Sok-San is one of our Sponsored Students Education for Poor Rural Youth • Over the last 11 years we have helped 182 students stay in school as far as they wanted to go • 35 students have now graduated from university and ended the cycle of poverty in their families • 42 students are currently in university and 8 are in secondary school Recovery from Violence Against Women • We are supporting a Women’s Crisis Center providing shelter and rehabilitation for battered and trafficked women • Girls who were trafficked to Malaysia are receiving our Care for Street Children and Orphans • We are giving 30 children living on the streets safe shelter each night along with food, schooling, and help from a social worker (see article on last page) • 46 children at Happy Family Orphanage in Siem Reap are receiving food, medical care, and education (see article inside) Empowerment for Women We started and are supporting six new Women’s Self-Help and Savings Groups in Kampot Province; helping 116 women and their families out of dire poverty. The women have set goals, taken loans, and started income generation projects. Their self- esteem has improved and now they have the courage to get involved in their communities and help others. Chanthu joined our Women’s Self-Help Group FRIENDSHIP’S NEWSLETTER 2014 Four Years Later As the result of our encouragement, Chanthu started income generation projects and saved enough money to build a house with a metal roof. Now she feels like she can improve her own life. Before FWC’s help Chanthu was living in a thatch hut that leaked when it rains. She did not have enough money to buy medicine when she was sick. Before FWC’s help “My family lacks almost everything, including school ma- terials, clothing, and especially we lack food, which is the biggest problem. I live with my mother who is a widow, which is why we are so poor.” Six Years Later Thanks to our generous sponsors, Sok-San is now a university graduate and has a responsible job with Anakut Komar (Children’s Future), an NGO which works to help poor families in her community. Amidst the troubles in the world, here are stories of hope… Our projects significantly improve lives in Cambodia Chanthu’s new house is built next to her old house on the same lot.
Transcript
Sok-San is one of our Sponsored Students
Education for Poor Rural Youth
• Over the last 11 years we have helped 182 students stay
in school as far as they wanted to go
• 35 students have now graduated from university and
ended the cycle of poverty in their families
• 42 students are currently in university and 8 are in
secondary school
Recovery from Violence Against Women
• We are supporting a Women’s Crisis Center providing
shelter and rehabilitation for battered and trafficked
women
• Girls who were trafficked to Malaysia are receiving our
help
Care for Street Children and Orphans
• We are giving 30 children living on the streets safe shelter
each night along with food, schooling, and help from a social
worker (see article on last page)
• 46 children at Happy Family Orphanage in Siem Reap are
receiving food, medical care, and education
(see article inside)
Empowerment for Women
We started and are supporting six new Women’s Self-Help and
Savings Groups in Kampot Province; helping 116 women and
their families out of dire poverty. The women have set goals,
taken loans, and started income generation projects. Their self-
esteem has improved and now they have the courage to get
involved in their communities and help others.
Chanthu joined our Women’s Self-Help Group
FRIENDSHIP’S NEWSLETTER 2014
Four Years Later
As the result of our
encouragement,
Chanthu started
income generation
projects and saved
enough money to
build a house with a
metal roof. Now she
feels like she can
improve her own life.
Before FWC’s help
Chanthu was living
in a thatch hut that
leaked when it rains.
She did not have
enough money to
buy medicine when
she was sick.
Before FWC’s help
“My family lacks
almost everything,
including school ma-
terials, clothing, and
especially we lack
food, which is the
biggest problem. I live
with my mother who is
a widow, which is why
we are so poor.”
Six Years Later
Thanks to our
generous sponsors,
Sok-San is now a
university graduate
and has a responsible
job with Anakut Komar
(Children’s Future), an
NGO which works to
help poor families in
her community.
Amidst the troubles in the world, here are stories of hope…
Our projects significantly improve lives in Cambodia
Chanthu’s new house is built next to
her old house on the same lot.
What Makes our Sponsorship Program
Innovative and Successful?
