World Street Children News :: Cambodia Streetkid News

Street Children in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - The Global Child
The Global Child builds and maintains schools for street children in war-torn countries. This video introduces some of the children they work with in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Visit their website to find out more about their work and how you can participate: http://www.theglobalchild.org/

Just like the lizard

Thanks to the Green Gecko Home, Sanyam has a future.

THE Green Gecko project was begun by Tania Palmer and Rem Poum to help the street kids of Siem Reap.  

Why green? Well, the colour has much meaning in Asia, says Palmer’s website for the home, greengeckoproject.org. It symbolises eternity, family, harmony, health and prosperity; it signifies life, growth, renewal and freshness and has a strong emotional correspondence with safety and healing. 

It also suggests stability and endurance – something desperately lacking in these children’s lives. 

And why gecko? Well, they are the only lizards that can make loud vocalisations – just like these kids! 

Also like the kids, geckos are nocturnal. And when a gecko is caught by its tail, it can release it to escape, which reflects the children’s innate ability to survive. Of course, geckos live in South-East Asia, just these kids do. Lastly, baby geckos don’t receive any parental care – something many of these children can identify with! 

‘I’m happy!’

Volunteers at the street children’s Green Gecko Home in Siem Reap called her “2 Grammes” when they found little Sanyam in a trash can. 

That’s how big she looked!” said Marie Claude Fabre fondly. “Sanyam’s mother, a prostitute, threw her out one night. She was so skinny and scared and ate like a bird at first. 

“Now, she loves photography and dancing and is always trying to do better than the others. Oh, and I’m happy to say that Sanyam’s new nickname is ‘4 Grammes’!”  

The little child smiled happily for the camera as she toyed with a wreath of white frangipanis set on her head.  

Above: Reth, now. Top: The selfportrait she made when she arrived at the home a year ago, frightened and exhausted.

“I’m happy! I have friends here,” she said.  

Happily, that is the case with most of the 40 children in the home supported by the Angkor Photography Festival and run by the charitable organisation, Green Gecko (greengeckoproject.org). 

The home takes in the “pests”, as tourists tend to call the street children who swarm around any new face on the streets to beg for money and food. In one of the poorest countries in the world, these pests are actually trying to survive; in some cases, they are even helping their families survive. Some children as young as five become the family’s primary breadwinner. 

Such sad stories are what persuaded Fabre to become a Green Gecko volunteer. The Frenchwoman had first gone to Siem Reap last year to help with the photography workshops. She stayed on as a volunteer at the centre to help children like 4 Grammes and Reth. 

Reth is another one of the home’s happy cases that began as a desparately sad one. At 17, she was caring for five younger siblings and an ill mother by selling books on the street. But she lost her job when a “friend” stole her consignment of books. There was a silver lining, though, as Reth ended up helping with the children’s photography workshops last year.  

”You can see the change in Reth’s face just by looking at the self-portraits she made,” said one of the festival organisers, Christophe Loviny, beaming with pride. (The Angkor Photography Festival’s organisers had invited 35 children to join a photography workshop that began with making self-portraits.) 

Reth now works as a full-time, paid staff member at the home. She also attends five hours of English language classes every week. Most importantly, she is protected from prostitution, a fate that befalls many female street children eventually.

Festival with a heart for change

The little town of Siem Reap in Cambodia was abuzz recently with photographers from around the world who were there for the Angkor Photography Festival. CHIN MUI YOON attended with camera in hand and discovered the power for change that lies behind the lens. 

THEIR faces were full of fear and misery. They were like scared little animals. They’ve been treated like s**t because they beg, and they felt like s**t. They had no self respect.”  

Strong words from French photographer Christophe Loviny, about the street children of Cambodia. Just another white man who doesn’t know Asia mouthing off? 

The smile says it all … Boram’s happy face was captured on film by a friend. Boram and his pals are Cambodian street kids who took part in a lifechanging workshop at the Angkor Photography Festival that gave them their self-respect back. – Photos courtesy of the Angkor Photography Festival

Not quite. If anyone can make such observations, then it is lensmen like Loviny and his peers whose photos first told the world about the meltdown of Cambodian society under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s.  

These men were first drawn to this part of the world by the Vietnam War in the 1960s. They stayed in the troubled region and fed the world’s media organisations with searing images of the slaughter of an entire generation of Cambodia’s teachers, artists and intellectuals during four years of Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979. 

They recorded the struggle of the street children’s parents who grew up in a country that had practically returned to medieval times. And they’ve been recording the lives of those children, too. 

