Orphaned children in need.

The sacred site of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap covers just a single fraction of the over all archaeological site for which is famed for its enigmatic temples and huge stone faces, that even today is still wrapped up and hidden amongst copious amounts of twinning jungle. Inside this sacred space which Cambodians call The Soul of Cambodia lies many interesting and at times hidden communities that many blinkered tourists don't really notice nor wish to see. But the few rare good hearted travellers who dare to venture beyond the boundaries and wonders of these ancient temples will experiences a different kind of wonder altogether.



We made a slow head start around these very old ruins, trying to take in the sheer vastness of this site and to capture some g r e a t photos, but this became impossible, no thanks to the constant torrent of Korean, Japanese, Chinese oh and some of us Western tourists. Beyond the sea of Nikon flashers wearing the standard uniform of peak capped sun visors, nicely ironed shorts, calf length Burlington socks a solid polished golfing shoes. They seemed at best take photos of dusty air partials at worst everything else that moved, then suddenly they all dispersed one part of Angkor became as barren as a ship less ocean. I noticed infront a beautiful moss covered crumbling temple that lured me towards it.. I sat inside this 12th century stone building on my own and began to quietly meditate, this new skill from The Dhammakaya Middle Way is starting to come in very handy of late as I am finally learning to tune my mind to silence and sit still for more than ten minutes at a time.



It was the day of my birth and I quietly reflected on the most amazing year that had just passed. I realised it was exactly the time of my birth calculated at +7 hours GMT! This is considered an auspicious time to make a wish or concentrate on a dream. Since all my detoxing, cleansing and de cluttering of late I felt a little starved of something, I needed some project this side of the world to really get my teeth into, that could help others less fortunate as I felt very fortunate at that very moment.



The following day we continued to trek though all the ruins with San our trusty tuk tuk driver. We had seen some amazing ruins but had gotten very pissed off with all the mindless tourists that walked straight in front of carefully structured shots, then linger there, looking dazed and confused, until me or Stu or the Germans would shout for them to get out the ruddy way. It was only 9.30 when I became starving hungry and near ready to pass out. San drove like the clappers to a row of shacks where there were local people having food. I sat down and ordered. Two monks appeared from no where with the metal begging/offering bowls so I went up to them cupped both hands in prayer position to show respect, but as I towered above them I felt the need to bow before them which showed more respect, I gave them one dollar each. I noticed their bags were bulging full of money and I wondered what they did with all this cash? They then gave me a blessing that was a song id not heard before and suddenly the whole village was watching the big strange lady get her impromptu blessing. I heard San tell me to make a wish, so I made my second wish of the day, my birthday.



Breakfast took forever to arrive, head in arms I felt dizzy and hot but my attention was drawn to a young man who was training his baby daughter to walk, her arms were out stretched above her head, his back bent low, between them they got the walking thing down. I had an impulse to open my arms out to her to encourage her to walk towards me, she started to giggle and made small steps my way. Her dad was laughing he had a friendly face, with her last step dad let her go...she did one step on her own then I caught her, picked her up and gave her a big cuddle. Her name was Emily and dad was 28 year old Houn Sokheng, he explained he runs a small orphanage just up the road and its OK for me to pop in and say hello at any time. Within minutes my wish one and part of wish two were now in motion. We arranged to go and visit the very next day.



It was a lovely sunny valentines day morning as we turned up at Orphans and Disabled Arts Association-ODA to a warm welcoming committee from Houn and all his kids. (How to find this place is after main gates and check in there is a T-junction turn left takes you to Angkor Wat and turn right brings you to the orphanage, it is about 5 kms up the road, this place is located between Prasat Kravan, Bat Chum and Banteay Kdel. ) In 2003 he teamed up with his friend 41 year old Leng Touch who is now director of this charity. Both men had witnessed true atrocities when the Pol Pot regime had killed their parents around 1975, Houn was one years old and Leng a young boy when he saw his parents throats being cut. They were placed within governmental care until the ages of 17 then they were on their own. It was their combined dream to provide a loving supportive environment for other orphaned children. Most of the children these days find themselves orphaned for a variety of different reasons, the land mines thing is more or less an issue of the recent past, agencies such as CMAC.org have worked tirelessly to contain this problem, there are many rehabilitation centres in Cambodia for the victims of land mines and for many other illnesses and disabilities, but the biggest killer here is HIV/AIDS. I did hear that the schools and medical centres now have people who give lectures about HIV/AIDS to all the kids and the kids are now fully aware of its dangers and sadly some are its victims.



