Cambodia Letter: The overpowering stench of decay in the dump site in the Cambodian countryside is nauseating. Hill upon hill of mangled rubbish stretches for hectares on the outskirts of Phnom Penh far into the horizon.
But the real horror of the scene takes a moment to hit home. At first the vast sea of brightly-coloured debris is visually intriguing.
But then, sickeningly, all the other senses are sent reeling. This waterlogged pit of disease and death is home to 20,000 people.
This is hell on earth. And for its inhabitants it is inescapable.
Up to 1,500 adults and children spend their lives here wading through tons of garbage, many in their bare feet, to find anything they can sell to survive.
Every green truckload of rubbish is met by people scrambling to compete with hens to find anything worthwhile before it's bulldozed into a pit for burning. Suddenly those selling goods from the rundown wooden huts and dilapidated stalls lining the dusty road to the dump no longer look pitiful, but positively prosperous by comparison with the dump people.
Caked in dirt, 14-year-old Noun Chantha has been living here with her three sisters for three years. Her ambition? "I want to go to school," she says.
A few minutes down the road, for her fellow 14-year-old Kay Sineath this dream is coming true. After six years' living in the dump, she attends the For the Smile of a Child school, along with her five sisters and one brother.
Their father is still working at the dump but at the moment is looking after their mother who is sick in hospital with suspected TB.
But dressed in a fresh blue and white uniform and jostled by her friends in the playground, the seventh-grade pupil smiles when asked about her dreams. "I'd like to be a teacher, at the centre here."
Founded by a French humanitarian couple in 1993, the non-profit school provides more than 850 children with an education, vocational training in the hotel business and secretarial skills, healthcare and a future.
With 50 per cent of Cambodia's children suffering from chronic malnutrition, an integral part of the attraction for the children to come to school is the promise of meals.
Since it was established almost 40 years ago, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has provided free school lunches as an incentive for children to go to school. In 2004 alone, the agency's school feeding programme fed over 16.6 million children in 72 countries.
Its strategy couldn't be simpler. Food draws hungry children to school and once there they get an education that broadens their options, lifting them out of poverty. With full stomachs, they can concentrate on class.
And for Cambodian children this was a very good week. The Saudi government donated $500,000 to the WFP to feed over 14,000 children for the next year. "Saudi Arabia has given over $85 billion in aid over the past 30 years, which amounts to 4 per cent of the GDP," said Abdul Aziz Arrukban, a special ambassador in Saudi Arabia for the WFP. "In fact, Saudi Arabia donates more aid based on GDP per capita than any other country."
This is the first time Saudi has given aid to the people of a non-Muslim country - a further $2 million was also given to Tanzania at the weekend.
Ensuring the money goes where it is most needed, it was spent on 1,034 tonnes of rice grown locally in Cambodia which will feed over 14,000 schoolchildren here for a year. With 55 per cent of Cambodia's children not completing primary school, the help is desperately needed.
"Ninety-eight per cent of people in Cambodia are suffering and that's why we have made this donation. This is for them," said Mr Arrukban, who is employed by the UN at a salary of $1 per year.
Van Naroath is a shining example of what the programme can do. The 19-year-old describes the time she spent living in the dump as the "most difficult time" of her life, but since she first walked into the grounds of the For The Smile of a Child centre in 1999 her fortunes have changed.
As part of the training scheme to help students get jobs in the hotel business, she is now happy working in the on-site Lotus Blanc restaurant, upmarket by Cambodian standards.
She talks of her plans to get married and have children, her time as a dump-dweller now very much in the past. With some luck and a lot more help, the dump may soon be a home only for rats.
Niamh Hooper visited Cambodia with the World Food Programme