But they grew tired of taking pictures of dead-end kids living in sad conditions. Stepping out of the detached, journalistic role they’ve had to play all these years, these photographers decided to do something for the children. 

And so, last year, some of them came up with the idea for a photography festival that raises funds for a street children’s centre in Siem Reap, the town nearest Cambodia’s world heritage site, the Angkor Wat complex of temples.  

The centre, run by charitable organisation Green Gecko, feeds, clothes and educates children who have been forced to live and beg on the streets because their parents are handicapped after coming into contact with landmines – Cambodia has the most landmines in the world – or are suffering from HIV/AIDS or drug addiction.  

Thanks to the US$15,000 (RM57,000) raised last year and at the Angkor Photography Festival this year – which ran from Nov 25 to Dec 1 – some 40 children will have hot meals, baths, clean clothing and tuition in mathematics and the Khmer and English languages. Food and health assistance will be extended to their families, too. 

But the festival wasn’t just about the money. The organisers invited 35 children to join photography and dance workshops, which were conducted by Indian choreographer Sangeeta Isvaran, English art therapist Isabelle Rodker and Filipina art therapist Paula Holmes.  

“Photography is therapy,” explained Loviny. “Photography can transform lives if it’s used the right way. 

Gary Knight wants to do more than just feature pretty pictures at the photography festival – he wants to change lives for the better.

“We hope to develop the children, not just as photographers documenting their world, but also as human beings, through photography. Self-expression through arts has helped the children gain confidence where previously there was none.” 

And then there were the dance workshops. Out of them came the Hip Hop for Hope dance troupe that has begun performing in hotels around the town. 

“We cannot give the children hope and happiness for a week (during the festival) and then leave them to sink back into their dead-end lives,” said Loviny.  

“Now they can present shows at the hotels and earn money. It gives them pride. We don’t want to assist them 100% because that creates a mentality of always asking for help, which is prevalent in Cambodia.  

“We wanted to use photography, dance and art to change the children’s self-perception. These children had no self-esteem when we found them.” 

They “felt like s**t”, as Loviny said, and it showed in the self-portraits each child was asked to create on the first day of the photography workshop. But just making those self-portraits was a step on the path towards better self-esteem.  

“When the children’s pictures are projected during the slide shows, or when they dance on stage, people acknowledge their work and clap.  

“They now know a different future is possible through their own efforts. We hope this is one way of changing this generation of Cambodia’s children,” Loviny said. 

 

Not a party for Mat Sallehs 

Outdoor slideshows were a strange sight in the touristy town of Siem Reap. There wasn’t even a cinema there. 

These are some of the photographs taken by the street kids of Siem Reap – where, it seems, Barbie reigns just as she does among kids around the world!

Despite the humidity and the dust stirred up by traffic, shutterbugs attending the festival had gathered at the Royal Gardens to enjoy projections of photographs captured from around the world.  

The images included haunting portraits of children affected by war and visual documentation of China’s growing pains, Cambodia’s landmine victims, rituals of monks, tsunami-ruined landscapes and Myanmar’s Rohinya people. 

Workshops, discussions and exhibits were the other events during the fest, which had attracted hundreds of photographers, amateurs as well as professionals representing top news service agencies like Magnum and AFP.  

The highlight was the works of 20 young Asian photographers and the 35 street children who had attended free workshops the week before.  

Each night, as we gathered, I could sense growing excitement over this project that could be culturally and socially significant for the region. 

Singapore is known for international performing arts and Ubud in Bali is gaining a reputation as the literary heart of Indonesia, thanks to the flourishing annual writers’ festival it hosts. Could Siem Reap be developed as a photographers’ hub?  

It will be if the guys from the VII photo agency have anything to say about it. Several members of this prestigious Paris-based agency started the ball rolling by holding small workshops and slideshow events in Siem Reap last year. More photographers wanted in, and so the Angkor Photography Festival was formalised.  

One of VII’s founding members, British photojournalist Gary Knight, said they wouldn’t want to hold the event anywhere else.  

“We’ve all had a very long relationship with Cambodia,” he explained at an interview at Carnets d’Asie, a bookshop cum café and gallery that was used as the festival headquarters.  

“We met while working and living in this part of the world when it was so different. 

“There was war and chaos. We shared an experience here together as young men through our visceral relationship with Cambodia’s culture, history and people. 

“It is nostalgic for us to hold a photography festival here, as photography had brought us to Asia all those years ago.”  

And in practical terms, he added, Siem Reap is affordable. If the event were to be held in Jakarta, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, “we would disappear!” 

“This is the smallest photography festival in the world, and we have very limited financial resources,” he said. 