Leng and Houn both work normal jobs at the temples near by, they restore all the crumbling stone work to its former glory. Its also a great metaphor for what they are doing for the lives of these amazing children, restoring their crumbling spirits bringing them back to their former glory. The salary they earn and the salaries their wives earn in the food shacks gets ploughed back into the orphanage. They currently have 11 boys living with them. These boys have all lived together since 2003 from when they were small, they will never be asked to leave before time and Leng and Houn hope to keep all boys together until they are ready to leave home and make a life for themselves, they all get on well and consider each other family. This orphanage provides a good solid structure for orphaned, disabled, poor street boys, they don't have enough facilities nor funds to provide a mixed sex environment, they encourage the boys to learn valuable life and vocational skills. The main part of this orphanage is the English and Art classes. There are morning classes and afternoon classes available everyday, but they all go to state school. There objectives are to eliminate illiteracy, poverty and hunger for these boys, for them to be able to search for work and to be fully able to contribute to their developing national society.



The kids are all home at around 5 pm, this would be the best time if anyone visiting after the sunset tours wants to pop in to donate anything or just to say hello then spread the word. These kids only have Sunday off to play, watch some TV that is locked away for the whole week so not to distract the boys from their studies, it is locked in the one and only room that has electricity. They do their own washing, cooking, cleaning and to study some more if they wish. Houn told me that some tourists come to visit during the week in the day time when the kids are all at school and they actually give him a hard time some have said they didn't believe he has an orphanage as there are no kids there to see at this time....and walk away! But it clearly is an orphanage, so may I remind these kinds of people .... it is not a ruddy zoo, these are real people and real lives here not something to just tick off your temple itinerary.



If you wish to visit and donate do it with love in your hearts, you don't need some kind of proof that these kids exist. Both Leng and Houn work very hard to maintain some kind of normal consistency as this is fundamentally what kids around the globe need at these ages, they want them to grow up self sufficient, confident and strong in mind, they want them to speak good English and to have some kind of work skill to see them through, which from what I have seen their objective is working well, in fact better than some western examples of family life I could mention. So as the kids can go to school that is where they will be during school hours, not sat around looking poor and destitute. These men deserve medals not grief.



One great talent I spotted was a boy named Soyroth, he has had polio since he was 5 years old and he is so polite, kind and friendly, he earns the orphanage money by painting these amazing oil paintings of Angkor Wat at sunrise/sunset, people visiting this area will see these everywhere and they sell any where between $25 to $75 depending on the size. But these paintings cost a lot to buy in oils and canvas they also take a week to paint, so keep this in mind next time you haggle. Some of the boys have now turned 16 and Leng has found them work within the temples, again working within restoration this is a valuable job for the development of Cambodia's future. They now speak good English and are finally earning a salary of up to $70 a month. After a couple of pay cheques some of it is offered back into the very deep pot to help out the younger ones. These young men are guided in maintaining a household budget for themselves, then encouraged to rent a room near by or in Siem Reap town that usually costs around $10 a month.



Phearom is another fine young man who found them in 2003 when they had just opened. He was already 18 years old when his father a government solider had just been killed, his mother couldn't cope with him and his siblings so he came here asking for help. He quickly learnt English and already had a skill for painting and it wasn't long before he too found a job carving numbers in to stones at Taprom Temple, he donates a percentage of his salary (remember top dollar wages is no more than $70 a month so a percentage is very little here, but they still give it back to those less fortunate than themselves...karma coins!) he also decided to teach English to his fellow brothers, he also helps to find funding how ever and where ever he can.



The boys all sleep in one shack that is falling apart, their own paintings of temples and pagodas are wedged between the bamboo slacks. One bed is high up on stilts and is made of rows of bamboo, no mattress, no real blankets, no privacy or even a bedroom door. Under the bed the resident ducks and hens also rest. There isn't a bathroom, they use buckets and mother earth. Leng has taught the boys to make breeze blocks from cement where they recently built their first proper bricks and mortar building, this isn't finished yet, but the structure is up and the insides are nearly finished, one room is the official office where the TV is kept and the other will be a smaller boys bedroom. They have minimal clothing which they try and keep clean and they manage to have a school uniform, which Leng and Houn have had donated or passed down from others in the area.



