The Carter Group is a supporter of the Small Steps project, a charity started by journalist and writer Amy Hanson in 2008.

Amy was in Cambodia working with another not-for-profit organisation when she saw smoke billowing out of the middle of the town she was in, Phnom Penh. When she went to investigate the smoke, everyone seemed to either not know what she talking about, or blatantly refused to talk about it. When she finally convinced a tuk tuk driver to take her there, she discovered the smoke was coming from a massive rubbish dump, and the smoke was caused from the rubbish combusting due to the sweltering heat. Even more disturbing, young children were working and living on the dump, running around with bare feet and some without clothes.

The dump was the Stueng Meanchey Municipal Rubbish Dump, and is one of 80 dumps around the world were western countries like America, the UK and Australia ship their waste to. The industrialised world (5% of the population) creates 90% of the worlds waste. Have you ever wondered where it all goes? We dump it onto the poorest countries, creating this monster.

It was and is very simple: people are dying of starvation, lack of water and injury on rubbish dumps and it can be prevented if action is taken immediately and that is what Small Steps does. The Small Steps project aims to help the children that work and live on these dumps take small steps out of poverty, by providing them with shoes, food, clean water and other supplies.

Show your support by donating. 100% of donations go directly to the children at the dumps.

For further information, visit Small Steps or read Amy Hanson’s blog.