Cambodia Back to School Project Update February 2008
Elena Pistorio and Ariane Roulet
Magides have travelled to the center of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant,
PSE, in Stung Mean Chey, Phnom Penh in February 2008. They visited both
the center and the nearby dump of Stung Mean Chey. At the center, they
met with the director of PSE, Mr. Pin Sarapich and the co-founder Marie-France
de Pallières. They also toured the school and classrooms of the
children that the Foundation supports.
At the site of the dump, they witnessed once again, the
deplorable conditions in which entire families work in the dump,
searching for rubbish- plastic, aluminum, glass - for resale. One family
working around the clock at the dump can earn up to four dollars a day,
but must pay for food, water, rental of land (3 USD per month) adjacent
to the dump, and tools for trash picking. If one person in the family
gets ill, they must get a loan to pay for medical care, and as banks will
not lend to them they turn to usurious lenders who will charge them 20%
interest. This starts a cycle of debt out of which they are unable to
come out. Also, children and families are often victims of gangster groups
who attack dump laborers and rob them of the little money they have. In
addition, accidents on the dump account for two deaths per months. Dump
laborers are run over by trucks or suffocated under trash unloaded by
a truck. The sight of children sleeping on the rubbish, playing in rags
in toxic waste and contaminated waters, and carrying bags bigger than
themselves to fill with plastic waste was very difficult to bear, and
stood as a desperate outcry for help.
PSE
represents hope for these families. Near the dump, PSE has set up a post
at the border of the dump site where all children can get washed, have
breakfast and lunch, clean drinking water, and receive medication; there
is also a nursery where mothers can drop off their kids and tutoring is
provided to older children who are not yet enrolled in school.
The
PSE Center is a few kilometers from the dump. At the Center are several
Professional Schools, a dormitory for girls that are at risk of domestic
abuse, and the “Centre de Rattrapage”, or School for Accelerated
learning where children will study two academic years in one up to 12th
grade, so that late starters can catch up and eventually pass their high
school diploma. After their high school diploma they can either enroll
in university or attend one of the 11 Professional Schools of PSE.
The cleanliness and orderliness of the center is a welcome contrast to
the dump site and the surroundings of a very poor suburb of Phnom Penh.
The Center is very well taken care of and the children play in the basketball
fields, courtyards, and volleyball fields during recreation. They
are smiling and enthusiastic, both in the classrooms and outside. It is
hard to believe that these children were former laborers at the dump and
that every evening they to homes that are shacks skirting the dump. Thanks
to PSE they are able to study and receive an education and escape the
inhumane laboring at the dump. At the center they flourish and there is
clearly a very warm and positive environment, despite the extremely difficult
backgrounds of the children. Children arrive at the center at 6.30 am
where they shower and have breakfast before going to school. Older students
who are now at university work at the Center in the day and attend university
classes in the evening.
Impressed
by the results of the children’s school attendance in the past year
and the scrupulous running of the center, both in terms of administrative
accountability and successful management of the schools, and conscious
of the need to help more children from the dump receive an education,
we have decided to increase the number of children that we support to
100 children. These children will receive a uniform, school supplies,
two meals a day, will be able to attend school and their families will
receive a portion of rice to compensate for the loss of income.
Translate
searching for rubbish- plastic, aluminum, glass - for resale. One family
working around the clock at the dump can earn up to four dollars a day,
but must pay for food, water, rental of land (3 USD per month) adjacent
to the dump, and tools for trash picking. If one person in the family
gets ill, they must get a loan to pay for medical care, and as banks will
not lend to them they turn to usurious lenders who will charge them 20%
interest. This starts a cycle of debt out of which they are unable to
come out. Also, children and families are often victims of gangster groups
who attack dump laborers and rob them of the little money they have. In
addition, accidents on the dump account for two deaths per months. Dump
laborers are run over by trucks or suffocated under trash unloaded by
a truck. The sight of children sleeping on the rubbish, playing in rags
in toxic waste and contaminated waters, and carrying bags bigger than
themselves to fill with plastic waste was very difficult to bear, and
stood as a desperate outcry for help.
PSE
represents hope for these families. Near the dump, PSE has set up a post
at the border of the dump site where all children can get washed, have
breakfast and lunch, clean drinking water, and receive medication; there
is also a nursery where mothers can drop off their kids and tutoring is
provided to older children who are not yet enrolled in school.
The
PSE Center is a few kilometers from the dump. At the Center are several
Professional Schools, a dormitory for girls that are at risk of domestic
abuse, and the “Centre de Rattrapage”, or School for Accelerated
learning where children will study two academic years in one up to 12th
grade, so that late starters can catch up and eventually pass their high
school diploma. After their high school diploma they can either enroll
in university or attend one of the 11 Professional Schools of PSE.
They
are smiling and enthusiastic, both in the classrooms and outside. It is
hard to believe that these children were former laborers at the dump and
that every evening they to homes that are shacks skirting the dump. Thanks
to PSE they are able to study and receive an education and escape the
inhumane laboring at the dump. At the center they flourish and there is
clearly a very warm and positive environment, despite the extremely difficult
backgrounds of the children. Children arrive at the center at 6.30 am
where they shower and have breakfast before going to school. Older students
who are now at university work at the Center in the day and attend university
classes in the evening.
Impressed
by the results of the children’s school attendance in the past year
and the scrupulous running of the center, both in terms of administrative
accountability and successful management of the schools, and conscious
of the need to help more children from the dump receive an education,
we have decided to increase the number of children that we support to
100 children. These children will receive a uniform, school supplies,
two meals a day, will be able to attend school and their families will
receive a portion of rice to compensate for the loss of income.
Cambodia Country Profile
