The Long Process of Recovery

28th November 2008



Understanding the circumstances of the families supported by Riverkids helps us in determining the assistance that is required by the community and allows us to tailor the help that we render to best suit the community’s needs. Thus with the kind help of 4 social workers, Mr Chin Chea, Ms Unsopheak, Mr Som Ann and Mr Lim Theany, we have been visiting families in small groups to interact with family members and to better understand the plight of each family. It has been an eye opening experience so far visiting the many families at the railway and riverside slums, where we were exposed to families with a multitude of problems such as domestic violence, divorced parents, oversized families, unemployment and tenancy issues.



On top of that, one common predicament that they are facing is a dire economic state. All the families that we have visited have a daily income of US$2 to US$5, where parents generally have low-skilled occupations such as motor taxi, factory worker, sewing, construction workers and shells seller. How are the parents supposed to feed their family with such meager pay and how can they afford to send their children to school? These families are forced by their situations to make their children contribute to the household income. They are forced by their situations to not have any hopes and dreams. They are forced by their conditions to be doing what they are doing.


We met the last family under Riverkids today and they had the most unfortunate of circumstances. The child under Riverkids lost both their parents who were fishermen just last year in a freak accident where they were faced with a storm along the coastal areas of Thailand. The child and his brother have lived with their aunt and uncle since then and their recovery process is still underway. Riverkids knew about their situation from news reports and thus decided to take them in, providing them with education, allowance and most importantly, the warmth and security of a family.


The support that Riverkids provides to such families is critical in helping them rebuild their lives and I firmly believe that this is a cause that has great purpose and impact. However, such forms of help should definitely be more extensive and available to more families, but only with greater funds and external aid can this happen. Students like me have plans and dreams of helping to rebuild a developing community like Cambodia, but we can only do it through a stepwise and concerted effort. We, like many other passionate and zestful Cambodians, have hope for a better age. Sometimes we cannot be the change, but we can only start or contribute to this monumental change.

Written By: Law Jia Hao RJC (ISLE 2008)