Cambodia is still one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world. Over 64,000 landmine and other Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) casualties have been recorded in Cambodia since 1979. With over 25,000 amputees Cambodia has the highest ratio of mine amputees per capita in the world.

A recent Baseline Survey of 124 districts revealed that 1,914,818 m2 of land surface is contaminated by landmines and ERW. In addition, at least 26 million explosive submunitions were dropped on Cambodia during the Vietnam War, mostly in Eastern and North-Eastern areas bordering the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Vietnam. The bombing is estimated to have left between 1.9 million and 5.8 million cluster munitions remnants.

Belgian NGO Apopo, who have been training African giant poached rats in Tanzania, Angolo and Mozambique to detect explosives and tuberculosis, they recently invited me to document their training process as 3 mine detection rat (MDR) handlers drafted from Africa, taught a CMAC demining platoon how to locate landmines and UXO using African giant poached rats. After 6 months training the platoon will be fully operational and demining with the MDR's on one of the most densely mined swathes of land on earth. Cambodia is still one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world. Over 64,000 landmine and other Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) casualties have been recorded in Cambodia since 1979. With over 25,000 amputees Cambodia has the highest ratio of mine amputees per capita in the world. A recent Baseline Survey of 124 districts revealed that 1,914,818 m2 of land surface is contaminated by landmines and ERW. In addition, at least 26 million explosive submunitions were dropped on Cambodia during the Vietnam War, mostly in Eastern and North-Eastern areas bordering the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Vietnam. The bombing is estimated to have left between 1.9 million and 5.8 million cluster munitions remnants.   Belgian NGO Apopo, who have been training African giant poached rats in Tanzania, Angolo and Mozambique to detect explosives and tuberculosis, invited me to document their training process as 3 mine detection rat (MDR) handlers drafted from Africa, taught a CMAC demining platoon how to locate landmines and UXO using African giant poached rats. After 6 months training the platoon will be fully operational and demining with the MDR's on one of the most densely mined swathes of land on earth.

The demining project between CMAC and Apopo will be targeting 6 Northwestern districts close to the infamous “K5 belt”.

The K5 is one of the densest concentrations of mines on the planet and causes a significant proportion of Cambodia’s mine casualties. The K5 runs along the entire 750km length of the Cambodia-Thai border. In partnership with CMAC, land is released (through demining and survey) for casualty reduction, agriculture, resettlement and other infrastructure development (roads, wells, ponds and schools).

The release of land allows poor, rural people access to land which was previously contaminated so that they can now safely grow their rice and other crops to feed their families. In addition Mine Risk Education is delivered in communities aimed at reducing the risk of injury and death from mines and other ERW.

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If you’re a man in Cambodia, being present at the birth of your child is widely frowned upon. As both the prospective father and a camera-wielding photo-journalist, attending and documenting the birth of my son was a challenge, to say the least.

At 8pm on 26 December 2014, my partner of nearly nine years alerted me that her water had broken. She started to have her first contractions, but we were advised to stay home, get some food and rest, and wait it out until the morning.

By 7am and after a sleepless night, the intensity of Madeline’s contractions reached a peak every ten minutes; it was time to leave. Descending seven flights of stairs from our apartment in Phnom Penh, we hailed a remork (tuk tuk) to take us across the city on a journey that would change our lives forever. As is common in the capital city, the driver said he knew where to go, (which meant no, I don’t, please tell me), so with the limited Khmer that I knew, and ten minutes trying to explain where the clinic was, we came to an agreement and departed.

For twenty minutes, in a rickety wooden carriage towed by a 125cc motorcycle, on substandard roads, we careered through early morning city traffic on with Madeline panting heavily all the way to the clinic. On arrival, Doctors and midwives monitored the baby’s heartbeat, and then lead us to the room that we had pre booked, ready for Madeline to start the first stages of labour.

