Educating 120 street-working children in Cambodia

In 2012, there was a family with a husband and wife with 5 kids. They were living in Posat Province on Tonlesap River. There are 4 girls and a son. They went fishing every day to earn the money to support the family and with this job, some days they could earn good income but some days they did not. After work the husband often drank wine and hit the kids, especially their son, and the mom felt scared for her children. One day when the husband was drunk, he hit the son strongly with the stick. The mom tried to stop her husband from hitting the son. They were argued, and the husband said to his wife, “If you don’t like it, you can go with the children only. And you cannot take all the property, that is all mine.”

After that day the wife planned to leave him. She called her sister and told about what was happening. Her sister sent her $50 so she could come to Siem Reap. One day later, while her husband went fishing, she took all her children with her and came to Siem Reap. When she arrived, she and her children stayed with her sister. She started looking for a job and luckily got one. Her job was as a cook helper with the salary $60 per month. She was grateful that she could pay her room rent, but the money was not enough to pay for food for 5 kids, electricity and water.

She felt so discouraged during that time then she asked her boss to work two shifts per day. So she got $130. After work, she tried to find an organization to help her kids enter school. A lady near the room she rented knew one of the organizations that open the school for poor kids, and they provide rice to help the family as well. That organization was called WEC International Cambodia (WEC).

After she got this information, she went to WEC for helping her kids to study. They helped 3 of her children with their studies and provided 5 kg of rice for each kids per week. One of the social worker at WEC introduced her to Senhoa’s Lotus Kids’ Club, which has a preschool that could be good for her 4-year-old daughter to go to.

We interviewed her, and she told us about her story. While her daughter attended our preschool, we provided her family with 16 kg of rice and condiments monthly. She was touched by our help. We also provided her with counseling, encouraging her to stand strong in this situation.

One year later, she met a man. She fell in love with him and she felt that he could be a good father for her kids. They were together for 5 months, and he told her to stopped working, he could take care of the family financially. He just wanted her to stay home to take care of the children and rest, because she had fallen pregnant with his baby.

One day, his ex-wife appeared at the room they rented. That made her surprised, because she didn’t know that her boyfriend had not divorced his “ex-wife” yet; they actually still lived together. The reason why he looked for a second wife was because he has 3 sons at his home and didn’t have a daughter. The second wife has a baby girl, whom he loved so much. The man ended up leaving with his first wife.

This second trauma made the woman feel so much pain, hurt, and hopelessness. She was behind on rent with no money to support her family and she was pregnant. She contacted our social worker in desperation for advice. After talking to our social worker, he encouraged her to find a way out of this bad situation. LKC helped her to pay her room rent for 4 months and rice and condiments. But it was still not enough.

We tried to find another partner NGO to provide her food and milk for the baby. After the baby was born, she found a job, and we provided her a bicycle to go to work. Now the baby is 5 months old and stays with her older sister at home in the morning when she works. She can now buy food every day to provide for her kids, and she can even save some money. Now she is so thankful for us for supporting her before she was able to stand up and take charge of her situation.

For her daughter who studies with us, we are providing her education and food and health care and hygiene supplies, vitamin, vaccine, love, warmth, and protection. Now her daughter is grown up and brave is doing well with her peers. She can play and prepare all things in the right place. She obeys the rules and the teachers. When she goes back home, she helps her mom and take cares her youngest sister. She can sing and play with others kids around her house and she acts as a teacher to teach the kids around her house during play and free time.

Currently, they are very happy and have hope again, especially their mom, because all kids are now enrolled in school, and she got a good job to provide for the family. They have a second chance.