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.
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.
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