It's been a busy week, one way or another, and mostly good, though we did have one piece of shocking news a few days ago: Vebol - our wonderful administrator and recent father, had been knocked off his moto and spent three days in hospital having a head injury, broken finger, damaged leg and multiple bruising attended to. He is at home now, and recovering well, but it was a nasty accident and not his fault. He (and we) are hoping the car drivers who forced him off the road will pay compensation as he now has very hefty hospital and x-ray fees to pay. It's a good reminder to us all of the dangers of driving/riding on Cambodian roads. Mostly the traffic is slow - almost walking pace - but there is none of the road discipline you might expect in the West. If you're moving forward, and particularly if you're moving forward and you're a large Lexus (driven by a wealthy 'businessman') or a truck then you just keep moving. Generally, in Siem Reap, most people obey the few traffic lights on intersections. Well, I say most: something like 70% perhaps, which makes it even more dangerous as you never know who is going to shoot across your path when you think you have right of way. We have learnt the 'correct' way to turn left (we sort-of drive on the right here - a French legacy): you gradually manoeuvre yourself over to the left hand side of the road, then you turn left into the oncoming traffic and then slide yourself effortlessly over to the right hand side of the road. It works because everyone does it! On bigger roads outside the city some traffic moves pretty fast, and overtaking can be very dangerous. It looks like an overtaking car coming towards Vebol forced him off the road without, luckily, hitting him. Anyway: our best wishes to Vebol for a speedy recovery.
Child Protection
Most people will be aware of some of the horror stories coming out of Cambodia about the ill-treatment of children, sometimes - but not always - by foreigners. (Topical news from Britain: Gary Glitter has just been arrested in connection with the Jimmy Savile sex abuse allegations. He was conveniently deported from Cambodia a few years ago, rather than prosecuted, and so was able to enjoy himself in Vietnam before eventually being jailed.) If you visit Pub Street of an evening, you will find many children on the streets selling books, postcards and bangles; some carry tiny babies and ask passing tourists for milk. If offered money they will decline and say it must be milk. Gullible tourists will then be taken to the nearest pharmacy where they are persuaded to buy the biggest tin of powdered milk, which they give to the girl with the baby - who promptly returns to the shop and sells it back to them. Many orphanages in the country are unregulated (and unnecessary - see this website: Orphanages are not the Solution) and clearly have no child protection policy in place. As an NGO, working over two schools with many potentially vulnerable children in them - and as a member of ConCERT Cambodia - we have a responsibility to have a rigorous and robust Child Protection Policy in place. Cambodian people can be very open and friendly - particularly to Western tourists - and one of the things we, like all institutions dealing with young people, whether in the East or West, need to control is access to our children. Some unregulated orphanages in town invite tourists in off the street to watch dance displays or even 'play with our children', and we need to make sure that all our staff are aware of the potential dangers of allowing strangers, however apparently well-intentioned, onto the school premises. There is more to child protection than this, of course - and we also wanted to deal with the vexed problem of cleanliness and protecting our children from germs. Recent statistics show that some 40% of child deaths from disease could be prevented by simple measures like hand-washing with soap after using the toilet or before eating. We have encouraged the permanent availability of soap near the wash basins in both schools, but we need a lot more training before all our children learn the right habits.
Our Child Protection training session earlier this week was run by Loll and Nari, from ConCERT Cambodia and was intended to address all aspects of child protection - from abuse to hygiene and to allow all staff (including ancillary staff) to get to know and own our published Child Protection Policy. Loll started the session with an ice-breaker so that the staff of both schools felt comfortable working with each other. It must have been a shock to most of them, however, to discover that this section of the training was to be in English. They soon overcame their inhibitions and joined in enthusiastically. It was a pleasant surprise to discover just how well many of the staff are coping with English and are happy to use it with us so the English teachers were not called on too much for help. There was considerable relief, however, when Nari took over and the rest of the session was conducted in Khmer.
Sewing at Kurata
Following the success of the 'sewing circle' at Spitler School, which brings a number of mothers (and their little children) into the school to work with Loll on producing materials that will be useful in the classroom, our first Care and Share session took place this Thursday morning with a number of the mothers from Kurata School. They had been busy on previous weeks planting rice, so it was a wonderful surprise to see so many turn up for this first session. With little common language they soon settled to producing some excellent finger and hand puppets and the principal was keen to join in too. This will, we hope, develop into a regular slot where mothers can help to develop ideas for making toys from materials easily found around them. We have observed very few children playing with anything in Cambodia apart from the donated play equipment in our schools and this might encourage more parents to spend time with their children in more fun and potentially educational activities. Many of our children spend many hours in work related activities to help their families eke a simple and very basic living from the land so a change from that might be welcome. Loll was pleasantly surprised to hear some of the little girls mimicking her and saying, "Hello" and "It's ribbon" and "Lots and lots" sounding just like regular English kids. A great way to start with learning a second language! Some of the afternoon children also joined in and the room was bursting at the seams, though we managed to shoo out the dogs and chickens! The session ended up with consuming much needed crackers and bananas and shared cans of drink. A very positive experience we hope even without the help of poor Vebol.
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