“We want to create a cultural event and also have fun!”  

From landscapes to portraiture, from fashion and fine art to hardcore photojournalism, the festival highlighted all types of photography. Tribute was given to Japanese photographer Taizo Ichinose, who was killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1973, and whose pictures of war and landmine victims remain some of the most haunting and defining images of the horrors of conflict. 

Knight hastened to add that the festival is not a party for foreigners in Cambodia. 

“The festival began with workshops and its primary focus remains training, teaching and nurturing young talent,” he said.  

“I don’t want a festival for Asians or one for Caucasians. We mix the best work together. We hope to give exposure to more Asian photographers’ work, to encourage them to come here and meet photographers from other parts of the world, to engage in conversation and exchange ideas, to have a good time and go back home to motivate other young photographers.” 

Loviny added that they “no longer have issues with ego, self-esteem or competition for jobs. We want to share the knowledge and experience we’ve been fortunate to have. 

“That’s why we included a free workshop for 20 emerging regional photographers based on the professional model of VII’s workshops. We hope they can return to their countries to better document their societies and cultures.” 

The Star’s Azhar Mahfof was the sole Malaysian representative picked from among 300 applicants. He shares his experiences and images on page 6.  

 

More Asian involvement needed 

The festival’s humanitarian aspect sets it apart, said organising committee president Roland Eng. The festival’s tagline is “Photography for Change”. 

“The festival is non-profit. Our committee comprises volunteers, including well-known photojournalists who teach the workshops. We depend solely on sponsorship, goodwill and our own pockets,” said Eng, formerly Cambodia’s ambassador to the United States and Malaysia. 

Siem Reap’s most stylish hotels sponsored spaces for the gatherings and outdoor projections; they include FCC Angkor, Sofitel, La Residence d’Angkor, Victoria Angkor, Amansara, Hotel De La Paix and Angkor Village Resort.  

“We would like to move the programme into public spaces for more local interaction,” said Knight. “But we’d need the support of the Cambodian and local government to make it a more public event.” 

Loviny said they would welcome Asian countries sponsoring their own photographers so that the limited funds the organisers have to work with could be channelled into programmes for children. 

“Malaysia and the rest of Asia have progressed today while Cambodia is struggling to fit into a developing world that has left it behind,” he said. 

“There is a strong culture of voluntary work in France; after all, that is the country where organisations such as Doctors Without Borders and Reporters Without Borders were formed. But the volunteering culture in Asia is also growing as the region devlops tremendously. 

“So we would like to invite more Asian partners. And we hope to share the same spirit of sharing to make photography a catalyst of change.” 

Get involved! THE Angkor Photography Festival welcomes support in the form of photographers’ participation or voluntary work, as well as sponsors or donors for its day-care centre for street children. US$250 (RM875) pays for one child to attend the centre for a year and provides the child’s family with food. Or you can pledge a donation of US$50 or US$100 (RM175 or RM350) for one year.  For information, e-mail fionaturner@knight.sh or Christophe Loviny or Roland Eng at angkorphoto@gmail.com or visit angkorphotofestival.com.

robinasia: Compared with the other parts of Cambodia….

(blog entry)
"Compared with the other parts of Cambodia I have visited, Siem Reap is charmless and expensive. It is also brash and ugly, with one very loud street full of bars, aptly known as Bar St., that’s particularly unpleasant to walk down at night. There are also more malnourished street children here than anywhere else I’ve been, walking the streets and trying to flog their wares to tourists who usually ignore them.

CAMBODIAN OBSERVATIONS » TravelBlog Archive » ChinaTeacher

(Siem Reap) (blog entry)
"GREEN GECKO PROJECT
Mr. Ra has joined me twice to volunteer at the Green Gecko Project. We spend about an hour and a half there each day, playing with the street kids who come for the day. They have done a wonderful job creating a place where the children can feel safe, have a shower, play, eat and maybe even learn something!"

The children of Siem Reap

BY C. K. TOH

CAMBODIA’s Siem Reap seems to be “in” for the inveterate traveller these days, the main attraction being the temples of Angkor.  

For decades, it was unsafe to visit. Civil wars, genocides, and landmines kept the tourists at bay. In the year 2000, things stabilised enough in the country for tourism to flourish and now the hotel industry is booming. There are some 200 hotels and guesthouses in Cambodia presently. Many of these are luxury establishments, which very few of the locals can afford for even a night.  

