Donation Of Milk Powder Given to Riverkids

Recently, we received news from Sister Evon in Singapore about a generous donation of milk powder. Sister Evon cooperated with another person to donate 66 boxes, nearly 680 KG of powder milk to Riverkids. You can imagine our joy and delightfulness upon hearing about this donation.

Upon receiving this news, it has been extremely difficult to get the milk powder from one country to another. The process of shipping and customs caused many headaches. It took a total of about 1 month to work through the customs but through many challenges, we finally got the milk powder from the port about two weeks ago.

When we received the milk powder, first thing we did was check the expiry date, which happens to be in about a month from now. Since we have to make sure everything is consumed before the expiry date, we thought of a few options to benefit the community around us. Firstly, we contacted the authorities around the community to get in touch with the local families with toddlers from 1-3 years old to provide them with a can of milk powder per family. Many of these families don’t have enough to eat for themselves, more less nutrition for their child. We provided milk for around a thousand families. When they came to Riverkids to obtain their can, we could see the joy on their face as they held their child and crowded around the tables. It was truly incredible. Secondly, we gave an average of 3 to 4 boxes with about a dozen cans per box to varies NGOs. Some of these NGOs include: Help Cambodia, Daughter’s NGO, University of Nation Cambodia, Rescue, Sunshine, the Sao Sary Foundation,ARM International and Care For Cambodia.

When the families and NGOs come to receive the donation of milk powder, they have to sign a contract and respect three important points. The three of which include consummation of milk only in February, only toddlers 1-3 years old will consume the milk and finally, the milk powder cannot be taken to the market to be sold.

Lastly, we contacted a bakery to use the milk powder we provide to make cake for Riverkids everyday. Each child in Riverkids has been given a piece of cake and a glass of milk every day from February 11th and will continue until the end of February.

We want to express our delightfulness and gratefulness again for this donation to Riverkids. As it says on the boxes “growing up milk”, these children will not only receive nutrition, but they will also feel the love and care from all around the world.

Donation from Stop Exploitation Now

For the past two year Stop Exploitation Now has been kindly sending donations to the Riverkids Foundation. Stop Exploitation Now is an American NGO that was set up in 2005 and has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. This NGO focuses its donations mainly in the Southeast Asia region.

Recently Stop Exploitation Now has donated important items such as books, crayons, coloring markers, pens, pencils and soccer balls to the foundation. They have furthermore donated another $40 to buy more books. In addition to this the sponsor has gifted $125 which will be used to pay for water, snacks and uniforms for the children who attend soccer training every Saturday in Phnom Penh. This is a real help because without it some of the children could not attend. The contribution of the teaching aids and books will help a lot because before this there was a shortage of such necessary materials. Following the donation of the books more children are able to have the opportunity to improve their reading skills. Arts and crafts are also taught to some of the children. The markers, pens, pencils and crayons will be of a great benefit to the students here where supplies were short. The kids also like to play games but there was not enough equipment for all of the children. The games help the children to relax and burn off energy between classes and so the extra footballs will be of a great benefit to them.

Most of these children before they started with Riverkids had little or no schooling. What little schooling they had was poor and unvaried. At Riverkids however the children have a wide range of activities such as English, Arts & Crafts and Computers. These help to stimulate their minds and help them to grow both physically and mentally. Learning new things give the children enormous self confidence which can only be good for their future.

On behalf of the kids, the teachers and me, I would like to express our sincere thanks to Molly Jester the President of Stop Exploitation Now for your very generous donation to support the students of Riverkids. Without your support and others like you it would not be possible to continue running the project.

Craft Training Course at Riverkids

On February 11, 2009 at the Family House of Riverkids, we started a craft training course for13 Get Ready Girls and 10 mothers from the Riverkids community which is sponsored by Oxfam Quebec

The purpose of the training is to provide skills for the girls and mothers to make crafts that can be sold at the local night market, in hotels and restaurants and also to visitors to Riverkids and to people living abroad.

As you know trafficking often occurs because a family is in debt or desperately needs the extra income that selling a child can provide. By involving Get Ready students and local women in micro-business we will give them an alternative source of income and reduce the economic need that results in the decision to become involved in trafficking.

The training course will run for three months for the mothers and the girls. At the end of the course they will be able to produce small products. Riverkids will provide materials to the mothers and girls for making the products and will help them locate possible markets to sell their products.
The following is a list of products which the participants will be trained to

- Bags (mobile phone holders, waist bags)
- Flowers ( paper flowers, cloth flowers)
- Toys ( cloth toys, paper toys)
- Greeting cards
- Paper bracelets,
- Wallets for business cards

- Frames for photos made from cloth

Opportunities For The Get Ready Girls

Get Ready Training is one of the programs run by Riverkids which has been in existence for nearly two years. Currently there are 15 girls attending the program which lasts for a total of 6 months. The girls involved have had little or no schooling or life skills before getting involved in “Get Ready Training”.

The course gives them a chance to get both training and education from Riverkids and also through Riverkids help from other NGO’s. Khmer and English literature are taught to the girls by teachers at the Riverkids Foundation. Workshops are put on for the girls on various topics to broaden and improve their capabilities. For example on 25th December 2008 three of the girls took part in a Life- skills workshop organized by the ICC organization. Another two girls attended study programs “Setha and Carol” that is managed by the Mary knoll organization. The aim of these programs was to educate the girls about relationships between boys and girls. The young girls also participate in training courses three times a week at Changivile. The courses at Changivile include such topics as English, Computer Studies & Cooking. The cooking course is of particular benefit to the girls. Many of the girls will be seeking work in hotels once they have finished the course. The skills learnt here such as the preparation of food, the setting of a table and the correct way to serve food will greatly enhance their chances of finding a position.

On 22nd January 2009, Get Ready Girls Group participated in a workshop called the Democracy in living at Community that was conducted by Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC). When we hear about democracy we think about politic. In fact, democracy in living is presented to girls about how are good citizens such as obligation, responsibility, social participatory, forgiveness, equality, non-violence, respect, honesty, helps and etc.

Nowadays, the Get Ready Girls are more confident and proud of their studying and what they have learnt. They are particularly happy that they have had the chance to learn vocational skills at Riverkids. It has given them an enormous sense of confidence and independence. Now they can see a bright future for themselves whereas before many of them would have been destined to a life earning a living collecting cans.

Vitamin Providing Program

Vitamin providing is a very significant program of Riverkids Foundation. This is so because most of the kids we are supporting are lacking vitamins, which leads to them being very thin, pale and in severe cases even dying. Due to their lack of energy they seem to lose their hopes and enthusiasm for the future.
As the result of this, we not only have to pay attention to only their education, but also to their health and wellbeing. We are currently seeking funding from Doorstep which is one of the branches of VIVA based in England in order to buy Vitamin Tablets for the children 3 times a week. Our purpose is to make the kids healthy, lively and strong like other children. To date partial funding has been received from Doorstep’s and we await the remainder. Riverkids Foundation has also received 50 bottles of Multiple Vitamin Supplement from a group represented by Lynda & Susan from the USA. Riverkids main mission is to help the high-risk-victimized children get both a good education and good health care.

We hope that Riverkids will be able to expand its project and that in the future hundreds of more children can be rescued ensuring them a better future. Riverkids can achieve this but only through continued support and financial generosity from its donors.