Foster care training

Our housemothers had internal foster care training in June, prompted by some training from Chab Dai. The housemothers are some of our most crucial team members because they give intangibles to the kids - affection, stability and well, mothering! Because the housemothers are in charge of weekly boarding which has some of our most vulnerable children - they stay with us because their homes are too chaotic or abusive - they're on the frontlines.

What was great is that the housemothers gave their reflections on fostering. They're mostly mothers or aunts themselves, chosen for their good reputation in the community. They're becoming more confident and figuring out how to communicate what they see. Most of them aren't literate, but they know kids.

Also, a shout-out to RHAC, a local NGO in Cambodia that provides reproductive health services. This includes access to gynecologists, contraception, pre and post-natal care and infant care. RHAC also provides abortion access, which we've not yet had to grapple with, thankfully. We're in the midst of preparing a Sex Health policy, with a lot of discussion about local values, legal rights, health and so on.

Right now we have sexually-active teenagers, and RHAC is a place our social workers can go to for advice and health care for them.


We currently have 20 children in weekly boarding at Alexandra. We provide breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. For quite a few, their parents are able to take them home to sleep at night, while some have to stay with a foster family on the weekends as their family live too far away for little children to travel every week.

On the Queen's Birthday, 18th June, the housemothers and some of the teachers took the weekly boarders for a trip to the riverside.

"Inside their minds are full of sadness," writes Pachdey. "We play with them and comfort them like their parents."