Alongside Cambodian villages since 1992.
Health, access to water, education, community tourism: for more than 30 years, AMICA has been building practical projects, designed to last, with the people of Kampong Cham province.
Our principle: create the conditions for self-reliance.
Each project is built with the village. Residents take part in running it and, whenever possible, its operation is funded locally.
Today, two water networks run without any subsidy from AMICA. In Cheung Kok, tourism pays residents and helps fund the school.
Results that last.
connected to two water networks that now fund themselves.
of Cheung Kok’s tourism income goes to local people in 2025: 80% paid directly, 20% to the village cooperation fund, for projects of common interest.
visitors welcomed in Cheung Kok since the project began.
more than 30 years of work in Cambodia.
A successful project is one that lasts.
AMICA brings what is missing at the start: funding, skills, support and sometimes a presence on the ground.
But every project is built with the people who will keep it alive.
In Cheung Kok, tourism income pays residents and feeds the village cooperation fund.
For water, user fees pay for the teams, maintenance and repairs.
The goal never changes: for a project to become, for good, the project of the community that carries it.
What we fund must produce something that lasts.
- A school that keeps teaching.
- A water network able to pay for its own upkeep.
- A tourism activity that pays those who host.
- A craftsperson who can live from their skills.
- A village with its own resources to decide what comes next.
That is how we measure our impact.
Not only by the money spent.
But by what carries on once the funding stops.
Only results count.
We track the results of our projects to understand what works, what needs to change and what sometimes has to stop.
That too is what working in the field means: measure, learn and adapt.
In Cheung Kok, we track every month the number of visitors, the income generated and how it is shared.
Not everything has worked.
Some projects grew.
Others changed.
Others still came to an end.
AMICA is also a certain idea of commitment.
No heavy organisation.
No solutions decided from afar.
Volunteers, partners and committed people on the ground, working on very practical projects.
For more than 30 years, this approach has let us focus our resources where they are useful.
Less structure. More fieldwork.
Cheung Kok today
A few kilometres from Kampong Cham, Cheung Kok has been welcoming travellers since 2005.
They come to discover a Khmer village, meet its craftspeople, stay with a family, share a meal or learn about weaving and palm sugar making.
But behind every visit lies a very practical model.
- 1The traveller discovers.
- 2Residents earn a living.
- 3The village reinvests.
Tourism keeps the village alive
visitors in 2025
In 2025, community tourism in Cheung Kok generated $10,632 in income.
100% of this income goes to local people:
- $5,700 to craftspeople;
- $2,816 to the hosting team.
- $2,116 to the village cooperation fund, a reserve for the common good (teachers’ pay, microcredit, solidarity funds…)
Part of the activity also goes to the village cooperation fund, which pays for shared projects.
Water pays for water
First in Cheung Kok, then in Trien, Penh and Kriel, AMICA helped create two water supply networks.
Today they serve 326 families.
But the result we are proudest of lies elsewhere:
both networks now pay for their own running costs.
Families pay for the water they use. These fees pay the local teams and the upkeep of the equipment, and build up the reserves needed for future repairs.
In 2025, they needed no funding from AMICA to operate.
Water now pays for water.
Learn today. Choose tomorrow.
In Cheung Kok and Trien, the Salas let the village’s children and young people learn languages for free.
English. French. Khmer.
In 2025, 63 to 71 pupils attended the Cheung Kok Sala.
In Trien, 40 pupils were learning English and up to 9 were learning French.
Teachers are paid from resources generated locally, mainly through tourism and the cooperation fund.
Every visitor welcomed helps keep the school going.
The visitors are back. The income is not, yet.
Covid abruptly halted momentum built over almost twenty years.
918 visitors in 2020.
None in 2021.
Then, little by little, travellers came back:
1,591 in 2022.
3,364 in 2023.
4,362 in 2025.
| Year | Visitors | Income (USD) |
|---|
But tourism has changed.
Today, many visitors pass through Cheung Kok quickly, in groups. They stay a shorter time, meet fewer craftspeople and bring less income to the village.
So our challenge is not simply to welcome more people.
It is to welcome them better.
- Encourage travellers to stay longer.
- Create new experiences.
- Develop homestays.
- Make direct booking possible.
- Give crafts the value they deserve.
Above all, keep more of the value in the village.
2026
2026. A new chapter for Cheung Kok.
The International Organisation of La Francophonie has selected the project led by AMICA to support the revival of community tourism in Cheung Kok.
€30,000 in funding.
12 months to scale up.
With residents and our partners, we want to develop new tourism experiences, create a self-guided trail through the village, open a community restaurant, build partnerships with travel agencies and river cruise operators, and finally let travellers book their stay directly.
Our 12-month goal
- ~6,500 visitors
- up from 4,362 in 2025
- ~$22,000 in tourism income
- up from $10,632 in 2025
- 30 to 35 active jobs
- up from 16 in 2025
- At least 5 partner agencies or cruise operators
The number of visitors matters.
What they leave behind matters even more.
More than 30 years of practical action.
AMICA’s story does not begin with Cheung Kok.
Since 1992, the association has worked in Cambodia with one conviction: meet real needs with solutions that can last.
01 Healing
In Ampel, the health centre no longer had what it needed to care properly for the families of the area.
Through the Soleil Levant programme, AMICA helps restore it: renovated buildings, access to water and solar power.
The renovated health centre opens in May 2006.
An essential facility does its job again: caring for families from the surrounding villages.
02 Bringing water
In Cheung Kok, AMICA supports the creation of a first water network.
Then comes L’H2Otus, for the villages of Trien, Penh and Kriel.
- Two 70-metre boreholes.
- A 60 m³ water tower.
- A network able to supply hundreds of families.
Today, the two networks together serve 326 families.
And thanks to the fees paid by users, they cover their own running costs.
Building the infrastructure was one step.
Making it last was the real goal.
03 Learning
The first Salas give children and young people free access to language classes.
Over the years, classes evolve, teachers change, and so do pupil numbers.
But the principle stays the same:
give young people more tools to choose their future.
04 Creating income
In December 2005, about sixty travellers discover Cheung Kok.
In one week, their visits bring in about $330.
An idea takes shape:
What if welcoming travellers could help the village pay for part of its own development?
Residents organise the welcome.
Craftspeople sell their work directly.
Part of the value created goes into the village cooperation fund.
The school, water, microcredit and shared equipment can then be funded locally.
Almost twenty years later, nearly 50,000 travellers have discovered Cheung Kok.
Help us build what will last.
A donation to AMICA is not meant to keep a project going forever.
It funds what the project still lacks to grow, to run and, where possible, to become self-reliant.
Your donation funds the next step.
Today, our priority is the next stage of the Cheung Kok project.
- Develop new experiences.
- Train and support residents.
- Build the booking tools.
- Make the village better known.
- Keep more income in the village.
There are several ways to get involved.
Companies
Fund a practical project and link your company to work whose results can be measured.
Become a partnerTravel
Come to Cheung Kok, stay with a family, meet the craftspeople and contribute directly to the village economy.
Discover Cheung Kok34 years on, the conviction is the same.
The best projects are not the ones that create dependence.
They are the ones that create possibilities.
- To learn.
- To work.
- To have water.
- To build a livelihood.
- To decide together what comes next.
Building, with residents, projects that belong to them.
Follow AMICA in the field.
News from Cheung Kok, our projects, the people who make them happen and what comes next.
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Stories, faces and results.