Children without parents, now become independent. - by Sinoy

S N is fourth in her family of 9. Her entire family once lived in Banthey Meanchey province. After her parents passed away, some of them were forced under the extremely poor circumstances to leave home and stay with relatives in different provinces.

S N and her younger brother live with their aunt in Phnom Penh. There was never a day of peace at home due to the endless quarrels between their aunt and uncle.

The aunt began to pour her grievances to her neighbour Ms K. Moved with compassion, Ms K adopted S N’s younger brother and shared the aunt’s difficulties with Riverkids.

Immediately, Riverkids staff set out to visit them to see how best we can help the unfortunate family. S N was then enrolled in our Get Ready Programme to receive pre-vocational training. Being a very hard working girl and naturally bright, she entered our Bright Girls Programme in just a year.

Today, she is sewing school uniforms to support the vulnerable children who study in the state school and Riverkids. S N has never forgotten about her siblings. She wished that they will also have an opportunity to learn like her.

She shared with us that she has an 18 year old sister, G who was living in another province and had been working as a cleaner. 2 years through, she was still struggling with her daily living because of a meager salary of $12 per month.

In year 2009, Riverkids accepted G into Get Ready Girls Programme to receive intensive pre-vocational training. After 6 months, her self-esteem and confidence leaped and began to work towards building a career based on what she has learned in Riverkids.

In 2 months, G will graduate and we are already seeing this bright teenager flourish. She has started work in a shop where she sews bags, is earning $50 per month and happy. With great prospects for her, she is confident that she is able to give her younger siblings a better life in future like hers.

SIA Cabin Crew gave loads of supplies to Riverkids! - by Sophon

14 SIA Cabin Crew members arrived at Riverkids on 26 January 2010 and unloaded school supplies, baby milk powder, clothes, instant noodle, cakes and 500 kg of rice etc.






A nice surprise soon followed – around 100 kids who attended classes at Riverkids in the morning received ice-cream and bread!

As a welcome gesture, the choir and the Get Ready girls presented songs, traditional dance and break dancing to the visitors.

The visitors were so pleased to see that the kids not only have a chance to get educated, they get to pick up singing and dancing skills. Everyone just immersed into the warm and cheerful atmosphere as they enjoy the performances.


Later in the day, our staff brought the visitors to the Riverkids community along the Riverkids and Railway II sites where extremely poor families live in bizarre conditions.

However, when we visited the community, somehow both the kids and their parents who live there appeared happy and not ashamed. There is a radiance of hope and gratefulness on their faces that say, “We are not abandoned because you care for us.”

We would like to thank and honor our visitors and regular donors from SIA Cabin Crew who always remember the vulnerable kids around the world and especially the kids from Riverkids community.

Long awaited repair for slum walkways now completed! - by Sophon

Shaky platforms, broken walkways and protruding nails, these are commonly spotted as one walks on the wooden platform in the slum community. Kids and adults have fallen off the walkways and in 2008, the walkway broke as a group of student volunteers were walking on them. Although no one was hurt from the fall, one student lost his shoes and the rest saw themselves landed on a pool of filthy trash underneath. It was unbearable.


On 21 January 2010, a group of 12 student volunteers from Eckerd College, USA led by Professor Nancy visited this community Riverkids has been working with.

With a donation of USD500.00 from the team, 20 men from the community gathered with their community head, and led by Riverkids’ staff, Mr Theany and Mr. Chin Chea, repair works for the walkways quickly started.


After 2 days of hard work under the sun’s scorching heat, the previously broken and shaky walkway is now laid with planks of sturdy wood. Everyone, young and old (if they’re still fit!), including their pets can now run along without hesitation or feeling insecure.

Nothing is more heart-warming to see the grateful smiles on the faces of the families in the community. They never cease to thank us every time we walk by.

Besides repairing the walkway, the volunteers raised funds to buy painting materials to paint the Community Clinic at Riverkids Family House! Our clinic now looks brighter and more cheerful to the kids!

The staff of Riverkids and the kids and parents from the community would like to say, “Thank you Professor Nancy and students from Eckerd College for your kind donation you raised on your own and for repairing the walkway at the community!”

Houses collapsed at Leang Hor river bank, Psa Touch - by Sophea

At 10am on 26 January, 2010, houses along the river bank of Leang Hor River (Psa Touch Community) fell due to weak soil and poor house structure. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Upon receiving the news, the local authority in Russey Keo visited the area to see if the affected families needed help and to prevent further damages. If necessary, arrangements will be made for the families near the river to evacuate and re-locate to a safer area.

Riverkids is now in contact with the affected families to see if they need our help. We have a number of clients living in the community but so far, those whose houses were affected are not our clients.

Nevertheless, we are still monitoring the situation because some of the vulnerable families we serve are living in dangerous areas near the river bank. We need to keep them safe.

8 teenage boys in Get Ready have a better future - by Sam Ann

Riverkids’ Get Ready Boys Programme prevents vulnerable teenage boys in the slums from abuse. These boys come from poor dysfunctional families and mingle with friends involved in drugs, alcohol and theft.

