Educating 120 street-working children in Cambodia

At Lotus Kids Club we work very hard to nurture the children—helping them to learn social skills, instilling confidence in them, and helping them to develop their interests and discover what their abilities are. We help them to understand the importance of responsibility and empathy and to begin to realize their place in the world.

These efforts are important and needed in order for the children to be successful in school and in life. We are nurturing their minds, and we know it is equally important that we also pay attention to their physical selves. To this end we do several things.

In our preschool/kindergarten program we teach the children about good hygiene and have them practice what we teach them. Washing before eating and after using the toilet is practiced. They brush their teeth after meals and snacks. In fun ways with stories, songs and games we teach them about good nutrition. As we sponsor them after graduation in primary school we supply them with hygiene supplies throughout the year.

In addition our preschool/kindergarten students and our sponsored primary school children receive comprehensive vaccinations and twice-yearly medical and dental check-ups and follow-up care. They all also receive daily multi-vitamins. We are very lucky as we have been able to secure the vitamins for free from a wonderful organization, Vitamin Angels. And we receive enough vitamins to share with two other nonprofits that we collaborate with.

We know that in order for children to be ready to learn and to focus their efforts on learning, they need to have the energy to do so. So our preschool/kindergarten and primary school children receive a nutritious snack to start their school day. Our preschool/kindergarten students also receive a full healthy meal part way through their morning sessions.

At our Afternoon Community Program, we start off the week with our youth sharing fresh fruit, and our nurse conducts information sessions with the children on proper hygiene and nutrition. She has also facilitated workshops with older youth in the program on issues such as the onset of puberty and their changing bodies.

At ACP, we also teach the youth about different foods and recipes using those foods, and then we cook a meal together. This improves literacy as well as providing good nutritional information. The preschool/kindergarten students and ACP children help with our vegetable gardens.  Learning about and how to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs shows children how their food is produced.   

We at LKC love watching the kids learn and become competent in all that they do. And we love watching them practice what we teach them about taking care of their bodies. Both are important in helping them become successful and healthy adults.

It is refreshing when I feel like the work I do with the teachers is actually making a difference in how they assess and work with the young children of Lotus Kids' Club. And it’s heartwarming when the learning and knowledge the teachers now have has a positive and long-term impact on a child.

Anyone who works with young children knows that each child is unique. When   working with young children it is important to not only know a child’s age but also, and more importantly, their developmental stage. It’s all about ages and stages.

We have a young boy 5 years old in our Preschool/Kindergarten Program where the children are 4-6 years old. We split those children up by age or what stage we believe they are at when they begin the school year. One group who will have another year in our program—the “younger kids—meet for a brief “circle time” before free play. The other group, who has already spent a year in the program, spend more time with a teacher before free play. They will be exposed to more formal learning (letters, numbers, literacy work) in a fun way with songs, rhymes and books.

This 5-year-old boy ended up in the latter group although it was his first year with us. I feel the first success was that the teachers realized that he wasn’t very happy being at LKC. He didn’t interact very much with the other kids, and he seemed sullen and stressed. In the formal learning class he did not participate. There are expectations for that class to begin learning the basics of literacy and do homework, mostly practicing writing numbers and letters. He rarely completed the work. Unfortunately he was also beginning to be absent a lot and not wanting to come to LKC.

After the teachers and Social Worker spoke with the parents it was decided that he was not ready to be in the older kids’ group. He was placed in the younger kids’ group.

This was the second success. He adjusted quickly to the younger group and then began to thrive. He was interacting more with his playmates, he spoke more at the small group circle time even raising his hand to offer his thoughts. His whole demeanor changed to being more joyful and he rarely is absent now.

Our main goal in Lotus Kids’ Club’s Preschool/Kindergarten Program is to prepare the children for primary school. This means instilling in them a thirst for knowledge, to have them feel learning is pleasurable. We want them to feel confident in themselves and competent in their abilities. We want them to be able to communicate their feelings, thoughts and ideas. We want them to develop good self-control. In general we want them to strengthen their social skills and emotional characteristics. This takes practice, and that practice happens best through play and being in the appropriate setting.

For this young boy that setting was one less formal with little pressure to perform at a level he was not developmentally able to accomplish. Without the teachers’ caring, observation and assessment he may still be struggling to just keep up. Now this boy will have a much greater chance of developing and strengthening those necessary skills and characteristics to be successful in school and in fact life itself.