A Child is for Life.....

"Dom peang snong rea sai"
A Cambodian proverb which means something like "Children today will grow to be the future ". Rea Sai is the word for bamboo, and the proverb refers to small bamboo shoots that will eventually become big strong and versatile. If we nourish the bamboo shoots today, a healthy , strong bamboo will be the futures success.

2 weeks ago a heavily pregnant women waddled in the shelter with two small children at her heels. Her husband crouched on his hunches in the “Asian squat” outside high jagged glass topped walls of the gated the shelter. Srey, an 18 year old victim of trafficking lit up and ran to her mother, and in the usual Cambodian way, shyly greeted her without emotion or fuss (overt acts of affection are almost always reserved for the privacy of the home). Her exhausted mother was quickly provided a chair as Srey fell to her knees wrapping her arms around her mother’s legs and began begging for her to take her home. I sat from a distance overwhelmed by the scene of this innocent girl begging to be taken back by the parents who sold her into prostitution. Half an hour later, her mother, father and two small siblings piled onto their ancient motorbike and headed back to the slums.

The following week, Srey's mother and father both came into the shelter, but this time with 5 children all under 12 scuttling around their feet. Srey greeted them with the same eager anticipation. After about an hour, the shelter manager asked one of the smaller children if they had eaten that day. "No, we are very hungry" they replied, so the shelter staff reluctantly fed the whole family, cursing them for bringing so many of their malnourished children. The newest member of the brood still in the womb will make number 11. Srey and another sibling have already been sold, because there is literaly no money to feed the children. We warn the parents that if they sell their children again they will go to court (which in reality will never happen as there are no social services to take responsibility for the 11 children!). Srey wants to go home, as all the children do irrespective of their situations, but her mum wants her to stay because there is food and education at the shelter, in the slum there is nothing. That day, Srey goes home, she will help her mum with the babies, I wonder if number 11 will be the last.

Everyday I come across too many tragic stories like this affecting millions of children and young people. Over 50% of the population is under the age of 15 and most families live in abject poverty. When the Khmer Rouge decided to remove all education and enforce a peasant lifestyle of extreme hardship and unimaginable violence upon the entire population, I wonder if they thought about the legacy that they would leave behind. 30 years later and Cambodian society is still morally, socially and economically crippled.

Sometimes I used to wonder what good it was for Westerners with no real skills (i.e. doctor, teacher, engineer, economist etc) to come here and volunteer. But now I’ve realised our ability to network and get money, even for small things like a painting class can really make a difference. My friend was a successful marketing professional in Sydney until he came to Cambodia on a holiday. He sat on the beach in Sihanoukville drinking a beer watching 2 young boys crawl under the pool table in the bar where they slept every night. He decided to pay for them to have a room and food so they no longer had to sleep under the table and beg for food. Now those two boys live with over 200 others in a huge shelter set up by this guy for the street kids in Sihanoukville. It turned out his marketing and networking skills managed to secure thousands and thousands of dollars which he has turned into one of the most inspirational and successful NGO’s in Cambodia. His shelter is now entirely sustained by local people, thus will not fall apart once he leaves. Its meeting people like this that make you realise with the right vision, some good contacts and serious drive; you really can make a difference.