1. Background Information
Riverkids Foundation has worked in Cambodia on anti-trafficking projects since 2005. Our mission is to prevent child trafficking and exploitative child labor through prevention programs for children identified as high risk.
These programs include activities to improve health and decrease the episodes of illnesses, increase parental interaction with their children, train parent-volunteers in childcare skills, keep all school-age children enrolled and regularly attending school, place students in vocational trainings and apprenticeships, visit families daily to monthly depending on their risk, and assist small business development., Riverkids also offers weekly boarding to a group of children providing them with sufficient food support and safe shelter.
On January 01, 2008 Riverkids Foundation received funding from Oxfam Quebec to operate a project against child-trafficking and exploitation by providing a safety-net of shelter, food and care for extremely high-risk children and also protect abused children from escalated domestic abuse in the Psar Toch area near the Japanese Friendship Bridge in Phnom Penh.
Within the proposed six-month project, Oxfam Quebec funded Riverkids to cover three mains areas: building community library, conducting family workshops, and providing weekly boarding to 17 children.
2. Narrative Section
§ 
Main Changes
Using the funding we received from Oxfam, Riverkids is pleased to report big changes in the community and the children with whom we are working. We have successfully changed the attitude of the community toward their children, from feedback from parents.
People in the community who attended workshops have acknowledged and become aware about their children’s rights and value. Previously, they explicitly reported to staff that they did not value education, and that they supported child labour as a contribution to the family.
However, we can feel something new in this community now. Parents show an increased understanding of the importance of their children’s welfare and the benefit of education and proper care.
After the first workshop about Children’s Rights with the assistance of trainers from LICAHDO, people in the community expressed their regret at not providing opportunity to their kids to go to school or giving them proper care. It is heart-touching when parents at high-risk for neglect and abuse to their children showed their determination and promise to change and were willing to send and encourage their kids to go to school. The community has also gained a lot of awareness about children’s rights and has learnt more about community development, particularly with their children as the main resources.
Riverkids at the end of this project has increased its reputation within the community as approachable, reliable and helpful for families at-risk for child trafficking. Furthermore, Riverkids has proved itself to other NGOs and partner organizations such as World Hope, LICADHO, I.O.M. and more as an active and effective partner in combating trafficking.
Organizationally, Riverkids has made improvements in project management.
§ Advantages
Our main target group is children at high risk for child trafficking. Approximately, 150 children have been enrolled in Riverkids at the Psar Toch area for educational and support programs.
The newly built community library at the Riverkids Family House site in Psar Toch provides these children with a convenient place to read and study with books and educational games available to the children. It has also been used as a place for children’s games, art and craft activities and special occasions such as holiday celebrations. All the children are encouraged to visit the library during recess and as part of regular class activities, with high usage.
The library is accessible to parents and siblings of enrolled children, and we have noted growing drop-ins by parents to read magazines and talk in the library. The space is used frequently as a community meeting place and for workshops. It can accommodate up to 20 people inside, and can be extended for up to 200 people with the adjacent field.
Riverkids also used the Oxfam Quebec funding to support 17 children as weekly boarders with sufficient regular meals and overnight boarding from Monday to Friday. Parents of weekly boarders are counseled by our staff for domestic abuse, financial crises, heath issues and other crises that created the need for weekly boarding as an alternative to home care or institutional care.
During the funding period, we have increased our household visits to 230 cases by our social workers and 36 children have been taken to health center and private medical clinics. Approximately, 264 local people, including 50 young teenagers aged 13 to 17 years of age, attended 4 workshops and a parent meeting organized by Riverkids. The workshops and meeting focused on anti-trafficking, domestic violence prevention and improving parental care. Lastly, 228 young teenagers and 5 mothers were involved in group discussion and counseling with Riverkids staff. This discussion made them well informed and helped them reach shared strategies to prevent child trafficking as well as encouraging the parents to be more aware of the importance of their children.
§ Constraints and Limitations
Running this project, Riverkids experienced several challenges. Firstly, our staff members have limited abilities in managing the administrative and financial work on time. Moreover, in arranging our workshops, we found it hard to approach to the people in the community to invite them to join the workshops. Many of the at-risk family adults were not willing to participate in our workshops unless we provided them a per-diem allowance. This is understandable as they rely on work for their daily survival, and just one day without working meant they have lost significant income. As a result we could not get all the target adults to participate.
Riverkids still lacks its own equipment for work, mainly during workshops, such as a sound system and chairs. We had to rent them with considerable expenses.
The last and biggest challenge we encountered in our mission against trafficking is safety. Traffickers sometimes have power in the community that makes it hard to challenge them. As we experienced in the case of one of our Get-Ready girls, who were trafficked and abused by an expatriate, she had to be safely guarded when she goes to the court, for example. This makes families hesitant to participate in anti-trafficking activities. We also have concerns for staff safety. It is a risk when we want to combat the trafficking closely.