Most people visiting Cambodia see children working in rice fields;
they cannot afford to go to school. What a tragedy when a bright
young person cannot reach her full potential and what a loss for
society.
Since 2003, FWC has been sponsoring poor rural youth to stay in
school in Cambodia. Our program was designed by Peter Swift,
who has been working in Cambodia for the last 20 years and has
a knack for empowering people to help themselves. Our program
has some key elements that contribute to its success.
Poverty is the main reason students drop out of school. Their
parents cannot afford the school uniform or teachers’ fees. We
feel it is important to address the economic needs and problems
of the whole family in a way that empowers them. That is why
our students’ mothers are in Women’s Self Help Groups. How can
a student concentrate on her studies when there is hunger or
domestic violence at home?
FWC doesn’t choose to sponsor cute young children. Instead, our
program sponsors older children who have struggled to stay in
school when over two-thirds of their peers have dropped out.
These kids have above average intelligence, are exceling
academically, and are highly motivated to get an education. But
they are on the verge of dropping out for economic reasons.
Cambodia needs these capable young people to help
rebuild the country after it was shattered by a
genocide and 30 years of war. Cambodia lacks
educated people.
Eighty percent of our sponsored students are girls. Even the
World Bank admits that education for girls is the best investment
for ending poverty. When girls are educated they have fewer
children, do better economically, and make sure their children
have proper health care, nutrition, and are educated. When girls
are in school, they are not vulnerable to being trafficked.
Most of our high school graduates go on to university. We give
them career counseling, help them enroll in university, find
housing, and we partially support them. We ask their families to
help a little and most of our students get part-time jobs. We feel
it is very important for the families and the students to
contribute, because then they feel proud of their success and
have confidence to overcome difficulties. Having a part-time job
helps our rural youth mature and gain employment skills.
Every Sunday afternoon, our Program Coordinator organizes a
meeting for the university students. They make presentations to
each other and in the process, they learn to research a topic and
give a speech. We help them debate social problems to increase
their awareness and sharpen their critical thinking. We arrange
internships for our students and have computers for them to use.
Our rural youth understand the needs of the rural poor in a way
that urban youth cannot. They are enthusiastic about helping
their communities out of poverty. It is very satisfying to see the
ripple effect as many of our graduates are now sponsoring other
poor children in school. What could be better than that?!
Nhay Soben
Working to empower
the poor
Assistant Finance Officer for
Action for Environment and
Community. She grew up in
rural poverty.
Soy Chan-Dy
Supporting 3 children in
school including an orphan
She has a fulltime job in finance
at a big company.
Sien Sok-Ny
Managing a project for
indigenous women
Program Officer at
Cambodian Indigenous Youth
Association. She is
indigenous.
Ly Ritthy
Supervising
construction of a large
housing project
Assistant Engineer for
New World Group. After
work he tutors the
laborers.
Meet a few of our 2014
University Graduates
Chan-Dy is an orphan
who lived with her sister.
We Need Sponsors
You can support a student
and give a deserving young
person an education.
Receive her photo,
biography, and updates.
Please send a check for
$360 or more or use a
credit card on our website.
FYI – Full cost of university
is $1500/ year/student.
Love is the only medicine
that can heal the
wounds of the world.
Why We Should Still Give
to Aid Organizations
by Shoshana Kerewsky (abridged version)
Like many readers, I was deeply moved, and very distressed, when I
first read the Cambodian memoir The Road of Lost Innocence by
Somaly Mam. Mam’s tragic experiences as a trafficked girl inspired
me to donate even more to anti-trafficking causes. I assigned her
book to my university students. It seemed that every new film on
trafficking included a segment on Somaly and her foundation. I was
inspired by her courage and tenacity. She made me a better donor,
educator, and advocate for human rights.
Also like many readers, I was shocked by allegations, soon
substantiated, that important parts of her story were untrue. I felt
emotionally manipulated and taken advantage of. I had been lied to.
Now I questioned where my all of my charitable donations went, and
what I was advocating for. My first impulse was to be cynical and
disgusted.
