Help Give Cambodian Young Adults Independence

One thing we learnt very quickly when we volunteered and worked in Cambodia in 2006/2007, is things change - some change rapidly, and some change very very slowly.  The new NGO law has taken its time to be shaped and moulded to fit the current affairs of Cambodia, and despite much anticipation there are still many that are not happy with the new proposals and in this case one size does not fit all.

As a non-political charity we won’t comment on the current situation of the law, but will discuss how the new proposal assists in what HOPE have tried to achieve since registering as a charity back in 2008. We recognised very early on that there was a lot of help (sometimes misguided) for younger children and the support of orphanages and children centres, many of which have been purported as ‘fake’ and ‘bogus’. Therefore we took the stance to help the young adults, who no longer fit the requirements of staying in an orphanage, to stand on their own two feet and to support themselves.

The new NGO law is promoting that many of the bogus children centres be stamped out and original care re-instated back to living with extended family or community members. There is much positive work steering communities to support children who have previously been sent to live away from home.

Hopefully, this will give the children the opportunity to create stronger family ties and community connections and remain in the family fold. By finding their roots there hopes to be a natural progression for them to work on the family farm or be an apprentice in their uncle’s garage or Auntie’s dress shop and if their education allows and if support is there for them to take further opportunities to move to the bigger cities for work or further education.

Over the years, we have seen first-hand how difficult it has been for the young adults who have left institutions to survive independently, despite help in furthering their education, finding vocational training and providing shelter.

Sangkheum Center for Children have highlighted the need to re-integrate some of their children back into their own communities and continued their support for young adults in the transitional stages to be self-sufficient, their work has been ground breaking, and their journey continues.

Sangkheum started this journey a few years back re-evaluating their current model and to make serious changes to their operation, and only now are we seeing the success of their work. This doesn’t mean that their work is finished and we are still in urgent needs of funds to help them carry out this important work.

Please do help support us to help them and other NGO’s on the ground in Siem Reap to give young adults the right tools to start an independent life.

I wasn’t sure it could be done – catching up with all four local Partner organisations in a three day field trip tagged on to a business trip to Thailand – something I usually need a fortnight to do. Ok so I sacrificed shopping and seeing some friends but I was not going to miss such a great opportunity.  Of course we stay in touch with all of our projects with regular reports and Skype but nothing beats seeing the young adults myself.

Arriving at the weekend helped as it is Saturday afternoon that Salariin Kampuchea Life skills classes take place; two sessions of two hours with about 15 attending each one. It was especially good timing as the Fourth generation of students had only signed up a few weeks ago and todays’ subject matter was “Communication”. Not only did I get to view the new premises with its impressive library and basic but adequate computer room, but the Life Skills Tutor was pleased to meet his “Sponsor” and introduce me to both classes of young adults, where I was able to explain about H.O.P.E and why we supporting their programme is so important to us. We even got the chance for a rare group photo.

Bright and early on Sunday morning my trusted tuk tuk driver and I went off in search of one of the many astro turf football pitches. The first one was only built about two years ago but now I’m told they are everywhere – some of the better construction development if you ask me! We knew roughly where it was but the amount of new buildings along the way made it difficult to locate. But glad to say we did, as this is where some 20 young girls (aged 15+) were attending “Goals 4 Girls”. This is a 10 month leadership programme for girls in NGOs aimed specifically at “empowering Khmer women through sport”. Combined with some sporting fun they are taught about human rights, role models and leadership skills, build their confidence and get to practice presentation skills. 12 girls from Sangkheum Centre for Children’s Young Adult Programme were in attendance and I think I gave some of them a little fright as they had no warning that I would be there to watch. “Tanya is that you???” By the end of the programme they will be collectively responsible for organising the Globalteer “Olympics” with participants from across their communities.

At the other end of Sunday, at 7pm, I made the ten minute tuk-tuk journey out to Grace House Youth Club, held every Sunday evening. This was more tricky than usual as from 5pm the town had had a power cut, due to a pylon somewhere being knocked down, so once I had showered by torch light we were on our way. Although the children were disappointed not to be having the planned cooking lesson (they were going to make me pancakes) they did not let a little power cut stop them enjoying their one evening of fun. The Cambodian people have a resilience and ability to “just get on with it” beyond any nationality I know. Have you ever seen Table Tennis and Table Football played with a candle on each corner? I have……….

Monday was another busy day, first a visit to This Life Cambodia (“TLC”) office to hear about progress on their projects and my interest was particularly piqued when they told me about plans to take the model of the very successful vocational training for juvenile prisoners into the town to help orphans and other NGO supported children have an alternative to the numerous hospitality schools in Siem Reap.

The results from the prison project speak for themselves – no reoffending by those young men who have had the chance to get some training. I also met one of the latest Interns, supported by H.O.P.E to complete two years of work experience with TLC while completing their further education. We have known this partner since there was just one member, today they employ 28 locals and two Australians.

With a quick lunch at one of the hospitality schools, Sala Bai, where the restaurant is a live training ground, my final meeting was with the Director of the Sangkhuem Centre for Children Young Adult Programme. We ran through as many of the young adults as we could remember, they are all doing well in their individual paths, some now are even parents, which is beginning to make me feel old!! We also got talking about the plans to transfer the young adult programme to a local NGO which is very positive progress. I got to see the new logo and hopefully the paperwork will be processed before not too long.

There was clearly a common theme, all the projects are doing well, but they could do so much better IF they had more staff with the right social work/youth work training. In most cases the best they can get is a graduate who can demonstrate quick ability to learn and then they are trained on the job. This totally vindicates out decision in 2012 to allocate H.O.P.E funds to a 6 month social work training course and we will do so again should the course be run.

We always maintained that if we selected sound local Partners we did not need to be on the ground (all of the time) and I certainly headed home feeling the future of over 100 young adults is making better progress because of our sponsorship.

My stay was short but very sweet. Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex, is changing rapidly as the number of tourists is expected to hit 5 million in 2015. The first year I visited, in 2005, I was one of less than 750,000. True there are more shops, more markets, more hotels, more cars on the road, and simply more people. However the beauty of being one of the early visitors is I still know where to find the tranquillity, beautiful scenery and local people which keep me coming back. And, despite the brake-neck speed of the development, I will most definitely be back.