For the next four hours, the intensity in the room increased tenfold; I watched as the midwives coached Madeline with every technique in the book to ease her pain and mental state. Encouraging deep breathing and keeping her calm was part of my support role .When the staff decided she was ready, my partner told me to grab my camera. She was screaming as they wheeled her upstairs to the delivery room, and I realized I was about to begin documenting the birth of my son.

From a photographer’s point of view, taking photographs of my woman giving birth was not easy. She was in a lot of discomfort and pain, so trying document this, whilst retaining her dignity, was both mentally and physically draining.

There were other factors I had to take into consideration. Room to move was at a premium; I was in a small delivery room with six medical staff and a pregnant woman, so gaining the trust of the midwives and doctors was essential. Lighting conditions were very harsh, and Madeline was constantly moving from one chair to another, from standing to sitting, and from crouching and crawling positions.

The majority of the time I was supporting my partner and wishing for a safe and problem free delivery, and she says she can only recall one moment of me taking photographs from the entire labour. Madeline was having very heavy contractions whilst kneeling on the floor on her hands and knees. My natural instinct as a photographer kicked in, and as I lay on my back in front of her, pointing the camera at her pain stricken face, I composed the frame and took the photograph. This was the only point in the delivery when my partner told me to stop taking photos and to hold her hands!

The images shown were taken in the last three hours of a fairly short seven-hour natural labour, and at 1.50 p.m. on the 27th of December, we were blessed with our first son, Frank Nickels.

The Tonle Sap Lake, situated in the heart of Cambodia, is South East Asia’s largest freshwater lake. The 1.5 million people living on the lake are an ethnically diverse population of Khmers, Cham, and Vietnamese who experience a life isolated from both the modern world and the progress that is happening in much of Cambodia. Many communities are hours or even more than a full day away from any medical care or expertise.

During Cambodia’s post UN civil war in 1994, each political party had their own army, and the country was a dangerous place to travel through. Most roads and waterways throughout the country were being closely observed by starving peasants with guns.

At that time, Mr. Jon F. Morgan, an American doctor and the founding member of the Angkor Hospital for Children, was traveling across the Tonle Sap from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.

"It was then that I had my first impression of the floating villages found on the lake,” he said. “Children were defecating into the lake’s water while others swam and some washed the family dishes. Swollen bellies either from malnutrition or worms were evident everywhere. I turned towards my wife and said, 'This is a nightmare.’”

As a result of these discoveries, Mr Morgan decided to found The Lake Clinic in 2007, which provides primary healthcare to people who would otherwise have little or no access to medical assistance. The Lake Clinic consists of three floating buildings that are totally self sufficient running on Solar energy, and for 3 days a week doctors, dentists and staff from Siem Reap bring much needed care to the people who spend the majority of their lives afloat on the Tonle Sap.

Life in these remote villages can be precarious, and for many people this is the only access to medical provision that they have. Last year the Lake Clinic reached over 14,000 people living in the surrounding villages, and through its care program and the team’s ability to identify potentially disabling conditions early on, treatment could be provided before irreparable damage was done to their patients.

Poverty and illness are clearly evident in the communities of the Tonle Sap, and residents survive predominantly on what the lake has to offer. A lack of fresh drinking water and basic sanitation are major factors of disease within these floating communities, and over 10,000 children die each year in Cambodia as a result.

Without any water management systems in place, the growing populations on the lake still do not have toilets, and defecate through holes cut out of their homes directly into the lake in which they wash themselves, their food and throw all other waste into. Skin diseases are also very common in built up areas due to leaking gasoline from the engines of fishermen’s boats. This increasing build up of ever-greater quantities of waste from these communities means the environment is ultimately paying the price.

Traditional remedies and beliefs are still prevalent within the isolated communities living on the lake. Depending on the ailment, Cambodians believe that placing burning incense or cigarettes onto the bare skin of the chest and stomach will cure virtually all related illnesses to the head and body. When babies are born and show their first signs of sickness, (usually stomach pains and diarrhea) a mixture of rice wine, clay and the bark of a tree believed to cure various ailments is plastered to the head of the suffering infant.

