Our Story
Where Soksabai Greens comes from — and why it matters
In the villages of Chi Kraeng District, the war never fully ended. Decades on, landmines and unexploded ordnance still sit in the fields, and families live beside land they cannot safely farm. Soksabai Greens exists to give those families another way to grow.
THE FAMILIES ARE THE MISSION — NOT A REVENUE SOURCE.
The Problem
A field you cannot enter is not a farm
Chi Kraeng District, in Siem Reap Province, is among the most heavily UXO-contaminated areas in Cambodia. For families here, the land around their homes is not a resource — it is a risk. Every vegetable has to be bought rather than grown, and in poor rural households food can consume more than half of a family’s income.
When money runs short, it is often a child’s schooling that ends first — commonly around Grade 6 or 7, the moment lower-secondary costs arrive. And when a family finally saves enough to invest in farming, a new danger appears: a tractor working old ground can strike an anti-tank mine that has lain harmless underfoot for forty years. Progress itself can be deadly.
What We Do
We bring the farm to the family
Soksabai Greens provides passive hydroponic growing systems — no soil, no electricity, no pump — that let a household grow fresh greens, herbs, and mushrooms in a small space beside the home, safely away from contaminated ground. A Black Soldier Fly composter turns kitchen scraps into high-protein feed for chickens and ducks, closing the loop on household waste.
In our Phase 1 pilot, twenty families receive their growing kit, the seedlings and nutrients to run it, and the hands-on training to make it their own — all at no cost. Families learn and take part at every step; they are partners in the work, not recipients of a package. A pathway out, not a handout.
The Name
Soksabai
Soksabai is a Khmer word for well-being, happiness, and good health. It is also the everyday greeting heard across Cambodia — a way of asking, “Are you well?” The name is a promise: that families who have lived through conflict and loss can one day answer that question with confidence, because they hold the tools and the skills to provide for themselves.
The Partnership
Rooted in trust, with the CLMM Relief Fund
Soksabai Greens works in partnership with the Cambodian Landmine Museum Relief Fund (CLMM Relief Fund). Its story begins with Aki Ra, who was conscripted as a child soldier by the Khmer Rouge and later founded the Cambodia Landmine Museum; the Relief Fund grew out of that work. Today Aki Ra leads the Fund’s active demining operations — based in Siem Reap Province, a short drive from the city, with projects across Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, and Oddar Meanchey.
The Fund’s field staff open the door: they introduce us to families and to local and national authorities, and carry out the demining and UXO-safety work that makes land safe again.
Soksabai Greens does the rest. Every hydroponic kit, every training visit, and every follow-up is delivered by our own team. The two organizations keep their work and their funds separate — the partnership is one of shared purpose and local trust, not shared accounts.
The Model
A program built to fund itself
Soksabai Greens is designed to outgrow the need for donations. As families grow more than they need, Soksabai Greens buys the surplus and sells it into premium Siem Reap markets — hotels, restaurants, and schools that value where their food comes from.
That commercial revenue supports demining through the CLMM Relief Fund, which clears more land, which lets more families farm safely — and the program reaches the next village. Families are partners in that cycle, never its labor force and never its customers. The produce is the vehicle; the families are the point.
Where We Are Now
The beginning
Soksabai Greens is a registered social enterprise (Cambodia Ministry of Commerce, 2026), rooted in Ta Prom Village, Chi Kraeng District, Siem Reap Province. We are building a 10-metre by 20-metre training greenhouse — where we raise the seedlings every family receives and bring families in to learn hands-on — and preparing to equip our first twenty pilot families.
This is the first chapter. What comes next is written one family, and one cleared field, at a time.
Get In Touch
Learn more, partner, or support the pilot
Ta Prom Village, Chi Kraeng District, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia
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