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Related Article The New York Times Magazine

A People In Limbo.

Floating villages spread across the surface of the Mekong River's waterways — playing host to ethnic Vietnamese whose status in Cambodian society is perpetually adrift.

By Ben Mauk · March 28, 2018 Originally published in The New York Times Magazine. Supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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A floating shop and home at dusk in Chong Koh — a man and child stand in the lit doorway as a wooden boat sits in the dark water in front of them, photographed by Andrea Frazzetta for The New York Times

Chong Koh. Photograph: Andrea Frazzetta / Institute, for The New York Times.

The following is an excerpt from the original NYT Magazine feature. Read the full piece on The New York Times →

The best handyman living among the boat people in Chong Koh was named Taing Hoarith. Most days, Hoarith woke up at 5 a.m. and bought a bowl of noodle soup from a passing sampan — the same genre of wandering bodega from which his wife, Vo Thi Vioh, sold vegetables houseboat to houseboat. When she left for the day, around 6, Hoarith rolled up their floor mat and got to work.

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Why we're sharing this.

This is one of the most significant long-form pieces ever published on the ethnic Vietnamese stateless community in Cambodia — the people IHM serves.

Ben Mauk's reporting, supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the world-class photography of Andrea Frazzetta, captures life in the floating villages in a way no short news piece ever could. Names. Routines. Faces. The texture of a life lived "perpetually adrift."

If you read only one external article about the communities IHM works with, read this one. Then come back. And help us help them.

From The Page To The Water

You've read about Hoarith. Now help his neighbors.

The people in Ben Mauk's NYT Magazine piece are the communities IHM has served for years. Sponsor a child, support a cause, or read the full feature on The New York Times.

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