Memoirists sometimes add fictional events in order to tell a “better,”
more illustrative story. The intention is not to deceive the reader, but
to tell a story that is compelling and representative. The big caveat
here, though, is that in postindustrial Western cultures we place a high
value on the “reportage” form of truth in which facts are to be
accurate and verifiable.
Has Somaly Mam told her story for her own gain, to help others, or for
some combination of these goals? I don’t know, though I hope to
know more in time. What I do know is that while The Road of Lost
Innocence includes some elements that are not true of Mam’s life,
they are representative of the brutal experiences some girls and
women have in Cambodia and the world. Trafficking is real. Coerced
sex and labor are real. People’s suffering is real.
My privilege and resources are also real. I strongly encourage you be
an informed and sophisticated donor. Make a difference to respond to
big needs and big truths, not to the details of one person’s story.
Shoshana Kerewsky is a former Board President of Friendship with
Cambodia and Director of the Family and Human Services program at
University of Oregon.
See FWC’s blog on our website www.friendshipwithcambodia.org
for Shoshana’s full length article – well worth reading!
Happy Family Orphanage A story with a happy ending
Bob Lee, a retired corporate executive from Oregon, went
to visit Cambodia’s famous historic site, Angkor Wat, in
2002. Like many tourists, he felt sorry for the street
children. Bob started helping them by providing food,
mosquito nets, and back packs. Whenever he found a
“real orphan,” he tried to place them in an orphanage.
One day, he met Ms. Thou Raem who was working at a
government orphanage with about 65 children. She had
lost her whole family in Cambodia’s genocide (1975-1979),
so these children were her new family. She received $4.50
per month per child from the government, which was not
enough even by Cambodian standards. In 2004, the
Cambodian government decided to turn the orphanage
over to Sunrise Children’s Villages. Ms. Raem was not
going to be retained as the fulltime “mom.”
When the military came to forcibly remove her, the
children surrounded her and begged the soldiers to not
take away their mother. At that point the orphanage was
split, with Sunrise in the front half of the building and Ms.
Raem and her 46 children (ages 6 to 22) the back. Ms.
Raem formed an NGO called Happy Family.
A man from Japan set up a “foster parent” program with
monthly donors. Bob Lee started a “career sponsor”
program to help the high school graduates leave the
orphanage and have a way to support themselves.
So far, five of the high school graduates are in university
studying Agriculture, Nursing, Hotel Management, and
we have two medical students. Another child became a
tour guide and one got married and became a
homemaker.
Bob, who now lives with his wife in Malaysia, raises all the
funds for Happy Family “career sponsorship” by himself,
under the umbrella of Friendship with Cambodia.
Bob Lee and the Happy Family university students
Theavy (center in the striped sweater) was the first child
from Happy Family Orphanage to go to college. After her
12th grade exam she was ranked among the 250 top
academic students in the country. When they were tested
again, she placed 4th in the nation. This year she graduated
from medical school and is in residency at the Angkor
Hospital for Children in Siem Reap.
…while The Road of
Lost Innocence
includes some
elements that are
not true of Mam’s
life, they are
representative of
the brutal
experiences some
girls and women
have in Cambodia
and the world.
Trafficking is real.
When I’m angry at someone who has
behaved like Mam, I tend to start with
my negative assumptions—she’s
avaricious; she’s power-hungry; she’s
self-serving. From there, I could make a
quick jump to reducing my donations
and voluntarism. It’s natural that we
respond to our vulnerability with anger
and a sense of betrayal when a person
or cause we believe in misrepresents
something important to us. Stopping
here, however, may lead us to an over-
generalized mistrust that doesn’t help
us to support real people with real
needs. Stopping here distances us from
our best natures.
PO Box 5231
Eugene, OR 97405
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Help for Children Found Living on the Streets
Please tell a friend about sponsoring a student in Cambodia
Friendship with Cambodia Founded in 2003 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to provide
humanitarian aid to Cambodia and education about Cambodia.
