Child Protection Cambodia Project #20963

Open a House of Hope for abused kids in Cambodia

by Riverkids Foundation

Project Report | Jan 12, 2016
Opening our doors at the house of hope

By Dale Edmonds | Director

Welcoming our first Riverkids twin newborns

I don't do coincidences and signs at all but December 31st, I was on Skype with our program manager in Cambodia running last-minute work before the long holiday weekend when he suddenly interrupted excitedly "She's here -- and she brought the baby!" and all I could think was this is the best way we could start the new year, this is a sign.

Channy's story is one of mental illness, horrific abuse, beatings, drugs, betrayal and child trafficking. Recently, she reappeared at our office with her ten-month-old baby in tow, and then slipped away -- leaving the baby behind. We couldn't find her for days and when she did re-appear, she often couldn't take the baby safely back from foster care.

Six months ago, we would have been thrilled to get the baby into one placement plan and might have had to settle out of desperation for an orphanage because at least we would be able to keep the children together.

This time? Thanks to the amazing funding and support you've given us for the House of Hope, we went through five different placement plans, negotiating with four possible partners for options and we're now close to confirming a good long-term safe placement for all the children in the family that allows for on-going supervised contact. The baby has medical care, day care, overnight care with another great charity, and emergency foster care. And despite all the chaos of her life, she's a healthy, affectionate and curious little girl, beginning to try to stand and say her first words.

When Channy turned up on December 31st, she'd missed two appointments already. She'd picked up her daughter from daycare and when they didn't come back the next day and we went to check, her rented room was empty, the neighbours shrugged about "some new man", and no-one knew where or had any names or numbers.

All we could do was wait and hope that she would trust us and come back.

And she did, and we were ready with help and a safe place for her child because of your support.

Thank you

That was the best way to wrap up 2015, to have built at Riverkids a place where a family in crisis like Channy and her daughter can come for help, knowing that they'll be welcomed no matter how late or difficult they are.

In the year ahead, we're scheduled to help over 200 families in our intensive Lifeboat program. To be able to help with so much more and see the difference is such a gift, and it's thanks to your generous support -- and we're only halfway through our Global Giving goal. (Giving again will help us a lot)

Our next plans

This week and in January, we're welcoming new staff who will bring us to the full strength planned for the House of Hope. For all the families in our intensive stage, we're now doing home visits and working with them on detailed assessments and their shared family action plan that will guide the next five months on their specific needs.

Next month, we will begin to pilot a very small harm reduction addiction treatment and supportgroup therapy for parents who have lost a child (a huge source of grief, depression and PTSD in our families), and taking in new families referred by our partners -- our vision of being the place to refer traumatized families is coming true!

Want to volunteer with Riverkids?

We're now recruiting up to twelve more committed volunteers (up to 3-6 hours a week maximum), and many of the roles available can be fulfilled internationally online. To find out more, our Riverkids 2016 Volunteer Roadmap is a detailed overview of the volunteer positions in both flexible short-term projects and six-month projects.

Gratefully,

Dale Edmonds
dale@riverkidsproject.org

P.S. We also welcomed our first twins through our Healthy Mum, Happy Baby pregnancy support program. We have had quite a few babies, but they are our first ever multiples and put us and their mum through a rollarcoaster of health scares only to come out perfectly healthy and surprisingly big for twins.

We found long-term support from a great partner organisation for her as a single mum with special circumstances, re-connected her with her family and the twins are thriving, with a neighbour helping her look after them in the first few months. Also, they're just super cute!

Note about photographs used: To protect our clients' safety and privacy, Riverkids uses pseudonyms and does not use identifying photographs of them with client stories. The only exception to our policy of not using identifable photographs of client children is for infants due to their rapid developmental change, and with specific parental permission.

Family visits in the community

Attachments:

Riverkids 2016 Volunteer Roadmap (January 2016) (PDF)

3 Attachments

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Oct 15, 2015
Riverkids House of Hope Report - thank you!

By Riverkids Project Ltd | Singapore

A great day out for Riverkids children

We’ve been saying goodbye and hello in equal measures of joy and grief in September and it’s wonderful.

It’s heartbreaking in the best possible way to see so many families leaving Riverkids, knowing that we’ve helped 126 families graduate because they’ve become safe and stable again, and to have found help with partner organisations for another 127 safe families who need support for school for their children.

In August and September, we handed out hundreds of school uniforms and school supplies, making sure that all of our children were prepared and enrolled for the year ahead.

And the scholarships! An unexpected gift this past month was that two excellent private schools in Cambodia suddenly offered very generous scholarships to our brightest students, and we now have 18 high school scholarships and two university scholarships for 2015 -2016.

We shared many quiet goodbyes, the kind of happy-sad goodbyes with a little kid you first met barefoot and scared who is almost a teenager now, a boy with a bright future and a quick ready smile when he leaves our offices for the last time, waving goodbye to his teachers and social workers.

We will be checking in with the families regularly under our follow-up team to make sure the kids stay in school and to offer help during family crises or health emergencies.

Now we’re busy working out how we’re going to arrange the new rooms we’ll need, with the two classrooms for the little children and the older children, therapy rooms, the nurse’s room, and a workshop space, and more space for our sheltered workshop and daycare – and of course, making sure that the whole space is as cheerful and child-friendly as possible!

In less than a month, we will officially begin our Lifeboat program at Riverkids for up to 60 families. We have 45 families we’re already working with who will continue in our new Lifeboat program, families with staggeringly complicated dark histories and children suffering.

Recently, one family sold a newborn. We don’t even know if the baby was a boy or girl yet, only that the child was born healthy and sold for US$300.

We’ve gotten one child from that family into a safe home with a secure future, and we’re working on finding a long-term safe situation for their other child, and with your support--with Lifeboat and the House of Hope--we’re going to get those children safely home.

Hundreds of children have homes now. And we get to make a House of Hope to make homes with families for children who desperately need their homes healed or a safe home found for them.

The Bonus Day on September 16th was a great success, thanks to wonderful people like you. Your thoughtful gift helped us win the prize fund of US$1,500 in addition to the 30% matching. There won't be any GlobalGiving Bonus Day for the rest of the year 2015, but it'd be fantastic if you could make an USD tax-deductible donation now to avoid the generous rush of year-end giving that is just two months away.

Your giving will help the existing 45 families who are already in our Lifeboat and 60 new families joining us next month to recover from post traumatic stress disorder, addictions and hurt to be able to send their children to school again and give them a healthy, bright and happy future.

Click here to give now.

Thank you *SO* very much,

Elaine Woon

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