A View of Center for Children’s Happiness as of February, 2007 By Elia Van Tuyl Background Information Cambodia is a poor country, currently ranking129 th out of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Report. (1) This compares to rankings of 74 th for Thailand, 109 th for Vietnam, 130 th for Myanmar, and 133 rd for Laos. (2) Cambodia ’s recent history has been particularly difficult. During the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, all educated people, including teachers, were successfully targeted for extermination on a mass scale. After 1979, political instability and violence persisted off and on into the late 1990’s. A largely ineffective and wasteful United Nations mission known as the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) brought UN troops into the country from 1991-1993, in an attempt to create conditions for transition to peaceful civilian government. The most lasting legacy of this UN mission was the introduction of HIV/AIDS into Cambodia. Since 1998, Cambodia has experienced relative political stability under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the head of the Cambodian People’s Party. However, Cambodia scores poorly on international measures of political freedoms (3) and government corruption. (4) A Short History of Center for Children’s Happiness The Center for Children’s Happiness is a remarkable orphanage located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. CCH currently cares for about 125 children, ranging in age from 5 to 17. Some are orphans and others have parents who are unable to care for them. All would be living lives mired in poverty except for the intervention of CCH. CCH was founded in 2002 by Mr. Mech Sokha (in Cambodia, family names come first, and given names come second). Sokha is in his mid-forties, and lived through the Khmer Rouge period as a teenager. His entire family, mother, father, and siblings, were killed by the Khmer Rouge during that period. He himself barely survived, having to fend off starvation and bouts of malaria. In 1979, after the Khmer Rouge were deposed by invading Vietnamese troops, Sokha lived for some time in a government orphanage. In succeeding years, Sokha worked at many jobs, learned to speak English, and continued his interrupted education. By 1995, his personal situation was financially secure enough to marry his wife, Pen Dany. Sokha and Dany have two sons. Noticing the very difficult plight of orphans working at the nearby (and infamous) Steung Meanchey waste disposal dump, Sokha conceived the dream of founding an orphanage to help these children escape their lives of poverty through good nutrition, moral training, a loving environment, good education, and encouragement to set goals for the future. While working for a Japanese non-governmental organization called Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Sokha became very close to Mrs. Osanai Mieko, President of the Japan Team for Young Human Power (JHP). Through JHP, Sokha was able to receive initial funding for the Center for Children’s Happiness orphanage, starting with fewer than 20 children in October, 2002. Mech Sokha, CCH Director CCH has attracted increasing financial support from donors in Europe and the United States. The initial facility, known as “CCH I”, grew to house about 35 boys and girls by mid-2006. In 2005, through the efforts of Sokha and the Cambodian Dump Children Committee in the United Kingdom, and second facility was opened in Phnom Penh a few kilometers distant from CCH I. This facility is known as “CCH/CDCC” or simply “CDCC” for short. CDCC has quickly grown since its inception, and as of February, 2007, housed just over 80 children. In the meantime, additional funding was secured through JHP to build a dormitory and vocational training facility within walking distance of CCH I. This new facility is called “CCH II”, and was completed in August, 2006. It now houses just over 20 of the older boys formerly living at CCH I. CCH I and II together now provide a home for about 45 children. CCH I & II and CDCC on the Map
CCH I with new Construction Under Way, January 2007
Interior of CCH I, 2005
CCH II, February 2007
Views of CCH/CDCC, July 2006
Typical Dormitory Room
Where Do the Children Come From? Over the years since its founding, most of the children CCH has accepted have been from the nearby Steung Meanchey municipal garbage dump. This dump receives refuse from all of Phnom Penh and surrounding areas. At any one time, there are approximately 2000 people who depend for their livelihood on scavenging at the dump, and of this number, several hundred are children. This scavenging amounts to a huge recycling enterprise. Garbage pickers are in search of glass, aluminum, plastic, and all the other normal recyclable materials.
Working conditions are difficult for everyone. There is a constant smoky haze due to methane fires burning underground. People who work for sustained periods at Steung Meanchey dump often develop serious respiratory ailments. General conditions are unsanitary, and working hours tend to be long, for the simple reason that pay from middlemen for recyclable materials is low. An average adult income for 10 to 12 hours of labor is about $1.50. Conditions are especially hazardous for children. In addition to the general hazards just mentioned, the opportunity cost of not being enrolled in school is incalculable, drug gangs exist at the dump that are always looking to coerce new recruits through physical threats or drug addiction, and child trafficking is always a threat in poverty situations. In addition, the constant presence of heavy machinery such as dump trucks and tractors sometimes leads to serious and even fatal accidents involving children. Dump children are often determined and courageous, but at the same time, they are lonely, dirty, hungry, fearful, and desperate.
