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.