As they collect trash along the streets, they easily fall prey to Cambodian and foreign adult men who ply the streets in search of the young and vulnerable open to exploitation. To these teenagers, having found someone who would console them, give them money, food and candies make them feel safe.

However, little did they know that they would soon become victims of child exploitation.

Before a sexual abuse and an ugly crime can happen, Riverkids intervene. We now have 8 boys in our Get Ready Boys Programme. We provide vocational and life skills training and give them English and morality lessons.

One of the vocational skills we are giving is motor repairing. 2 months ago, we sent the boys to Vimeantep Technical School at Stung meanchey where they attended classes from Monday to Friday afternoons. On Saturday, they joined the football group.

We see a drastic change in the lives of the boys. Their thinking, behavior and attitude have changed for the better and they are so good in motor repairing now that they are confident to be able to give their families a better life after they graduate.

Our Get Ready Boys are full of gratitude and would like to say, “Thank you Riverkids and Donors, for supporting us in our studies and training. Because of the hope that you have given us, we will continue to work hard for a better future!”

Hygiene Programme in Riverkids - by Sokunthea.

Sokunthea and her Assistant teaching the children to brush their teeth

Hygiene Education is part of the Riverkids’ Education curriculum. Every Friday, children are taught how to wash their hair, brush their teeth, cut their fingernails and wash their hands properly and bath before their meal and bed time respectively.

“This hygiene programme is carried out regularly because by cultivating a good habit, the children will not fall ill easily”, said Sokunthea, Riverkids’ Kindergarten Teacher and Assistant of Education Department.

“Not only can the children practise staying clean and hygienic, they could teach others in their family and community do the same,” added Sokunthea.

The housemother and Sokunthea are washing the kid’s hair

The Hygiene Programme in Riverkids has been going on for 2 years. As the result, our children now look better with neater, cleaner hair and healthier skin!

Kep Trio 2010 Registration Open Now!

What: Half Marathon, 10K Run & 10K Bike Ride

When: March 6th & 7th, 2010

Where: Phnom Voar area of Kep, Cambodia

Read more...

Foster Care Programme - by Pheakdey

We help one mother in the community look after her children while she was on maternity leave for the past 3 months. 2 of her kids come under our Foster Care Support Programme. Previously, they had to go with their mother on the streets and slums to collect trash.

As the new born baby looks very thin and the colour of its skin doesn’t look healthy because the mother doesn’t have enough nutrition and breast milk to feed the baby, we put her under both the Foster Programme and Baby Bellies Programme. In this way, the baby not only gets milk and medical care, it also gets nutritious food and daily care.

Cartoon Project Workshop Training - by Sophea

On 20 January 2010, Riverkids partnered Chab Dai Coalition to conduct a workshop on the Cartoon Project, titled “Family Values”. The aim of the project is to reduce child and human trafficking in Cambodia through the stories produced in cartoon.

Together with Chab Dai, we invited 11 partners and more than 29 members to participate in the workshop training. The members are from diverse backgrounds. Some are field social workers and house-mothers while others are trainers who work closely with vulnerable kids, youth and families in the community.

The workshop ran smoothly and was a success. The facilitator and participants were keen to share and exchange ideas. They were also willing to acquire new knowledge and learn from one another. We believe the participants will quickly apply what they have learnt in this workshop in their media production.

To enable convenient access to these materials, Riverkids has contributed 5 Family Value books and 3 Cartoon VCDs to our partnering NGOs as resources for their library. We hope that by enlarging our distribution base, anti child trafficking can be done more effectively.

All of us at Riverkids are truly grateful to Chab Dai for supporting the workshop with snacks, lunch and the conference hall. We are also thankful to all the participants who spent their time attending the workshop and sharing their valuable experiences with us. We will share more on the progress as we go along.

Helping Beyond Borders - by Lisa-Ann Lee (I-S Magazine)

Read an interesting article and interview by Ms Lisa-Ann Lee of I-S Magazine on Riverkids.

http://is-magazine.com/feature/helping-beyond-borders

An order for Micro-business to make school uniforms - by Sinoy

Last Friday, Cary from the USA contacted Riverkids’ Microbusiness Department to order 70 sets of school uniform. This goes to support the children who study at Riverkids and those we enrol at the State Schools. The team consisting Bright Girls, sewing teacher (Ms Somphors) and Micro-business Coordinator met the school director and the students to take measurements. Sewing has begun. Hurray!

New Training Programme to boost family values in Community - by Sopheak

I am a Social Worker for Riverkids. Recently, we launched a new programme to help families in the community understand family values.






As the parents in the community are always busy with their job and some of them spend their time gambling, playing cards and taking drugs that resulted in domestic violence, their children’s education is totally neglected. Many of them either do not care about their children’s studies or are clueless about planning for their welfare.

We started visiting the women in the community to teach them the roles of a good parent. Our team is divided into 2 groups for the monthly visits. We teach 3 mothers per day, starting from 2.30pm to 3.30pm everyday.

We hope to see a change in their thinking and attitude towards a family and we are optimistic that with our assistance, training and counselling, they will be able to motivate their children to study, become financially stable and stay safe from traffickers.

