making a difference
by the parents, who enjoyed watching their children play with some other kids this afternoon
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
91 children (two thirds of them boys) aged from 3-18 live together with five adults caring for them. A further ten volunteers help out too. None of the volunteers are tuktuk drivers. The one we met last week was, in the words of the vice director, who replied to our email, “it’s cheat”. He went on to say, “I don’t why they always saying that they are as the Lighthouse volunteer, they are only Tuk, Tuk service charge driving but they try to charge a lot commission from the rice.”
I think I know why they say they are from the orphanage – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the link between that and the rice commission. It’s even easier to understand when you go to the orphanage and see the tourists actually do turn up with their rice sacks. But if you were trying to feed these 91 mouths and tourists were your main source of income, what would you do? Might you not be tempted to turn a blind eye to the fact that twice as much rice could be bought at a true price?
Anyway, the vice director invited us to visit, no strings attached. So we hired our own tuktuk and went out to play. It was easy to put aside the cynicism when you looked into the eyes of the children, took them on your lap, sat there with their arms draped around your shoulders, chatting, laughing, racing, playing ball.
We also had the opportunity to talk with a couple of guys from abroad, who are currently working on getting projects done around the place – building a chicken coop, establishing a garden, trying to convince the girls to teach the boys to put rubbish in the bins, making sure the toilets get unblocked, supervising the construction of a new building and soon to be upgrading the website (including information about tuktuk scammers). They are part of a group, who raise money at home and then bring it here, distributing it to the right people, making sure it doesn’t disappear into a big black hole. Good system.
They have dreams of teaching the kids to be productive. The Cambodian way is to just sit around….doing nothing is not a problem…..so they might struggle. But then again, out of a group of nearly one hundred children, there are bound to be some, who might like to spend time carving or painting or embroidering or writing or raising livestock…..and so there can surely be nothing wrong with giving the opportunity.
These guys are also thinking about what to do for the older children – how will they make the transition out of the orphanage? It is inspiring to see ordinary folk tackling problems like this head on. They don’t let the size of the task daunt them. They make a difference – one project at a time, one life at a time. As 39-year-old Australian Kip, said, “You can’t change the whole world, but you can make a difference for someone.”
Tags: justice, postcard: Cambodia
rayres
Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.
Wow……what an opportunity! So glad you made it in the end:-)
I love the practical support being given – and personally taking the money and making sure that it goes to the right cause sounds like a good system. Personal encouragemet + practical work + money = good outcome!
So maybe the tuk-tuk driver was just an isolated abberation? Whatever, it turned out well in the end.
Blessings on the kids and ataff workers
🙂 Lovely pics. Miss you.
What an amazing opportunity! Another huge blessing for those you spent time with and your own children. Awesome. I love the photos of all of the children playing (these and others you have posted). Well done all.