Education/Arts Orphan, Disabled Children Cambodia

Dear Kind Donors and Friends of our School,

We Thank you so very much for the faith and inemistable support you have given our School.

To each person who has donated, I have written personally and let each of you know how vital and life-saving your help is.

Our Traditional Cambodian Music Program, Traditional Cambodian Ballet Program, Ancient Yike all thrive. Our Blind Students are mastering the ancient art of Smoet (or Smote) Singing, used as Buddhist-sung Prayer at funerals. This Art is passed from generation to generation by the few Smoet Masters who exist in Cambodia, and requires great Singing and Music interpretation skills, as well as a deep understanding of Humanity and the Buddhist Scriptures.

We also continue to take care of those of our Children who lost their parents to AIDS and who themselves have HIV and diverse health complications.

Our lovely fruit and vegetable garden thrives and is enjoyed by us all, with our Children helping take care of it. 

Today, I will write about a rapidly growing harm that is affliciting Children, especially Girls in Kampot Province and all of Cambodia.

As you all know, our School is open 24 hours a day, even though on our social-media page, specific visiting hours are given. This signifies that we open our doors to all those in need day or night, and that my dear Colleagues have received training, to be able to gestate the many sufferings, that are hidden from the eyes of ordinary society. We have excellent relations with the local authorities, who trust us absolutely and call upon us at all times. I thank with all my Heart my dear Staff, our Director, Mr Sothy for their great fortitude, compassion and giving.

However, my senior collegues always feel distressed when we receive into our care, young Girls who have endured multiple rape, sometimes even held prisoner. This is a new and terrible situation for us all. In these cases, I will gently and firmly support our director, in making sure that everything has been thought of and all correct processes carried out, as well as the emotional, psychological and medical help given to the Child in question.

The other day, Mr Sothy asked me to put forward some thoughts to a special committee that has recently and urgently been set up in Kampot Province, to address this crisis. In reflection, I put forward how Cambodian Society, once so loving with a deeply woven social structure, collapsed and was destroyed by the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge Genocide.and then the decades of war. The Genocide affected every single person in Cambodia and led to immense trauma, the deaths of Buddhist Monks and the structure of the Buddhist Sangha, the deaths of Teachers, Educated People and Good Community Leaders, leaving a Vacuum of Goodness, which was filled by ignorance, violence, distrust, substance abuse, loss of affectivity, abandonment of infants, institutional corruption, exploitation and repression, the destruction of Music and the Arts and a Vehicle through which to express trauma, the destruction of peace, of community, of the elderly and of spiritual vision and harmony with humanity and nature. Now, we see also the implosion of goodness around the world, not only Canbodia; where through the internet, the dark web, with illimitable access to all that is destructive and harmful, especially to our Children, the Spirit of Humanity has been gravely damaged. And not only this. As we state that there is War everywhere on the planet, we forget that War begins with the ordinary individual, who on a daily basis may argue, fight, be cruel, mean or petty, whether it be online or inter-personal, and who actively creates darkness and not Light. Thus Cambodia, particularly vulnerable for the reasons stated above, has now generations of adults who damage others.

We must strive to always remember that Children everywhere in the World, are our Children. That we are all Responsible. Upon the individual level, we must constantly strive to be profoundly Good, not in the eyes of Humanity, but in that Quiet place of Truth, hidden from the world, in that daily striving and battles won, in thought and deed and word. That wherever our foot steps upon the earth,  in our next breath we try to bring Light into the world.

Thus then, covered in Flowers, Trees and Birds, with those of my beloved Staff who have been with me 32 years, may our Children find that Miraculous Healing that they so profoundly deserve, that they be Children Again and become Happy, Peaceful Adults.

From the 17th to the 20th March, 2026, GlobalGiving will kindly and wonderful hold their Little by Little Campaign, of which we will be part. All donations of up to $50 will be stretched 50% by GlobalGiving,, while matching funds remain, therefore giving very important funding help. Please kindly spread the word and if you can, encourage others to help!

Because the world has changed so much, there is no longer a system of grants or funding that will support those such as ourselves, who take care of Children without parents, who have been abandoned and abused.. Our School is therefore able to keep open and running soley because of the great generosity of individual people. 

We Thank You All With All our Hearts.

Photographs kind courtesy of S. Porte. Taken with the permission of our Children and Staff at KCDI. 

Links:

• Official website
• Official Facebook

Dear Kind Donors and Friends of our School,

It is because of the great generosity of you all, that our School is able to stay open and running, so that we can take care of those Children who have nobody at all in the world.

For those of you who have visited our School, you already know that it is a place of Joy and of Healing. The sound of Music and Children's laughter rings out across the garden mingled with the sound of little birds nesting in the many trees.

If you read last month's report, you will understand how vital your help has been this year and also every year.

This year, following simmering tensions along the Thai- Cambodian border, conflict has broken out and hundreds and thousands of Cambodians are still displaced. Trade between the two countries, which has been the backbone for ordinary Cambodians, has stopped. Those already struggling in poverty, are now additionally struggling with debt and malnutrition.

How is it that we have been given such a Beautiful World, full of Treasures, but yet Mankind has chosen to destroy and hurt it. That adults, who whould be the guardians of every Child, have too often caused harm. And war and conflict in all forms, with every form of "advanced" technology, have brought terror to ordinary people and shattered their lives.

Since I first came to Cambodia as an eighteen year old girl, during the War of Attrition in 1990 and witnessed first-hand the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge Genocide and the devastating effects of the then ongoing civil war, I have always sought to carry the Light, even into the darkest places.

It is our responsibility, even then the world feels covered in shadow and all hope seems gone, to hold the Light up as high as we can, to not allow darkness to win. But instead to tend, as a Sacred Garden, the simple Beauty of the small things, of every Flower, every step we take, of the Children we have under our wing and to safe-guard them with tender care, because they are Sacred and, like Love, are the greatest Treasure we will ever know.

Thank you for helping our School, our Children.

If you are able to help again this year, then on the 2nd December 2025, GlobalGiving will be giving incentive matching funds for each unique Donation. Starting from 00:00:00 EST on the 2nd December 2025 and ending at 12:00:00 on the 3rd December EST. It is a vital Time of the Year for us, because your generosity together with GlobalGiving helps our School enormously.

We Thank You with All our Hearts!

With love from Catherine and Everyone at KCDI!

Links:

• Official website
• Official Facebook