Quick update from Cambodia and Singapore

Blum children singing

 
With the Get Ready for Boys' pilot (funded by CLSA, thank you!) starting in November, and a big reshuffle of rooms as we moved admin and our Bright Girls' co-op to another space, freeing up rooms for more classrooms - well. November has started with a bang!

Thanks to Kaity Wilson and her friends and family, we were able to donate a photocopier to a local primary school that has been amazing for our students and many other poor kids. This means free attendance and better teaching for more than just Riverkids children.

Over in Singapore, Elaine has been wrapped up in grants and campaigns, and I've been catching up on months of backlog. The kindness and generosity of our donors has been amazing, and we hope to bring you more news more often *g*

Our Get Ready for Boys students

My honour to join Riverkids to do Projects & Communications

It’s now my third week with Riverkids and there is so much I have been exposed to regarding information on child trafficking and the general situation in Cambodia. I come to know of a real-life account on how a young girl from Riverkids escaped from a foreign pedophile and eventually brought him to court.

On one hand, it saddens me to hear such a heart-breaking story of a girl raped on multiple occasions (this is the harsh reality, I told myself). On the other hand, I am relief to learn that a child’s bravery supersedes fear in this case and that saved her life.

Many children in the Cambodian communities we are working with are benefiting from our programmes. I love, in particular, the Get Ready Programmes. It is such a wonderful model that we are implementing in other nearby slums to eventually eliminate child trafficking.

Besides loading myself with a deluge of information, I am planning for a few major campaigns, putting together grants for Riverkids and corresponding with our donors. It allows me to leverage on my past work experience in business development, marketing communications and of course, my love for kids!

Next month will be another exciting month, I will come face to face with the people we are serving in the slums. Besides interacting with them, I shall be capturing many precious moments on my digital camera.

I will get to meet our colleagues there and I think the first thing I want to do when I meet them is to commend them for the relentless and conscientious effort that they have been putting in to give their very best to the people in need.

I will also get to meet other NGOs and am looking forward to learn as much as I can from them. I shall return to the blog to provide more exciting news!

Crunching the numbers! Our September 2009 report

Monthly Report in September 2009
46 pages, 950kb. Covers all our Cambodia programs in Phnom Penh for September 2009.



Highlights!

226 children had extra nutrition through healthy snacks and drinks during programmes
115 students were promoted a grade this school year
75 children at Steven House afterschool tuition, several absent from family problems
64 new students registered for the 2009/2010 school year at four Phnom Penh state schools
60 families were visited and counselled this month
57 children at Blum House for afterschool tuition, several absent from family problems and truancy
50 children in our choir, 66 in traditional dancing and 74 for breakdancing!
47 children in the Riverkids football teams
45 families had health counselling and checks
45 children in kindergarten, two absent (measles and truancy)
34 children in English classes, some absent from truancy or difficult schedules
34 children and families received the Food Box weekly support
30 women were employed making paper handcrafts for sale
25 students have to repeat the year, usually because of family problems and truancy
25 new grade school students with parents in sex work were interviewed and selected for our pilot Railway site
18 children were safe in our Weekly Boarding program
17 children required medical attention
15 girls in the Get Ready programme, one withdrawn for family problems
15 women joined a short embroidery contract job
13 children selected for places in our kindergarten
12 girls graduated in September, 7 returning to school, 3 to our Bright Girls co-op, and 2 for apprenticeships
10 pregnant women had prenatal care
9 mothers and 6 children had private counselling for serious family issues
7 children were fostered in the community with our support
6 malnourished babies and toddlers had extra nutrition under the Baby Bellies program
6 girls took part in the Bright Girls sewing co-op
4 youths represented Cambodia (and Riverkids) overseas in Italy for football
3 international volunteers taught English
2 rooms were repainted by volunteers from Singapore and the Get Ready girls
2 advocacy tours visited Riverkids
2 children were left motherless after a traffic accident, with the youngest entering our fostercare temporarily.
1 child entered fostercare due to domestic violence
0 child trafficking incidents!

Challenges:

• Kindergarten teachers have extra responsibilities and need more help
  
• English classroom is small and crowded
  
• Blum was flooded during the rains and needed repairs
  
• Lots and lots of work!
  
