to be a leader like her.
‘I wanted to become a Women’s Champion just like my mother because I have seen the ways that she has helped the community, for example, by rehabilitating the canal,’ says Siengelee.
‘The reason why I think my mother’s role is important is because it shows that women can also be leaders.’ With climate change still a battle yet to be won, thanks to women like Hok, the young women of Cambodia are being armed to safeguard their futures in the face of the climate crisis.
Which means they always have hope.
Links
- ActionAid’s She Is The Answer campaign helps women and girls on the climate crisis frontline
- Everything you need to know about She Is The Answer – ActionAid’s new campaign
- (AU) 4 Assumptions About Gender That Distort How We Think About Climate Change [And 3 Ways To Do Better]
- Mapped: How Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Women’s Health
- How Women And Girls Are Ending The Fossil Fuel Era
- (AU) 5 Australian Women Who Are Solving The Biggest Problems Of Climate Change.
- Welcome To The Feminist Climate Renaissance
- Q&A: Why Women Leading The Climate Movement Are Underappreciated And Sometimes Invisible
- Women Shouldering The Burden Of Climate Crisis Need Action, Not Speeches
- David Attenborough warns climate change is unprecedented global security threat
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