Simple bring them smile. But us?

Just 30 kilometres from Cambodia 's world famous Angkor temples is an astounding sight tourists don't see.

Tucked away from foreign eyes on the outskirts of Siem Reap is a community of about 500 people who live - or survive - in a rubbish dump.

Spanish photojournalist Omar Havana spent seven months from October 2010 to April 2011 getting to know the people at the dump and documenting their lives. He says what he saw was was "from another world", but that the people are happy. Here Havana shares his photos and stories with ABC News Online.

“One day in Cambodia a boy told me he had been living for many years in the rubbish dumps. I tried hard to get permission to visit them but I didn’t, so I made the decision to go without permission. What I saw there was from another world.

In total there are about 500 people working there, most of whom also live, sleep, eat and drink there. After working for several months in the dumps I even saw a child birth.”

 

I have to be honest, I didn’t find that place sad. I was happy every time that I was with the people living there.

They deserve to be known, they deserved to have a voice, and I think their smiles are the best way they can show themselves. They are happy just because tomorrow they will see the sun.

The sadness and the tears come after, when you are in your hotel room surrounded by material things and you don’t see the smiles and the faces of the people living there come to your memory - that is when the sadness invades you.

I call Cambodia the Forgotten World. With photography we cannot change the world, but we can change minds and touch hearts. That is the reason why I’m a photographer ... to give a voice to those in silence.-Havana