• Getting uniforms and school shoes and sharing supplies around
  
• Microloan programme that fits the high-risk urban community is needed
  
• A more private and safe space for counselling is needed
  
• Families skip appointments or refuse to take part in training and counselling
  
• Kids in foster care and weekly boarding need extra guidance
  
• We need internal receipts for expenses that won't issue receipts like street vendors
  
• The Bright Girls need two new sewing machines and training in business as they expand
  

Local Donor With Riverkids

Last September, one Khmer generous donor came to visit Riverkids with a large donation include medicine, rice, shampoos powder, milk, food for the kids by Riverkids.

In addition, she invited Riverkids staffs and 25 kids to participant in her daughter birthday with the purpose to provide opportunity for the kids to enjoy together with delicious food and happy party with her daughter.

We at Riverkids are very happy when we see the local people involve in charitable work. So now Riverkids can help over 350 kids to get education at 12 state school around Phnom Penh.

More Jobs for Women at Riverkids

Recently the mothers at Riverkids are so busy. They work on a kind of craft such as paper jewelry, which have been ordered by generous customer from Canada.

The women are so happy. In stead of going collect cans on the streets and at conner of markets in Phnom Penh, they can stay at home and make crafts, and they get income better than collecting cans.

Riverkids staff who in charge of micro-business has been so delighted and wrote to the customer

" On behalf of Riverkids Foundation, cambodia. We are staff members, vulnerable

children and vulnerable families especially the mothers and Get Ready Girls who participate in making hand crafts would like to say thank you very much for your generious order the huge units products from Riverkids, cambodia.

Moreover,through the demand of your order the women and vulnerable girls can earn the income to support daily food for their family.

Once again, we would like to thanks you. We strongly believe you will continue to keep order hand crafts from Roiverkids Foundation, Cambodia in the future.

Wish you all the best, good health, and successful in your work and life".

A Busy Time At Riverkids

In the new academic year (2009-2010), Riverkids will sponsor over 350 kids attending State school. This is a substantial increase in students from last year, due to over 50 new kids enrolled at the beginning of New Academic Year.

As a result, we at Riverkids are quite busy: we need to organize over 350 individual packages of school supplies and uniforms for the kids. There are always limited resources but each group of kids receives some supplies, with the numbers of books, pens and other supplies they get from Riverkids depending on their school grade - for example, if they attend higher Grade classes, they will receive more supplies.

Our educational staff and social workers also monitor the new starters for a few weeks to ensure the kids are attending their classes.

The first time at State School

We are pleased to announce that we have enrolled 35 students from the Riverkids Kindergarten class into their first classes at State school. Disappointingly, although we had a meeting to encourage parents to become more proactive with their children’s education, only few parents enrolled their children. Therefore, the first day at the state school, most of the kids will be sponsored and assisted by Riverkids staff, who will gather the young students and walk with them to their new school.

The kids at RailWay-II

Sister Dale Edmonds and an Advocacy group visited the home of sex workers recently. They were touched by the stories and everyday lives of the sex worker’s children: they don’t have an opportunity to go to school because, as well as financial difficulties, the school is quite far from home.

Sister Dale Edmonds decided to support 25 kids from the RailWay area to enroll at the State school as their first steps towards receiving an education. Each child received a package of school supplies, a school bag, and a school uniform. They are also given around 0.25 USD to buy snacks when they go school every day. A prearranged tuk tuk comes to pick them up, take them to school and return them home.

All the Riverkids staff, the kids and their parents would like to say thank you to Sister Dale Edmonds and all our generous donors who always support vulnerable kids in Cambodian. With assistance like this, we can assist more children to gain an education and give them the chance to improve their own future.

Graduation of Get Ready Girls

After six months of training at Riverkids, the Get Ready Girls have successfully graduated.

Sister Dale Edmonds, the President of Riverkids, spoke on behalf of all donors and volunteers and expressed her happiness that all the girls were graduating with higher self-esteem, a love of learning and a desire to continue studying at school or do further vocational training with Riverkids or another NGO.

