Day Two for the Newbie in Cambodia

Today started off a bit slow after Heli and I arrived at Riverkids to discover that we had no electricity. Not terribly surprising since I hear these power outages are planned in order to conserve energy. But it is a reminder of inconveniences that make life and work in Cambodia more challenging than in some parts of the world.

One of the highlights of today was visiting a former Get Ready participant who is a major success story. She is now working in a local sewing workshop making very beautiful bags and accessories for sale. But I will just pique your interest for now. More on her in a future post!

One very poignant part of the day was sitting with Sok Lee to review the personal histories of the children now enrolled in weekly boarding. These are children who have lived through some of the most horrible things we could ever imagine and yet continue to thrive and flourish in the safety of Riverkids weekly boarding program.

Sok Lee and I sat in one of the small offices to review their files at the end of day after most of children and staff had returned home. The weekly boarding children however were still around as they sleep at the Riverkids house every night to escape the dangers of their own homes.

The risk factors that brought them to weekly boarding are varied. All are from extremely poor families whose other problems are only exacerbated by the fact that they cannot provide proper nourishment for their children. Many of their parents are street trash collectors and others force their children to work this dangerous job.

A few of the children have HIV positive mothers, at varying degrees of sickness. Many of the children either witnessed or have personally experienced domestic abuse in their families. A few have fathers or siblings with drug addictions that inherently put them at greater risk of being trafficked. One child's mother abandoned her because she was in great debt and ran away to try and escape her problems.

You would never guess that these children had lived through these horrific things. If you could only see them playing and making shapes out of Playdough, putting it on their noses and then walking up to quietly show you their creations. One of my favorites made loops to hang over his whole ear. Sweetest smile you have ever seen.

[The photos featured on this page are not necessarily of children in weekly boarding.]

Posted by Ellie Klerlein