Singapore Family Visits River Kids
On Saturday, May 12, 2007, I was having a meeting with the parents of the girls who will be starting the new River Kid’s Get Ready Vocational Program. The girls and their families live in a slum located under the Japanese Bridge in Phnom Penh which is the focus location of the vulnerable children that River Kids reaches out to. During the meeting, Dale phoned to share information of a family from Singapore that had arrived in Phnom Penh and wanted to visit and volunteer with River Kids for the day. Speaking English in the phone is not convenient for me, but luckily Jolene, who was also participating in the meeting, was sitting near me. I passed my phone to her to get information from Dale about meeting the guests at their hotel here in the city.
I continued the meeting with the parents while Jolene went out to the hotel to accompany Julie, Maureen and Brian back to the Family House where the River Kids Office and the Get Ready Vocational Training are located, not to mention the meeting. When they arrived at the Family House, I had not finished the meeting yet, so I went to welcome them and asked Jolene to take them to visit the office and Vocational Training Room.
After lunch at Bloom Café, Diana and Jolene accompanied our guests to the slum. When they arrived at the slum, I was there waiting to show them around. It is important for people to understand why River Kids targets this area and the living conditions that the children come from. Showing o
ur guests the slum helps get River Kids message across. Before going into the slum, I reminded our guests to be careful, to ensure that our visitors would be safe. We did not spend much time at the slum, but enough to show them part of the slum, meet some of the kids and tell them briefly the background of the slum.
I continued the tour, taking our guests Julie, Maureen and Brian to visit Steven House where the teacher was conducting the class. It was quite formal when we arrived at the classroom. All the students stood up to welcome our visitors using the Khmer words, “Soum Chum Reap Sure Nak Kru."
Jolene taught an art lesson to the class. Diana, my daughter, Sotheavy, and Maureen helped Jolene and worked with the students to create beautiful cards. During the Art Class, I presented information about the River Kids project to Julie. Usually the kids are quiet when they are busy with their task. I was delighted when I saw Maureen take out drawings made by Singaporean children to deliver to the kids. Sotheavy helped to translate the English greetings from the Singaporean children to the students. It was great encouragement to the kids. In turn, the River Kids Class drew pictures of themselves and wrote messages back to the Singaporean students which will be delivered to Singapore through Maureen. In the future we hope Singaporean children and Cambodian children will share more information and und
erstand each other better. This is a good start!
On Saturday, May 12, 2007, I was having a meeting with the parents of the girls who will be starting the new River Kid’s Get Ready Vocational Program. The girls and their families live in a slum located under the Japanese Bridge in Phnom Penh which is the focus location of the vulnerable children that River Kids reaches out to. During the meeting, Dale phoned to share information of a family from Singapore that had arrived in Phnom Penh and wanted to visit and volunteer with River Kids for the day. Speaking English in the phone is not convenient for me, but luckily Jolene, who was also participating in the meeting, was sitting near me. I passed my phone to her to get information from Dale about meeting the guests at their hotel here in the city.
I continued the meeting with the parents while Jolene went out to the hotel to accompany Julie, Maureen and Brian back to the Family House where the River Kids Office and the Get Ready Vocational Training are located, not to mention the meeting. When they arrived at the Family House, I had not finished the meeting yet, so I went to welcome them and asked Jolene to take them to visit the office and Vocational Training Room.After lunch at Bloom Café, Diana and Jolene accompanied our guests to the slum. When they arrived at the slum, I was there waiting to show them around. It is important for people to understand why River Kids targets this area and the living conditions that the children come from. Showing o
ur guests the slum helps get River Kids message across. Before going into the slum, I reminded our guests to be careful, to ensure that our visitors would be safe. We did not spend much time at the slum, but enough to show them part of the slum, meet some of the kids and tell them briefly the background of the slum.I continued the tour, taking our guests Julie, Maureen and Brian to visit Steven House where the teacher was conducting the class. It was quite formal when we arrived at the classroom. All the students stood up to welcome our visitors using the Khmer words, “Soum Chum Reap Sure Nak Kru."
Jolene taught an art lesson to the class. Diana, my daughter, Sotheavy, and Maureen helped Jolene and worked with the students to create beautiful cards. During the Art Class, I presented information about the River Kids project to Julie. Usually the kids are quiet when they are busy with their task. I was delighted when I saw Maureen take out drawings made by Singaporean children to deliver to the kids. Sotheavy helped to translate the English greetings from the Singaporean children to the students. It was great encouragement to the kids. In turn, the River Kids Class drew pictures of themselves and wrote messages back to the Singaporean students which will be delivered to Singapore through Maureen. In the future we hope Singaporean children and Cambodian children will share more information and und
erstand each other better. This is a good start!After the art session, the kids received candy from our visitors. They were really quite happy with the new Guests, who not only brought treats, but also some new supplies for the classes. Photos were taken of everyone together. Everyone had smiles on their faces.
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