My Visit to Dang Kor District
A chance to meet the girls and their families
On my second last day in Cambodia, I jumped on the back of a moto and negotiated my way through the hot, busy streets of Phnom Penh. Weaving through corn vendors and Tuk Tuk’s, I eventually arrived at Cambodian Womens Crisis Center, where I met Raksmey Var, Projects and Partners Liaison Officer for Lotus Outreach, Mearedey Muong, Municipality Coordinator to CWCC and Mr. Sophal, GATE Phnom Penh Program Officer. We piled into a ute and headed out of the city. 10 km’s out, we were in the midst of rice paddies and wandering cows, heading towards the Pagoda in the Dang Kor district.
The children attending school in the pagoda craned their necks to see us through the classroom windows as we entered a spare classroom for a meeting with the Dang Kor volunteers. The volunteers were influential members of the Dang Kor society, including the town Chief, a principal and some teachers, who had visited the CWCC for training. Their role was to ensure the safety and continued education of girls and young women in their community, and their tasks included visiting the homes of children who had been absent from school for three days, meeting with parents of young women working at the local factories and initiating communications between the families of children at risk and LOA. The discussion that ensued was an interesting one, even though it was entirely in Khmer, with short snippets being translated for my sake.
As it Dang Kor is new to the GATE program, our discussion involved a series of questions about our work. The town Chief was concerned about the level of ongoing support, and he explained that a different NGO had offered support to some of their students, but had pulled out after less than a year. We explained that our aim is to ensure that the students we support complete their entire schooling, but I was curious as to why the other NGO had withdrawn support. It transpired that they had provided the students with the assistance they needed, such as uniforms, school supplies, bikes and food, but had not consulted the parents, who still believed their girls were of better use working. Our solution to this situation comforted the volunteers, as we enter into an agreement with the parents that the sponsored girl must attend school to receive the scholarship.
We also talked about the reasons why the girls were dropping out of school so early in Dang Kor. I asked if it was due to girls being required to look after their younger siblings. At first the chief denied this, stating that it is a farming community, so the men work while the women look after the children. The principal quickly objected however, and explained how she had travelled out to a few girls homes to ask them to come into school for some lessons, but was unsuccessful because the mothers were away working in the local garment factories. It became clear to me that a lot more needs t be done on a large scale to keep girls in school, for example establishing an early childhood centre, a possible future project for LOA.
After quickly meeting the three girls who are to receive LOA scholarships, we jumped back into the ute, this time with Mr Sophal on the back because the principal was joining us. As we drove, I noticed the houses becoming smaller and shabbier until we reached a house on the very outskirts of the village where one of our girls lived with her mother, aunt and many siblings and cousins. It was difficult to tell how many people were in her family because more children kept arriving to look at the barang, (white people). One of the young girls we met had been removed from school when her mother re‐married and moved to this village. They simply didn’t bother re‐enrolling her. The principal organized a meeting with her and her grandmother for the following Monday, so hopefully she will be given the opportunities she deserves.
Their house was one room. No bed, no accessories, just a room on stilts with a rough corrugated iron roof. The children had written the Cambodian alphabet on the wall as a way to remember it.
The last stop for the day was a family of eight, mum, dad and six kids from baby to 15years old. As we arrived, the kids ran to take the washing off the line and tidy up. While Raksmey discussed the details of the scholarship with the family, I wandered over to the smell of frying fish, and saw their dinner slow cooking in a burnt old wok. Five small fish were sitting in the bubbling oil; I couldn’t see any other food, no vegetables or even rice.
I feel so privileged to have met these girls and their families, and I hope my story will help you to know these girls as well.
Charlie Cristi
16th October 2009
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