§ Evidence of impact
After the funding period, it is remarkable that the enrolled children attending educational programs at Riverkids and those integrated into state school are attending class regularly. Several children are performing at the top of their state school class. The number of absentees has declined noticeably.
We have had fewer reports of domestic abuse within the community. Our workshops also focused on raising awareness of domestic abuse and show success in clearer discussions.
We had no incidents of child trafficking during the funding period.
4 young drug addicts in the target community have been given counseling regularly by Riverkids staff in cooperation with staff from HOSEA Ministry.
§ Progress made in accordance to:
Outcome (Negative and positive) of the project:
The workshops took considerable time and effort by Riverkids staff that limited our abilities to provide more counseling and programs. This was especially high for the first workshop when our staffs were learning how to present workshops.
We were able to provide weekly boarding to more children at high-risk, sheltering them from abuse and neglect at home without institutionalizing them.
With more children enrolled in weekly boarding, we needed more overtime from staff for weekend stays and children in crisis.
We saw greater understanding of children’s rights, child trafficking and domestic abuse, and more willingness to discuss sensitive topics with each other and Riverkids staff.
Principle risks:
Safety of children and adults from at-risk families and of Riverkids staff. Child traffickers and exploiters are frequently powerful and dangerous, and we had to worry about intimidation and abuse.
Abusive and neglectful families. Riverkids works primarily with families at-risk for child trafficking. Usually, the reason is family dysfunction and many are violent. We have had incidents with violent parents harassing and attacking Riverkids staff in the past.
Community indifference. The workshops rely on high attendance and community participation. Given the limitation of no per-diem allowance and that our at-risk families are generally neglectful, we were concerned about attendance and participation at workshops.
Outputs:
We measured workshop outputs by attendance and subsequent family visits for highlighted problems.
For weekly boarding, we measured output by family’s willingness to enroll children in weekly boarding and the family’s participation in counseling. The final aim for weekly boarding is to safely reintegrate the child back into the family.
Project beneficiaries:
| Beneficiaries | Age | Female | Male | Total |
| The weekly boarders who stay over night at RiverKids from Monday to Friday | 4 -15 | 11 | 06 | 17 |
| Totally 264 Participants including 50 young teenagers with age 13 to 17 attended in 3 workshops and one parents meeting organized by RiverKids and by sponsored Oxfam from February to April | 13-60 | 183 | 81 | 264 |
| The two social workers visited the households ( family visit) from January to April 2008 totally 230 cases. 36 kids had been taken to the hospital and private clinic. | | | | 266 |
| Totally 228 young teenagers 5 mothers involved in group discussion and counseling from January to March 2008 organized and provided by River kids counselor | 13-35 | 233 | 00 | 233 |
| 04 drug addicted kids from RiverKids Community have been provided counseling regularly by the RiverKids counselor cooperates with staff from Hosea Ministry | 12-15 | 00 | 4 | 4 |
| Total | | | | 784 |
3. Financial Section :( Please see financial report)
4. Progress on any other conditions and agreement
Oxfam Quebec provided the funding for this project to provide access for children at high-risk for child trafficking to education and vocational training and to live in low-trafficking and non-exploitative community.
We had to broaden our work beyond child trafficking, as other abuses, such as domestic abuse and drug abuse, contributed to the weak family protection and child exploitation that leads to child trafficking. Our workshops, though aimed to eliminate trafficking and exploitation, also focused on domestic violence and drug abuse. As a result, 4 young drug addicts in the target community were identified and given counseling regularly by Riverkids staff and in cooperation with staff from HOSEA Ministry.
5. Conclusions and lessons learned
Lessons learned
§ At project level:
To work on a project effectively, we have to be very well-planned with clear procedures that are easy to understand and practice.
§ At organizational level:
After operating the funded project from Oxfam Quebec, Riverkids has improved to another level in human resource and document preparation. With this experience, we will be capable of proposing for funds from other donors to expand our project and to better sustain our programs and staff development so that we will be able to reach many more vulnerable children.
Conclusion
Our community-based child trafficking prevention project is very practical and realistic as it allows us to work directly and closely with a small target community for higher effectiveness.
This project puts us in place with community connections when child trafficking and exploitation begins with the separation of a child from their family.
We are very grateful to the kindness of Oxfam Quebec that always shows their real stance as trafficking combater and funded us to run this project. We would like to thank also to all Riverkids staff members who have invested their work and heart and their willingness to be
part of this work.
Although we had struggled with some constraints, we are satisfied with the work we did. Hopefully, Oxfam Quebec will again give us opportunity to work with them in the near future for the sake of our children.
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