CCH Children The contrast between children at the dump and those at CCH never fails to impress visitors. Children at CCH have formed bonds of affection among themselves and with staff, and live lives quite consciously aimed toward hope and service to society. All CCH children are enrolled in Cambodian public schools, and receive supplementary education from staff, volunteers, and through courses taken at private schools outside the orphanage. Not all children at CCH are orphans. Some come from abusive family situations, or from parents who are not able, due to poverty, to adequately care for them. What all children at CCH share in common is the experience of poverty in their lives before CCH. This fact is sometimes difficult to remember as one sees these children in the present at CCH.
Ages of the Children CCH has roughly an equal number of boys and girls. Breakdown of ages of the children at the two facilities is as follows:
The CCH Mobile Library Among the secrets of success at CCH is the fact that all the children there are taught to think about their futures, and how they might come to serve Cambodian society. A poster found frequently in rooms at CCH reads as follows:
The spirit of service to Cambodian society is exemplified strongly by the CCH Mobile Library. In July, 2006, older children at CCH I & II began to visit CCH/CDCC on Sundays, reading to younger children there, and acting out stories as well. This was a big success.
CCH Mobile Library at CCH/CDCC
CCH Mobile Library at Steung Meanchey Dump In the succeeding months, generous donors purchased two tuk tuks (motorized rickshaws) for CCH. This gave rise to the idea of a Mobile Library that would travel to Steung Meanchey dump, as well as to poor schools and communities in the Cambodian countryside. Since December, 2006, the Mobile Library has been in full swing, taking an extensive program of educational activities to disadvantaged children. Activities include plays warning of the dangers of trafficking, drugs, and HIV/AIDS, question and answer sessions after the play, art and origami activities, a lending library of books, read aloud sessions, hygiene lessons, and free food for hungry children. As of February 2007, about 20 older children from CCH and CDCC participate in the Mobile Library. They serve as role models not only for the younger children at CCH and CDCC, but also for the children they contact through their performances and activities. The photos below are from a CCH Mobile Library visit to Steung Meanchey dump on January 14, 2007.
CCH Actor Playing the Role of Drug Dealer
The Audience Takes It In
Q & A after the Play
CCH Teenagers Hand Out Bread and Condensed Milk to Hungry Dump Kids
Time to Eat
Reading Time
Art Time
Traditional Cambodian Dance All children at CCH I & II and CCH/CDCC receive the opportunity to study traditional Cambodian dance. The many visitors to CCH are often treated to performances characterized by grace, beauty and pride.
The CCH Staff There are many orphanages in Cambodia. Most barely manage to survive. Center for Children’s Happiness stands as a notable exception to this general rule. The reasons for this are many, but at the top of the list must be the dedicated Cambodian staff members, who work long hours, at low pay, to create a safe and loving environment, and who very competently keep 125 children housed, fed, clothed, loved, instructed and guided, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Pen Dany Shopping for Clothes for 125 Children
Pho Phanny, Cook at CCH I & II
Van Thol, Director of CCH/CDCC
Prak Sokha and Ly An, Teachers at CCH
Present and Future Needs at Center for Children’s Happiness Although CCH is successful by Cambodian standards, its continued well being and growth depend on a great deal of support from international sources. The Cambodian government offers no aid, the national economy is far behind many other Asian nations, some prejudice exists within Cambodian society against orphans, and much of the supplemental education received by CCH children comes from volunteers who rotate through CCH and CDCC. Some CCH children have hopes to study abroad, but few paths are available to them to realize such dreams, and the Cambodian education system does not provide adequate preparation for success at foreign universities. Over the long term, the hope is that CCH graduates will successfully integrate into Cambodian society, and be able to provide some financial support for CCH. But this is many years down the road. There is also hope that CCH itself can establish some enterprises to generate income and jobs for graduating CCH young adults, but this effort is also only in an embryonic state. Over the past 4+ years, international donors have been generous not only in providing support for operating costs of the orphanage, but also for construction projects such as a pig and fish farm, expanded dormitory space, a building for CCH businesses, health and safety projects at CDCC, and much more. In the end, the future cannot be predicted, but the vibrant spirit of hope at CCH can be supported financially. Considering how far CCH has come in 4 short years, the future may indeed bring many pleasant surprises.
Notes (1) http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_KHM.html United Nations Human Development Report Country Rankings ( 2)http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/ United Nations Human Development Report Country Rankings (3) http://www.asiademocracy.org/content_view.php?section_id=11&content_id=586 Measure of Political Freedom (4) http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2006 Measure of Perception of Government Corruption
Copyright 2007 Elia Van tuyl |