Riverkids November 2009 Report

Riverkids soldiered on in November making progress in lots of areas and also facing challenges.

One key goal of Riverkids is to provide its children with education to make them less susceptible to trafficking—through its own schools and centres as well as through Cambodian state schools. Enrollment remained constant—with just over 20 children registered in both Riverkids and state schools in November—but so did absenteeism! Most of these kids come from homes where support and stability are lacking, where day to day survival is more urgent than the long term benefits of education, and so the drop out rate is high. In Riverkids’ state school programme, 15 percent of kids are regularly absent and in Riverkids’ own centres, the level of absenteeism in November stood at 10-20 percent. At Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE), a French non-profit making organization that Riverkids sends its students to, the drop out rate was a startling 60 percent—mainly because PSE is too far to walk to from the Riverkids community and few Riverkids students have any other means of getting around. To solve that problem, getting bicycles for the students would obviously help, and to mitigate the overall issue of absenteeism and dropping out, social workers and education officers visit these children at home as well as at school to give support and encouragement.

Riverkids’ micro business programmes continue to grow. Orders are flowing in for the Get Ready Girls craft business, and the girls are managing to deliver on time and to standard. Small events, like Chad Dai’s annual members’ meeting and visitors coming to Riverkids, generate extra income, while for training the girls are being taught more contemporary design skills. Bright Girls are bringing in money too for themselves in their micro business of sewing school uniforms. The aim now is to join The Artisans’ Association of Cambodia which will allow the girls to receive training and sell their products internationally without incurring taxes or shipping costs.


And other Riverkids’ programmes are coming along nicely. Riverkids started Get Ready Boys, a life training programme for teenage boys similar to Get Ready Girls; and got a new library, stocked full of books and tables and chairs where students can read, draw and write. Dancing remains hugely popular at Riverkids, with more and more students signing up for traditional Khmer dancing and the ever popular break dancing class!


Social workers from Riverkids covered a lot of ground in November, visiting 77 families in Psa Touch, Psa Deuom Kvet, Beoung Saland and Chrov Chang Va villages; and extended formal counselling to 12 other families. Staying in touch with these families and helping them with their various problems keeps them more intact and less likely to resort to trafficking their children as a desperate solution.


Another important form of support that Riverkids extends its kids is daily meals and a nutrition programme. In a community where having good, regular meals is a luxury, being able to provide this is a way of ensuring that the kids keep coming back to Riverkids. Two hundred and eighty-five children benefited from Riverkids’ nutrition programme in November, and 50 children received a daily lunch and 20 more got dinner every evening.

In line with this, Riverkids also gives health and medical support, especially to infants and expectant mothers. Pregnant women receive vitamins and medication and are taught breastfeeding and basic infant care, while the babies get a steady milk supply through the Baby Bellies programme.

Volunteers were not in short supply. Six Cambodia university students offered their services as English teachers and social workers, two French volunteers from I-To-I also helped to teach English, and members of the World Health Organisation came to observe and learn from the Riverkids’ community. A further 33 people visited Riverkids in advocacy tours, and three students from the Royal University of Phnom Penh came to look into making a documentary about Riverkids.

And that sums up another busy month at Riverkids! December looks set to be just as full with plans to further build on what Riverkids is already doing and to improve on things wherever possible.

The First Day of Yoga Programme for Get Ready Boys and Girls - by Ritthy

Yoga is a Sanskrit word which refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. In Jainism, it refers to the sum total of all activities—mental, verbal and physical.

Today, Riverkids organizes Yoga lessons taught by NataRaj Yoga. The programme is especially catered to the Get Ready teens who are now growing up. Very often, we see these teens express their anger through violence. Through this programme, they will be trained to handle their emotions in stressful situations more maturely, calmly and objectively.

Yoga is practiced once a week – on Thursday in Alexandra and Blum Project. We hope it will help the adults control their behaviour and feelings too.

The Education Department in Riverkids would like to say “thank you so much!” to Sister Dale Edmonds for everything she is doing for the slum children.

Two Australian Volunteers Returned to Riverkids for Volunteering Work Again - by Ritthy

Stocking up resources for Volunteers

Emelia is teaching the slum children

Jodie, leading the kids to read books.

Amelia, painting cheerfully.

Jodie in the new library.

The 2 Australian teachers who volunteered at Riverkids, Amelia and Jodie, came back to us after their short school holiday in Australia. They returned because they really love the kids and have been so encouraged by the kids’ ambition to study. They are now teaching Riverkids children English and Computer. They also led the slum kids to study and learn in a fun way. Besides teaching, they also painted the library and prepared useful volunteer resources.

Painted Clothes and Volunteer Resources

They also brought Riverkids’ children some clothes painted by their Australian students. At the end of their volunteering, they conducted a workshop sharing what they have been doing with their class in Australia and demonstrating how to teach and lead the kids in class.

Riverkids’ staff and the children would like to express our deep appreciation to Amelia and Jodie, and especially the Australian kids who gave the nice painting as presents to the slum children.