site tools navigation

• Text only
• Font size
• Colours
• Email page
• Print page
• Site map

Long Kunthea is 37 and has had polio since childhood, her husband is also disabled, having been shot in the leg during the civil war. Kunthea is the leader of the local self-help group the Peany Disabled People’s Development Federation.

One of the biggest challenges faced by disabled people is discrimination, Kunthea says:

“Other villagers would call out when they saw me and did not respect me. Since the Federation was formed, discrimination (against disabled people) has fallen.”

Kunthea works very hard to support herself and sells vegetables bought from the market and cakes she has made to fellow villagers.

Her Federation encourages its members to think about independent living and the need for disabled people to value themselves more. Kunthea had the idea to design her own accessible bathroom that allows her to get from her tricycle to the bathroom with ease which means that she can now wash in private.

Kunthea’s new bathroom has created a real buzz in the community and has since been replicated by other disabled people.