Care4Kids

A little bit about Cambodia

In 1969 the United States carpet-bombed suspected communist base camps in Cambodia, killing thousands of civilians and dragging the country unwillingly into the US-Vietnam conflict. American and South Vietnamese troops invaded the country in 1970 to eradicate Vietnamese communist forces but were unsuccessful. They did manage, however,to push Cambodia's leftist guerillas(the Khmer Rouge)further into the country's interior. Savage fighting soon engulfed the entire country,with Phnom Penh falling to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975.

Over the next four years the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot's leadership, systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians (targeting the educated in particular) in a brutal bid to turn Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Currency was abolished, postal services were halted, the population became a work force of slave labourers and the country was almost entirely cut off from the outside world. Responding to recurring armed incursions into their border provinces, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978,forcing the Khmer Rouge to flee to the relative sanctuary of the jungles along the Thai border. From there, they conducted a guerilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government throughout the late 1970s and 80s.

Pol Pot's death in April 1998 from an apparent heart attack was greeted with anger (that he was never brought to trial) and scepticism (he has been reported dead many times before). The UN has pulled out of trials of other surviving 'top level' Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes charges because the independence of the tribunals is doubtful.

Future stability is tied to improving the country's long-suffering economy, eradicating the entrenched culture of corruption, reducing the size of the military and answering the troubled question of royal succession.

A little bit about the Peaceful Childrens Home

The Khmer Foundation for Justice and Peace was created in 1993 to answer the needs of the Khmer refugees returning from the Thai border camps. The first Childrens home was opened by the organization in April 1994 housing just 25 children, today they look after 117 in the Phnom Penh home and a further 75 in the second home that opened in Battambang.

The children are either orphans, street kids or children rescued from the sex trade from neighbouring countries. These children are the lucky ones as they have a roof over their heads, are fed and educated. The homes would like to take more children in but there are no empty beds and they need funding for food, education and clothing.

I’ve visited the home in Phnom Penh several times and feel now the kids are an extended family, they have so little but are always so warm and friendly. They wash clothes themselves in a well as there is no running water and go off to school looking pristine in their school uniforms, shiny hair and the whitest of shirts.

Every morning and evening they sing the national anthem and raise the flag, every evening before dinner they chant their Buddhist blessings, its magical to be there and listen to! Meal times they say prayers and thanks for the daily rice and vegetable dishes, not alot of variation on these kids menus. Some of the money raised will go towards supplying an English teacher as they really need to learn the language for their future outside of the orphanage.

We also send donations to a home in Phnom Penh that is run by Sister Denise an amazing woman who helps the landmine children get an education. They desperately need money for wheelchairs and artificial limbs.

Sothea was a monk I took a portrait of a few years ago, he asked for help to got to University, he decided to come out of the monkhood and is now married and has a gorgeous son called Somatha.

So if you decide to donate it will go to a really good cause. Many thanks for taking the time in this busy western life we all lead.