At the graduation ceremony, each of the girls received a certificate to mark their achievement, noting they had completed the Riverkids Get Ready Girls training course. Riverkids were also pleased to award an Honorary Certificate of Appreciation to Madam Lynette Joy Edmonds, in memory of Roger Edmonds and in recognition of the extremely generous support they have provided to the vulnerable children to the Riverkids Foundation from the very beginning.

We also awarded certificates of appreciation to our local Riverkids staff and volunteers, who dedicate their time and energy to looking after, educating and assisting the children and their community at Riverkids.

Thank you to all our generous supporters!

One More Contribution for Riverkids

Riverkids recently received support from Oxfam (Quebec) to develop a cartoon film called “FAMILY VALUES”, aimed at making children and parents aware of the value of family and education.

The cartoon hopes to address situations like those of the Riverkids community, where parents will often send their children into busy streets on their own to collect cans – a story reflected in the film.

It has been broadcast on local television channels since the beginning of October, 2009 and will run until February 2010.

Riverkids has also co-operated with another NGO, Pha Ponlue Seilbak, to develop a cartoon book to accompany the film. We aim to distribute the book for free to other NGOs and public schools around Cambodia, aiming for the largest possible exposure to the story.

We believe that cartoon films and books such as these, which outline initiatives like our child trafficking prevention project, are more accessible to the community. We also hope that they will help encourage more families and local communities to look after vulnerable children.

On behalf of the Riverkids Foundation, I would like to thank Oxfam (Quebec) and the Canadian people, who provided their own money to help fund our child trafficking prevention mission in Cambodia.

Some notes from Riverkids Community Nurse

When the first Advocacy group visited the Railway group, home of a number of sex workers, we met a two year-old boy HL. He had problems with his testicles (Estrangement Erniaire) and our visitors felt sorry for him - he was in severe pain but his mother was unable to send him to the hospital. Luckily, our visitors promised to pay for his surgery.

On October 16 2009, with the assistance of the Riverkids community nurse, HL was sent to receive surgery at Khien Khlang, one of the charity clinics in Cambodia. He is currently under recovery from the surgery.

We at Riverkids and the mother of the boy want to thank you so much for the generous support. With your help, we are able to assist more vulnerable kids in Cambodia.

In another case at the Railway group, the community nurse of Riverkids met a lady who works as sex worker. She is currently 8 months pregnant. She’s never gone to a medical check up and her body is swollen.

The community nurse provided some advice relating to pre and post maternity care, and assisted her with taking a simple blood test. She doesn’t have much money and now that the birth is due any day, we at Riverkids are looking for generous donors to support her during maternity leave.






The homeless sex worker

SN is 27 year old. She works as sex worker and a beer girl. She has a one month old-daughter. Her husband is drug addicted and sometimes beats her. The first time we met her, we felt incredibly sorry for her and touched - she had black eyes and couldn’t see clearly due to the swelling.

She does not enough money to rent a room. She live underneath a neighbor‘s house which is full of sewage and very bad smells. Riverkids have provided some toiletries such as baby clothes, sarong, soap toothpaste and toothbrush etc. but as always are looking for further help to assist people like her.

Quick Singapore update!

Holly screend last night as part of a local film festival, and I took part in a discussion afterwards for Riverkids with Sallie, a Singapore-based academic, and Katrina, a UNIFEM volunteer.

I couldn't watch the film as a movie, because I was too fascinated by their accuracy. There are some quibbles - a line about adoptions as a cover for human trafficking, when it was baby buying and laundering, Holly's lack of basic Khmer - but they did a lot of background research and it shows.

Thuy Nguyen who plays Holly is wonderful to watch, because she reminds me of some of my favourite kids in the Riverkids program (I know, we're not supposed to have favourites, but there are some kids who just stand out in memory!), the street-smart and defiant ones. They're hard to reach, but once you get through to them, they'll do more than survive, they'll flourish.

Well worth buying the DVD (Amazon). It was rated M18 here in Singapore, but I'd be comfortable with a smart teenager watching as there's no on-screen sex, only implications.

We're super busy getting new shop items tagged, photographed and added to the shop, and updating the website, plus a long to-do list from the Cambodia team, but the great news is that Riverkids has received some excellent applications for the Project Manager post.

Fingers crossed, we'll have a post this October welcoming the new member of our team.