Have You Met the Guys?

Each morning we all arrive around the same time for breakfast at the Community Centre. This is our daily grounding. The time we have created to eat a nourishing and delicious breakfast from Heartprint Hub, with our biological and work families all gathered around the same table.

It’s a noisy affair. Mums and dads feeding their kids while joking with colleagues. Plenty of cross chatter, plans being made, condiments passed back and forth, and the distinctive clank of crockery being stacked. And wafting throughout: the scent of nutty jasmine rice and coffee.

There is likely some discussion about how to get our temperamental little truck Bitsy through another day of hauling people and supplies to the latest build site. Bitsy has been testing everyone’s patience lately, and keeping her running has become one more job for a team that already has plenty to do.

Among those at the table are three men who, before long, will be climbing into Bitsy and heading off to work.

Meet the Heartprint Build Team.

There’s Thom, the quiet one. Ratha, the joker. And Sothea, the youngest.

Breakfast finished, it’s time to get moving. Sothea climbs behind the wheel, Ratha settles in beside him, and Thom jumps into the back with the supplies. Sothea was the first of the three to earn his driving licence, a distinction that gives him plenty of opportunities to rib his older colleagues. Ratha has since earned his, too, but that hasn’t entirely silenced the youngest member of the team.

With everyone aboard and Bitsy persuaded to cooperate, they’re off.

There’s plenty to discuss on the way. Materials to organise, work to be completed, perhaps a problem to solve. And today, Sothea needs to be back in time to collect his baby from the Community Centre. His wife is training in hairdressing through our Build a Future programme at Heartprint Hub, and her work sometimes runs late.

But first, there’s a house to build.

By the time Bitsy pulls up at the site, a great deal of work has already happened.

It began with Vanry, who visits families, listens to their stories and works to understand their circumstances. She helps identify those most in need of a safe, secure home and works with the larger team to evaluate their eligibility for Heartprint’s housing programme. There are difficult decisions to be made, and she’s the person who brings it all together.

And that’s only part of her job. Vanry organises house handovers, coordinates playgrounds, bicycles, baby baskets, clothing and food distributions, and manages much of the outreach work that keeps Heartprint connected to the communities we serve.

She’s young, smart, dynamic and remarkably modest. So modest, in fact, that we only recently discovered she was the top student at her school in Year 12, earning a government award and a trip to Phnom Penh with other outstanding students from across Cambodia. (Apparently, she didn’t think this was worth mentioning.)

Once a family has been selected, Garry and the guys visit the site and then Garry drafts the plans.

Garry comes from generations of builders and bricklayers. His father, uncle, and grandfather were all in the trade, and he eventually found his own way into landscaping and hardscaping before putting those skills to work building homes for Heartprint families.

He’s now designed about 153 of them.

He enjoys the challenge of making each house a little different, adjusting the design to suit the family and the site, finding ways to make the most of the available space and materials, and keeping everything within budget. 

It’s someone’s home. People don’t all look alike.  Neither should their houses. 

And now it’s up to the guys to turn those plans into reality.

Thom has been with Heartprint for about seven years. He’s quiet, a little shy, and had limited opportunities for formal schooling. But he’s never stopped learning. Today he can read Garry’s plans like an old pro and help turn those drawings into a solid, secure home. Maybe one day he will draft his own plans. 

He’s also had his share of personal struggles. There have been tough times, but this is a team that looks after its own. They lift each other up on dark days. They work hard, occasionally argue, laugh together, and get on with the job.

Ratha is our “Bitsy-whisperer.” He originally worked with Heartprint as a tuk-tuk driver, but when the opportunity arose to join the Build Team in a full-time salaried position, he jumped at it. His English is excellent, his sense of humour is really switched on, and he’s frequently the one coaxing Bitsy through another day’s work.  They have a love-hate relationship. 

Sothea’s path to the Build Team was different again.

When COVID arrived and schools closed, he went to work on Siem Reap’s enormous road reconstruction project. (Those of us who lived here at the time will remember the seemingly endless red mud, the heat and the disruption.)  Sothea’s work was difficult, grueling, and physical.

When the project finished, Sothea was resigned to a  future that would probably be as a concrete labourer.   We had a different idea for him and after discussion, he became the first participant in a Heartprint trainee programme and joined the Build Team, learning the trade alongside Garry.  Today, he’s a valued member of the team, with a young family of his own.

We first met him when he was just nine years old, attending our youth programme in the early days of the Community Centre.  He was one of our kids.  And now, all these years later, his own baby spends much of the day at that same Community Centre while Sothea is at work and his wife is training at Heartprint Hub.

When her classes run late, he’s the one who collects their child, takes him home and looks after him while she finishes. In Cambodia, where childcare responsibilities still fall largely to women, that’s not something we see every day.  

He’s not the only member of the Build Team whose family is part of Heartprint.

Thom’s five-year-old son is about to begin Tiny Tots. Ratha’s younger daughter attends the daytime programme, while his older daughter is about to start a new semester in our evening programme.

So while the fathers are out building homes for other families, their own children are learning and growing at Heartprint.

At lunchtime, the team returns to the Centre to eat together before heading back out for the afternoon. When they’re not building houses, there’s no shortage of other work. Playgrounds to assemble and paint, water filters to install, repairs at the Community Centre or Heartprint Hub, and doors to prepare for the next build.

Five days after a house build begins, a family has a new home.

Five days!

Perhaps that helps explain why the guys have given Garry the nickname Lor Cheam, which loosely translates from Khmer as “high blood pressure.”

We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Not so long ago, we were celebrating House 100. Then came House 150. Now House 153 is about to be finished.

Those numbers are important.  Each represents a family whose circumstances have changed dramatically.  But let’s remember the other stories unfolding in the background.

Over the years, people have learned skills they never imagined having. Young people have grown into adults with families of their own. Children who once came to Heartprint for help are now part of the team helping others.

Soon, the Build Team will turn some of its attention to making the props and staging for our annual community Christmas celebration. Dozens of children will gather for a day of fun and gifts, including some who might otherwise receive nothing else all year.

Another busy day at Heartprint.

As ever, thank you for being part of it.

Your HP team