Cooperation

Smiling Gecko

Did you know that at ANOAH we donate 2 CHF per menu to the aid organization Smiling Gecko? Noah discovered the NGO in 2017 during a family trip to Cambodia and was there himself!

Since the middle of the last century, Cambodia has been ravaged by decades of civil war and suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge. 1.7 million people were killed as a result of malnutrition, disease or execution during the reign of the Pol Pot regime. The bulk of the nation’s institutions and infrastructure was destroyed, leaving the majority of the population without any job training and to a life of poverty. As a consequence, Cambodia is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Today, the majority of the population of 16 million has fallen below the poverty line and is forced to live on less than 2 US dollar a day.

In its capital Phnom Penh alone, tens of thousands of children live on the streets, in the slums and on landfills where they are exposed to hunger, illness and abuse. Destitution in Cambodia takes many shapes and forms: Growth in adolescents is stunted by undernourishment, and the mortality rate in children under the age of one is nearly 3.4%. It is primarily the rural population who bear the brunt of the fallout from an inadequate education system, infrastructure deficiencies and the lack of basic health care. Worse yet, most of them have no social safety net that would allow them access to essential services.

To provide these children and their families with a life in decency, we need to offer them aid that will have a lasting effect and addresses the hardship they face in their communities. Smiling Gecko is dedicated to helping these people – be it in the form of direct aid or through supporting other NGOs. Smiling Gecko focuses on the areas of greatest need and helps people to help themselves through our sustainable cluster projects.

With the support of Smiling Gecko in Cambodia, ANOAH is doing something for a sustainable future, not only in Switzerland but also far out in the world and can thus give something back to humanity.