Even more depressing is the sight of so many amputees due to the landmines during the wars and even now. Cambodians seem reserved, but once you start talking to them, they are a very friendly lot. Children don’t fare very well here. Inadequate medical care, poor hygiene and diseases have resulted in high mortality rates in children.  

It is really sad to see such young children begging. This young girl did not even smile when given some “goodies'’.

The infant mortality rate in 2003 was estimated to be 73.67 per 1,000 live births. This is in stark contrast to the situation in Malaysia at 7.9 per 1,000 live births. War and diseases like AIDS have also resulted in very high numbers of orphans. Poverty stricken families sometimes abandon or sell their children. Some children run away and live on the streets.  

These street children organise themselves into gangs. In 2003, there were about 1,800 street children in Phnom Penh alone, and many of them were on drugs. These urchins are everywhere, on the streets, at tourist sites hawking tacky stuff, engaged in petty crimes and beggary and waiting for handouts. Cambodia has also acquired a reputation for child sex. 

For most, school is a luxury. But there is hope for the future, with the government affirming commitment to compulsory education for all. Various charities and countries have also helped out by setting up schools and providing equipment. 

By and large, the children are an impish lot and I enjoyed talking to them. Some are very bright, and most are always polite and graceful. A few can converse fairly well in English and a smattering of other languages. I will always remember the sprightly young girl in Angkor Thom. I was chatting with her and I asked, “Do you go to school?”  

She replied, “See this blouse, see this skirt. My school uniform. I go to school in the morning and work here till night.”  

This girl looked relaxed and “professional’ when posing for photographs.

Oops, my error, I did not recognise the soiled clothes she was wearing. When I asked her about homework, I drew a blank. Her companion, a cheerful little girl, gave a most delightful curtsy when given sweets and a ball pen. 

The plight of these children have caught the attention of visitors to Cambodia. There are many charities, big and small, and individuals who provide help, from free medical care and schools to centres that help with skills training.  

Among the more notable ones are the children’s hospitals set up by Dr. Beat Richner, a Swiss pediatrician. There are three hospitals set up by him, two in Phnom Penh and one in Siem Reap, the Jayavarman VII Hospital. They treat about 42,000 inpatients and about half a million outpatients yearly. 

The Angkor Hospital for Children doubles as a training hospital for young Cambodian doctors and nurses. This hospital, which has treated 265,000 children over six years, is managed by the Friends Without Borders. This foundation was set up Kenro Izu, a Japanese photographer who was moved by the plight of the children. 

Krousar Thmey, (Khmer for New Family), an NGO funded by the European Union, provides help to rehabilitate street children, provides education for the underprivileged and handicapped and also to promote Khymer culture.  

They have about 1,000 children under their direct care and provide support for another 3,000. Colors of Cambodia has an art gallery in Siem Reap. Paintings by children are sold and all proceeds go towards furthering the art education of the underprivileged.  

There are many other charities, too many to mention here. Perhaps, you too will be inspired to help.

A CITY police force is struggling to contain a marauding band of terrifying, glue-sniffing "gangster monkeys".

Wild macaques have been stealing bags of glue from addicts, getting high and launching attacks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The crazed beasts have been biting people and stealing laundry.

Deputy governor of the city’s Daun Penh district Pich Socheata, said: "We have to remove the nasty creatures from the city. They grab glue bags from street kids, climb up into the trees and sniff it up."

Officials have so far "detained" 15 macaques.

Cambodian Light Children

"Cambodian Light Children’s Association Launch Website
Reaching out to the world by the Internet

January 20th, 2005

To start the New Year of 2005, and to celebrate their tenth year in existence, the Cambodian Light Children’s Association have today launched their first ever foray into cyberspace. With over one hundred poor street orphans to feed, clothe, and house, manager and founder Mr. Pat Noun is reaching out into the wider world to seek for help and donations.

Without any regular funding of assistance from any agency, governmental or not, the Orphanage has managed to provide through love and education, a better future for many otherwise abandoned kids. These are the poorest of the poor in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Rescued from begging, prostitution and illnesses, these young people have been provided for - often for the first time in their young lives.

From today, people from all over the world can now read about the Cambodian Light Children’s Association. Learn about their struggle to bring hope and dignity to blighted lives. And be able to contribute donations, knowing that ALL the money will go directly to the children - not siphoned off for ‘administration’ and ‘management’, or paying well-off middle class people their ‘expenses’ for ‘helping’."

AIDS Orphans Turn to Streets for Survival

Vannaphone Sitthirath*

PHNOM PENH, Jun 29 (IPS) - For six-year-old Samnang, life offers little hope. The Cambodian boy has been orphaned by the death of his parents due to AIDS, and has recently tested positive for HIV.

