Arts Therapy Clinic-Children in Crisis-CAMBODIA

"You have helped me find my light in my heart again" (Young woman recieving Arts Therapy)

'Throughout my therapeutic work this year, I have been working with young orphans who have had HIV since they were born. They were referred to Ragamuffin to receiving our arts therapy service as they are individuals with complex family backgrounds. They have experienced many problems and have challenges with attachments, depression, behavioral issues, social stigmatization, unprocessed grief, and poor quality of life. Some were abandoned by relatives or rejected by friends, teachers at schools or by some people in their communities even though there have been a lot of media and health programs to promote awareness on HIV transmission. Apparently, for most people with HIV they still struggle with both social and self-stigma and these young people feel like they are holding a deep shame with an invisible emotional wound throughout their lives. As the result, they feel their world is "small, dark, and chaotic in which no one could understand and see them”. So our work is about creating a safe therapeutic relationship in which these young people can learn to feel safe again, to feel valued, and deeply heard. 

During the arts therapy process, the young people found the process like a sacred, personal and healing journey to their heart, and soul which enabled them to find their truth, there deep selves, new courage, and hope in order to move on in life or to navigate a way to discover loving kindness and compassion toward themselves and others. The art forms and other creative processes were used as therapeutic tools to support them emotionally and spiritually which provided a gentle flowing and natural way to express and reflect on difficulties and life experiences. Ultimately, they found their lives getting better, they were able to feel braver and more able to cope with the challenges of their illness and share their deeper pain and distress in side through their art and with me as a therapist. On behalf of these young people I would like to express my gratitude to all the supporters from and through Global Giving that help to make these life changing experiences possible' It is so important young people on the edges of life can recieve this therapeutic support'. (Serey Samchet – Director of Ragamuffin Cambodia and Senior Arts Therapist

Young people living in Cambodia experience so many challenges and demonstrate such a degree of resilience. Ragamuffin Cambodia continues to support those who are in crisis, are marginalised and are in need of expressive and creative outlets for their pain and distress. We also support those who self harm or live with very destructive family and social contexts, creative arts therapy is a powerful process to support a young person to express violent or destructive energies safelyas a result of their own feelings and experiences inside and also  what they witness and experience around them. We continue to support staff teams and organisations who work with the most vulnerable through training, staff care and supervision programmes. We believe the vital resource of those who care for, nurture, protect and support others, especially needs support, encouragement and opportunity to reflect and be strengthened. Ragamuffin Cambodia are providing a series of intensive staff care programmes in partnership with the Chab Dai coalition Cambodia and will also be running its next professional development training in June on Arts therapy and conflict transformation as part of our on-going services.

Thank you again for your continued support of this important work in Cambodia and the beneficiaries its serves.