Child at CV Phnom Penh, Cambodia…

Child at CV Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia: A country in recovery following decades of civil war

Cambodia, a country with a long history of culture and tradition, is in a process of rebuilding and recovery following decades of devastating civil war and conflicts. SOS Children's Villages is continuing to expand its humanitarian work for children in need in Cambodia, where the organisation first established a presence in the late 1990s.

Cambodia was left in disarray after a succession of civil wars and the genocide of Pol Pot's communist Khmer Rouge forces in which, in total, some three million people died as a result of enforced hardship and starvation. In fact, a whole generation of Khmers were virtually wiped out during Pol Pot's terror regime.

Khmer Rouge forces captured the capital Phnom Penh in 1975 but were forced into the countryside in 1978, following a Vietnamese invasion that sparked off decades of civil war. In 1991, a constitution based on a parliamentary monarchy was established and, in 1993, United Nations sponsored elections restored some normality although the Khmer Rouge did not fully surrender until early 1999.

Today, an estimated 34% of Cambodians live on less than one US dollar per day. Children under the age of 18 make up more than half of Cambodia's 13 million inhabitants. Of these children, almost half are undernourished and one in eight dies before their fifth birthday, mostly due to preventable causes.*

Cambodia also has one of the highest AIDS rates in Asia.* It was estimated in 2000 that some 7,500 children under the age of 15 had died and 30,000 had been orphaned as a result of AIDS - the latter figure is expected to increase to 140,000 by 2005.** Malaria and Hepatitis B are also spreading rapidly and are a common cause of death.* Medical care and facilities are rather limited in Cambodia and are virtually non-existent in the country's interior.

Child prostitution and trafficking are also major problems in Cambodia. However, in recent years, efforts to increase law enforcement for child protection in Cambodia have resulted in the arrest and prosecution of over 750 sex tourists and paedophiles.*

Once political stability returned to Cambodia, SOS Children's Villages reached an agreement with the Cambodian government in the late 1990s, and launched its humanitarian work for children in need. Since then, two SOS Children's Villages were constructed in record time in Phnom Penh and in Angkor Siem Reap with a third currently being built in Battambang, a town with a population of 95,000 situated in western Cambodia near the border with Thailand.

SOS Children's Villages was able to rapidly expand its work in Cambodia primarily due to positive and constructive cooperation with the country's government authorities. Nim Thoth, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour and Vocational training for Youth, actively supported the organisation from the very beginning in Cambodia and, today, is also a member of the International Senate of SOS-Kinderdorf International.

The SOS Children's Village in Battambang, where construction work started in April 2004, will include 15 family houses for some 150 children. Three of these houses are reserved for SOS families with AIDS-affected children and will be an integral part of the SOS Children's Village - with the difference being that the SOS Mother will be assisted by a full-time aunt, in order to better meet the needs of AIDS-affected children. SOS Mothers for Battambang have already been selected and will commence their training in Phnom Penh in the near future.

The first SOS Children's Village to be completed in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, has now been operational for some three years, providing families and homes for more than 120 children. The premises also include a community kindergarten for 92 children. In their spare time, the children are learning karate, traditional Khmer dancing and are also taking English lessons.

The second SOS Children's Village, in Angkor Siem Reap, was completed in 2002 and is situated near Cambodia's ancient temple and palace of Angkor, which date back to the 9th and 15th centuries. The SOS facility at Angkor Siem Reap includes a kindergarten and a school, which was inaugurated in mid-September 2004 and offers offer primary education for the time being.

Of the children in the care of the two SOS Children's Villages in Cambodia, Ms Shubha Murthi, executive officer, Continental Office for Asia, said: "Many of the children, when they came to us, had never been to a school or had attended school only intermittently. At present, all of them are going to school and their results in the last two to three years have been more than satisfactory."

The majority of the children at the SOS Children's Villages in Cambodia have lost both of their parents, due to a wide range of reasons, such as poverty, sickness or as a result of land mines. A few of the children still have at least one parent but, of these, many have been left incapacitated due to landmines. In fact, the numbers of landmines within Cambodia are considered to be amongst the highest in the world***.

In Siem Reap, an SOS Vocational Training Centre has been in operation since September 2004, offering some 45 youths from neighbouring communities free-of-charge courses in electricity, mechanics, woodwork, plumbing and electronics. As the courses are offered to youths from impoverished families with little education, a practical approach is used for teaching. Accommodation at the compound and meals are provided to all students, in order to enable them to concentrate fully on their courses, and each student receives pocket money and a small clothing allowance. Ms Shubha Murthi said: "This is a small beginning to help the youths in the neighbourhood, who often have rather limited means to study. These youths can be trained with the aim of specifically helping them find a job". (ap)

Statistics: *UNICEF, **AIDSMAP, *** ICBL (International Campaign to Ban Landmines)