As many as 300,000 Cambodian children will become AIDS orphans in this country of 12 million this year, and face a whole lot of staggering problems with their childhood, according to the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Already, UNAIDS documents call Cambodia ‘’the Asian country with the highest adult HIV prevalence'’. More than 200,000 Cambodians, or more than four percent of the adult population, are living with HIV.

HIV prevalence remains high among groups such as pregnant women and sex workers, but statistics in recent years reflect a slight decline in these rates from 1996 to 2002.

The pandemic is one among a series of risk factors for children in the country, linked to issues like drug use, poverty and lack of options. These factors also affect people in border areas and drive migration to other places in Cambodia and to neighbouring countries.

Without support, the children face lives of begging, odd jobs, stealing, involvement in organised crime, drug addiction and sexual exploitation.

Samnang and his two sisters are being looked after by their grandmother, who makes a living as a fortune teller.

But Sebastian Marot, coordinator of the outreach centre Mith Samlanh (Friends), predicted that Samnang would soon turn to the streets of Phnom Penh for survival. "His grandmother is old and cannot go on providing for him and his sisters. He will be forced to the streets," said Marot.

"Samnang will be treated with trepidation because he’s sick and will be segregated. Other people in the community also treat him very badly. It really has an enormous impact," he added. "He will have no choice but to turn to the streets."

"HIV/AIDS is one of the main factors that push children into difficult circumstances like being street children, being beggars and so on," said Marot.

But even when AIDS orphans are treated well by relatives, they have much to deal with — the grief of losing parents and having to adapt to a new household - so that some run away, said Prang Chanthy of Impact Cambodia, an AIDS prevention programme.

"The population of homeless people, especially children continues to increase in the capital city," said Friends’ Marot. "Phnom Penh is the magnet for many Cambodian children but the city itself cannot cater to this huge influx of kids," he added. "Sixty-five percent of Phnom Penh’s population is under 18."

"Seeking to survive and have fun at the same time in the city, many of them go into drugs, which offers them momentary escape from their problems," Marot pointed out.

Heroin and methamphetamines are the drugs of choice for many, with the latter - now produced in Cambodia - growing in popularity among children.

According to a survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), some street children turn to drug trafficking to finance their addiction, making trips to and from Phnom Penh to the western town of Poipet on the Thai border, the point through where most drugs flow into Cambodia.

This rampant use of intravenous drugs also makes these Cambodian street children vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, since drug use is also risky behaviour in the pandemic.

Also among the substances abused by the children is glue that is used commercially in tire production in Thailand. Glue is cheap and easily available in Phnom Penh - and Laurence Gray of the non-government group World Vision says it has the immediate effect of making those who sniff it not feel hungry.

Gray said that from glue-sniffing, children usually end up using more sophisticated drugs such as amphetamines.

A number of organisations have set up programmes to help AIDS orphans. In Battambang, for instance, monks and nuns in a Buddhist monastery are trying to do what they can with little money but creative approaches.

"One monk can feed seven children," said Muny Vansaveth, himself a Buddhist monk.

When he started caring for abandoned children in 1992, he alone was begging for food to feed those seven children. Now, there are 27 monks at Nor temple and 66 boys and girls, 46 of whom are AIDS orphans.

"We try so hard," said Vansaveth. "For 10 years, it was very difficult — we had no funds. We wanted to protect them from being sold to prostitution."

With the help of several organisations and private donations from people living abroad, Wat Norea Peaceful Children’s Home has cared for 358 children through the years.

This is a safe haven for children, and 30 to 40 nuns help them in addition to the monks. Children can stay as long as they need.

But despite such efforts, the vulnerabilities that Cambodian children face, including those coping with HIV/AIDS, are fast changing society.

"Because of HIV/AIDS, the family structure in Cambodia is changing, as more orphans and grandparents head households," said Lisa Garbus of the AIDS Policy Research Centre in the University of California San Francisco.

"The percent of Cambodia’s orphans that could be attributed to AIDS rose from 1.4 percent in 1995 to 10.9 percent in 2001; this figure will rise to 20.7 percent by 2005 and 27.5 percent by 2010," she wrote in a recent report.

Added Garbus: "Given years of genocide, civil war, and famine, the ability of Cambodian families to cope with AIDS orphans is severely strained." (END/IPS/AP/HE/HD/PR/SI/JS/04)

(*Vannaphone Sitthirath of Lao National Television wrote this article under the IPS/Rockefeller Foundation media fellowship programme ‘Our Mekong: A Vision amid Globalisation’.)