Happy New Year for Riverkids

The Khmer New Year is celebrated from April 14 to 16 every year. During the holiday time, children usually expect to receive new clothes and will be proud to wear them.

However, not every parent who lives in the slum or poor community in Phnom Penh is able to buy new clothes.

In addition, some children and their parents, instead of enjoying the holiday, carry a bag to collect cans or recyclable material (ait chai) from along the streets of Phnom Penh city because during Khmer New Year they expect to get some more income from selling this.

This is the story of street children in Cambodia.

Understanding the situation of the children, on March 25, 2009 a group of SIA Cabin Crew led by Mr. Neo Chee Keong brought gifts, including clothes, flip-flops and school supplies for the children at Riverkids.

From April 3 to 4, 2009, Sister Evon, one of the generous donors from SIA Cabin Crew, also donated a large amount of clothes and school supplies for the children at Riverkids.

In addition, we collected some more clothes, which had been donated by other generous donors, to package as gifts for kids.

So each child received a parcel with three sets of clothes, school supplies to take home for their parents. It was a very enjoyable time during the Khmer New Year for the children and families at Riverkids community.

I am very, very grateful to all of you from SIA Cabin Crew: Mr. William, Sister Evon, Mr. Neo Chee Keong and other great hearts of SIA Cabin Crew members.

Your kind donations to vulnerable children in Cambodia will be remembered by the children, families and staff at the Riverkids community.

Workshop for Children

On Monday the 23rd of March the Foundation started week long workshops for some of the children who have studied at the Riverkids centre in the past but who have stopped attending. Some of the reasons the children give for having stopped include violence at home, pressure from their parents to earn money and a lack of interest in school.

The workshops were organized by Kim Tay and UWC volunteers, a group of high school students from Singapore. They have kindly volunteered to help out for the week. Riverkids would like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts. Not only are they giving up their time and effort but also their money to help to give these children a better start in life.

The main purpose of these workshops is to engage truant children in non-academic activities and to encourage them to return to full-time study. A total of 18 kids have been chosen to attend these classes. The children will attend Riverkids from Monday 23rd until Friday the 28th. The children will be supplied with water, fruit and snacks throughout the day. The volunteers will be assisted by a translator from the Riverkids staff ensuring ease of communication. Having observed a part of the day on Monday it was clear from the smiles on the children’s faces that they were really enjoying themselves.

Monday started at 8.30am with introductions from each of the volunteers. This was followed by a series of physical games to give the children some exercise. At 10.30am there was a break for 15 minutes, more to give the volunteers a rest rather than the kids, who were clearly having fun. After this the children played some board games to stimulate their minds. In the afternoon the students made some arts and crafts aimed to encourage their creativity. The last activity of the day was some social interaction games to give the participants more confidence in certain situations that they may face. The day ended at 4.30pm with both children and volunteers exhausted but after a really productive days work. Each day will follow a similar pattern and the children will record their activities in scrapbooks provided by Riverkids.

It is hoped at the end of the week that the children will be more confident of their intelligence and creativity .This can only be good for the children and hopefully some if not all will return to study full-time ensuring a better quality of life for both themselves and their family. We would hope after the success of these first workshops that more generous groups like this one from Singapore would volunteer to do similar projects with children in the same situation in the future.

Riverkids 'President Visited

The President of Riverkids Dale Edmonds recently visited Riverkids, Cambodia. This was her first visit to Cambodia for 6 months such is her confidence in the staff.
She was accompanied by some visitors who work as lawyers, social workers and writer from Singapore and Japan.

There were many reasons for her visit but the main one was monitor the project and to see that everything was running smoothly. The visitors wished to know more about the trafficking situation in Cambodia and also if possible to give some ideas and advice to reduce the problem.

One of the first things Sister Dale did when she came was to attend a ceremony for the 3rd group of “Get Ready Girls” to graduate. In total 10 girls completed the course and to show how proud she was of them she took them all for pizza. This was very much appreciated by all of the girls who thanked her profusely.

She set herself and the group a busy schedule as she was only going to be in the country for 2 weeks. The first thing on the list of things to do was to visit some NGOs that deal mainly with human trafficking in Cambodian. Sister Dale felt it was important to get some extra information that could be used to improve the way things are done at the Project.

Next they visited a state school. The reason for this was to see how Cambodian students are taught. They visited a school that has over 1000 students of which 145 are from the Riverkid’s Project.

The group was also eager to see how hard the children that collected the rubbish worked. They were first taken to visit a slum area in the city. Here they were shocked at the conditions that some of the families were living in. Some mothers and their children were living and working in the dump. They also had the chance to observe some children on the streets of Phnom Penh who were looking for anything that could be salvaged to make some money for their families. The visitors were amazed at how hard these children worked even the smallest of children.

Some of the group works with people with drug and alcohol problems at home so they also visited a centre where children were getting treatment for such problems. Another area of the city that they were keen to see was the Svey Park area of Kilometer 11. This area has a lot of problems with prostitutes. They felt that if they were able to talk to some of the girls then maybe they could help them from this desperate situation they find themselves in.

Riverkids would like to thank Sister Dale again for all the time and effort she puts into the project for the vulnerable children to get education and improve their living without child trafficking.

Riverkids is also very grateful for the donors understanding and hope that they continue to support the Foundation in the future. Without them the goal to stop trafficking in Cambodia would not be achievable.

The Get Ready Girls Graduated

On Friday the 27th of March the 3rd group of girls graduated from the “Get Ready Girls” Riverkids Program. In total 15 girls had participated in this course and of these 10 completed the program. Friday saw the end of a very hard but fulfilling 6 months for these girls. The reasons for the other 5 girls dropping out were varied. One was forced by her family to stop and to work for a beer manufacturer to make some money for her family. One ran away to Vietnam to get married while another went to the country to get work .The other 2 had reasons which were similar. A ceremony was held at the school for the successful students to mark the occasion and was attended by the students, their parents and family and also some of their friends.
Another special guest who was present on the day was Dale Edmonds the President and founder of Riverkids. Dale made a short speech is which she expressed her sincere thanks to “All the Riverkids staff who work very hard with the children at a grass roots level” She also thanked the parents of the girls for encouraging and allowing their daughters to study at Riverkids. Finally she had some kind words to say about the Local Authority who support both Riverkids and the Community.
Sophon the director of Riverkids Foundation also gave a speech at the ceremony. He started by congratulating the girls who had completed the course. He said that all the girls that completed the course will continue in further education. 8 will attend state school while the other 2 will continue cooking training at Changi Vile which sponsored by a group of SIA Cabin Crew. Mr Sophon said he was “very proud of the girls and all that they had achieved together in the 6 months that they worked together.” He stated that the girls looked brighter now and had a new air of confidence about them.
He continued by saying that he was very pleased with the results of the program and that this was achieved through the following:
The time and effort put in by the girls
Encouragement from their parents
Knowledge contributed by the teachers to the girls
The support of the Changiville Tutorial & Training Centre
Support of donors
He reserved special thanks from the staff, the children & the parents to Dale Edmonds the President of Riverkids who he referred to as Sister Dale Edmonds (as she is known among children and staff due to her generosity). Dale he said has given so much to the charity since she started it both in financial terms and the effort she puts in to get new donors for the centre.
Sophon finished by saying that this is only the start for the Get Ready Girls. With their newly acquired training they will be able to improve their living situation and can look forward to a brighter future He warned that this can only be achieved through further hard work and study and the living of an honest life. Sophon also expressed his desire see more girls like this one graduate and hopefully put an end to human trafficking in Cambodia.