Further upstream along the Mekong river, a more imposing threat lies; more than a hundred hydropower dams have been built or are in the process of planning further up the Mekong river that feeds the lake, disturbing the ecosystem and depleting fish numbers.

Every year, the lake produces around 300,000 tons of fish, making it one of the world’s most productive freshwater ecosystems. Hydropower dams being built on the Mekong River are going to be extremely harmful to the communities that rely on fish as a way of supporting their families. The Cambodian Fisheries Administration reports that due to mainstream dam development on the Mekong, the country may lose up to 42 percent of its freshwater fish by 2030.

Recent estimates show that there may be as many as four to six million mines and unexploded devices left undetected in Cambodia, although some estimates run as high as 10 million. The magnitude of land mines littered across provinces throughout Cambodia has become a severe problem for the country’s residents. This is the legacy of three decades of savage war that raged in Cambodia. All sides used land mines, manufactured in China, Russia, Vietnam and the United States. Pol Pot, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of approximately 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, purportedly called land mines his “perfect soldiers.” Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) systematically de-mine the country's provinces striving to eradicate the ever present threat of UXO's, land mines and cluster munitions but they are up against a huge challenge.

About 200,000 migrant workers from Cambodia have fled Thailand over the last week, amid rumors of violent crackdown on illegal workers in the country. Thailand’s military junta said it would tighten restrictions on migrant employment to prevent illegal workers, forced labor and human trafficking. Cambodian migrant workers are a key component of the work force in Thai industries including construction, fishing and agriculture.

In the final days leading up to the Cambodian national elections, opposition party leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha campaign through the streets of Siem Reap and are greeted by tens of thousands of loyal CNRP (Cambodian national rescue party) supporters. Siem Reap, Cambodia. George Nickels.

With the Cambodian election campaigns now in full swing ruling party CPP leader prime minister Hun Sen makes a highly guarded visit to Siem Reap to attend various meetings. Hun Sen is the second longest serving leader in Southeast Asia and is one of the longest serving prime ministers in the world, having been in power through various coalitions since 1985. In 1987, Amnesty International accused Hun Sen's government of torture of thousands of political prisoners using "electric shocks, hot irons and near-suffocation with plastic bags. Hun Sen's government has been responsible for the sale of vast amounts of land to foreign investors resulting in the forced eviction of thousands upon thousands of residents from their homes throughout the country.

On The 9th August 2012 I was invited to the remote jungle village, known as Trov Pheang Ctas, located deep within the Svay Ler district in Cambodia. It was somewhere I had never been or heard of, and I assumed there might be both unexploded landmines, and illegal logging activities, as is the case in much of the rural countryside.
My time there would be spent documenting the hunt of one of Cambodia’s finest delicacies, Haplopelma albostriatum.
Haplopelma albostriatum, are a species of tarantula called "a-ping" in Khmer, and also known as the Thai zebra tarantula, when fully grown can reach the size of a human palm.
The spiders are caught using a very primitive simple yet effective technique, where the hunter will tease the creature from its den by the ways of using a stick to tickle its web and entice the spider to surface. The spider then makes its retreat deep into its hole, but no escaping as that’s when the improvised shovels come into play. Although venomous the tarantulas are not deadly and there bite has been described as something close to a very bad bee sting.
Once visable the arachnid is quickly plucked from its hole and grabbed by its back just in front of its abdomen using 2 fingers with care taken to avoid a nasty bite from there rather large fangs.
When caught the spiders are delicately put into small plastic bottles and kept there until they and ready to eat. The process used to prepare the catch for eating comprised of filling a bowl with water and jointly drowning and washing the spider in one easy step. The method used at this particular village was very cheap and easy, the spiders are tossed in salt and deep fried.
It is not clear how this practice started, but some have suggested that the population might have started eating spiders out of desperation during the years of Khmer Rouge rule, when food was in short supply.

Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is the sickness of the developing world - sickness born out of poverty. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease which attacks the skin, the peripheral nerves, the mucous air passages and the eyes. The transmission of leprosy is similar to that of tuberculosis. To date, science has not been able to produce a vaccine against leprosy.

The physical handicap caused by the disease stigmatises its victims: it renders the sufferers social outcasts, excluded from their familial and social environment.

Today there are more than a million cases of leprosy identified worldwide, excluding the large number of ex-patients needing specialised mid-term medical and surgical treatment or social assistance because of the handicap caused by the disease.

A severe problem that Cambodia faces is the magnitude of landmines littered over virtually every provence throughout the country. more than 40% of the villages in Cambodia have a mine problem.
This is the legacy of three decades of savage war leaving 40,000+ amputees through out the country. Recent estimates show that there may be as many as four to six million mines and unexploded devices left undetected in Cambodia although some estimates run as high as ten million. Last year The Cambodia Trust clinics in Cambodia fitted over 600 limbs ensuring that individuals are empowered to impact their communities and provide for their families. Across the developing world, there are millions of people with disabilities who need physical rehabilitation services to enable them to go to school, find work and participate in society. However in many low income countries there is a severe shortage of local staff with the skills and experience to provide the rehabilitation services needed by persons with disabilities.
In the warfare that raged in Cambodia from 1970 until 1998, all sides used land mines.
Most were manufactured in China, Russia, or Vietnam and the United States. Pol Pot, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, purportedly called land mines his “perfect soldiers.”

Major minefields have been mapped and are being systematically demined. Although estimates show that it may take between 10 and 20 years to eradicate the threat and with serious amounts of money involved to do so.

Cambodia reported 96 landmine casualties in the first five months of 2012, according to a report of the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System, and they quoted sadly young children account for about half of all landmine victims.

A lively and cultural community in Siem Reap has come to an abrupt and sad end. Nearly 400 Cambodian and Vietnamese families have been evicted from their homes beside the Siem Reap river in the Slokram commune of the city. The decision has been made by officials - with the reasons stated as needing to develop, widen the river and make new communal gardens.

The Vietnamese and Cambodians I spoke to told me how after notification by letter to take down their fragile wooden shacks on stilts, and find a new home elsewhere.

A considerable police force arrived in the early hours, and demanded that all families and businesses had one day to leave, or their homes would be destroyed.

Because some of these river residents have been living and working in the area for over 15 years, I was told that the government have offered the Cambodian residents a small piece of land at Sala Kamroeuk commune, 6 kilometers outside the city on a flood plain. They will also receive a small payment of a few hundred dollars.
I have recently spoken to some of the evicted families and still they have received no compensation, so even if they did decide to move to proposed flood prone area they would not have enough money to build simple shelters.

However, the Vietnamese have been given a small amount of compensation, but have no land rights, up to 10 families with countless children are all now homeless.

That morning, an emergency meeting was called so that the residents could protest to the district governor about the situation; I attended on the invite of a Vietnamese family, and on our return to the commune, some families found that their properties had been taken down in their absence.

REMNANTS OF WAR
A severe problem that Cambodia faces is the magnitude of landmines littered over virtually every provence throughout the country. more than 40% of the villages in Cambodia have a mine problem.
This is the legacy of three decades of savage war leaving 40,000+ amputees through out the country. Recent estimates show that there may be as many as four to six million mines and unexploded devices left undetected in Cambodia although some estimates run as high as ten million.
In the warfare that raged in Cambodia from 1970 until 1998, all sides used land mines.
Most were manufactured in China, Russia, or Vietnam and the United States. Pol Pot, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, purportedly called land mines his “perfect soldiers.”

Major minefields have been mapped and are being systematically demined. Although estimates show that it may take between 10 and 20 years to eradicate the threat and with serious amounts of money involved to do so.

Cambodia reported 96 landmine casualties in the first five months of 2012, according to a report of the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System, and they quoted sadly young children account for about half of all landmine victims