The majority of workers are kids, most just barely into their teens. (Photo Jeff Koyen)By David Longstreath
July 20, 2006
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Standing knee-deep amid the foul stench of the Stung Meanchey trash dump, 13-year-old Sam Dy scans the horizon for newly arriving trucks.
For the past seven years this impoverished Cambodian boy, like many others, has spent his days searching through Phnom Penh's garbage in hopes of finding something that can be resold. Some days he works as long as 12 hours in the blazing tropical heat.
If he's lucky, he might make as much as a dollar a day, but most days he earns less than 50 cents. On this day, after hours of searching, he has gathered little.
"I was not born the son of a rich man," Sam says as he and others dig through the latest pile of debris.
The Stung Meanchey dump is more than 100 acres of hell on earth, filled with everything from medical waste to toxic waste that even the scavengers won't go near. While it is illegal for children to work in hazardous environments in Cambodia, there is no one at the Stung Meanchey dump to stop them.
"So I have to work here to earn money for my family," Sam says. As a swarm of flies begins to cover him, he repeats what he'd said earlier: "I was not the born the son of a rich man."
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Writer David Longstreath is an AP photographer based in Bangkok.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Standing knee-deep amid the foul stench of the Stung Meanchey trash dump, 13-year-old Sam Dy scans the horizon for newly arriving trucks.
For the past seven years this impoverished Cambodian boy, like many others, has spent his days searching through Phnom Penh's garbage in hopes of finding something that can be resold. Some days he works as long as 12 hours in the blazing tropical heat.
If he's lucky, he might make as much as a dollar a day, but most days he earns less than 50 cents. On this day, after hours of searching, he has gathered little.
"I was not born the son of a rich man," Sam says as he and others dig through the latest pile of debris.
The Stung Meanchey dump is more than 100 acres of hell on earth, filled with everything from medical waste to toxic waste that even the scavengers won't go near. While it is illegal for children to work in hazardous environments in Cambodia, there is no one at the Stung Meanchey dump to stop them.
"So I have to work here to earn money for my family," Sam says. As a swarm of flies begins to cover him, he repeats what he'd said earlier: "I was not the born the son of a rich man."
---------------------------------
Writer David Longstreath is an AP photographer based in Bangkok.
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