The orphanage costs around $700 a month to keep running smoothly, as the donations are not regular this balance fluctuates monthly, it covers food, uniforms and clothing, materials for schools, study, art classes, it costs each child 50cents a day, six days a week to send them to school, that is $5.50 a week $22 a month to find for 11 boys, building supplies, diesel, medical bills, wood to burn to cook with (they are currently trying to gain sponsorship of a local gas company so they can then cook with gas) they were only recently donated a fresh water pump, they currently don't have any regular sponsors although various kind people from around the world drop in to donate cash, food or supplies every now and then which is a constant worry for them to know its coming every 'now and then'. The money the monks make goes into housing homeless children in the temples, they don't actively donate to these charities. Both men go in search daily for food for the boys to eat, as this is their main priority, everything else is considered a luxury.




So I need to reach out to those millions who are visiting Angkor Wat Temples as most people come for 3 days some get a 7 day pass, but each day you will drive past this place many times over...may I ask you drop in after 5 pm and donate anything from cash to foods, ask your driver to take you to the markets, buy them a sack of rice, 6 litres of bottled water cost $2, fresh vegetables, fruit, go wild order some pizzas and take it in, some Canadians took curry in once and they all cooked it together, any art equipment, blank pages, lined exercise books. It is rewarding and the heart that gives gathers.



We had a load of DVD's from Bangkok that had subtitled options, I felt the English and western images and strange stories were very important to these children's education and developing fantasy minds. We gave: Heroes (series one)! everything Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson had ever done together and apart, B-movie, Enchanted and my new most favourite film of all time the David Duchovny film 'House of D' with Robin Williams who plays a retard in the 70's, which his title changed as time changed from retard to handicapped in the 80's, then physically challenged in the 90's, it is about a boy who looses everything at 13 years old which I thought was very appropriate. But the craziest thing I could not believe was no one here had heard of Homor Simpson, they looked at The Simpson's movie like it was a strange new cult, which of course it is!



But they had nothing to play them on, so we bought them a DVD player. The markets here are so cheap, we also donated a games console with 178 games and bags of groceries including luxury sweets & biscuits (why not!), family sized shower gels, yummy soaps. The hotel we stayed at gives free toothbrushes and paste so I saved them all up and gave them this too. Leng and Houn and the kids were so thrilled to receive these items, the genuine looks of gratitude was as impressive as sunrise in Angkor Wat...and that is very impressive! But Leng is sticking to his rule of TV on Saturday nights and Sundays only, but now he said he has enough to show them for the rest of the year.



So if you come across this blog while staying at the more luxury of hotels & spas here in Siem Reap (Well done you!), but if you are paying more than $1000 a night please take heed of what is around you and what good that money could do for hundreds of others sat right outside, not sitting in some investors fat pocket. Hotels here are varied we are staying in a very good one with every mod con paying $8 a night.



I think this blog can prove to be a 'careful what you wish for' thing, as it really can come true.....

UPDATES

MARCH 2008: Id just like to add a big thank you to those who have spent the time visiting & donating what you can for the kids here. Please feel free to leave a comment about your time there and how they are all doing, id love to hear from you.

Later the next month while south of Cambodia I met a young man named Henry from England, he was about to go up to Siem Reap the following day. I asked him if he would take a load of our used DVDs and 12 love wishes for each of my boys back to ODA, he said he would. I handed over a huge bag of goddies that weighed a ton. He could have dumped them, sold them, kept them, but Henry has now been added to my list of honourable heroes as without any questions he delivered. I received and excited email from the kids, so id like to thank Henry if your out there, for being chivalrous and kind, karma coins all round, & good luck with your new job.



MAY 2008: I wish to send a huge warm thank you to Heidi and Briana who emailed to tell me that they had read this blog and went to visit my beautiful ODA boys, they were equally moved by them and went about fund raising, as a result they could pay for a brick and cement structure with doors and windows and a solid tin roof with a wood and cement frame. Which is currently in the process of being built. Also, they were able to provide the ODA school all the supplies needed for renovation. With all the left over scrap wood from their previous sleeping quarters, they were able to put a structure up over their kitchen and it will soon have leaf roofing! They were even able to get Grandma who sat quietly by the side lines new leaf roofing to sustain her little sales hut. This was music to my ears and it proves that these blogs are being taken seriously and great things are now manifesting as a result. Thanks guys!

November 2008 There was a split in this evolving camp. Leng is still the director of ODA, while Heng has set up his own mixed school called HOA which I am covering in a new blog. Both parties still need help.


If you are looking for a great tuk tuk man...look no further....



San Kim can be reached on (855) 12322050 or email SAN_KIM03@yahoo.com He speaks great English, he listens to what you need to do while there, he knows the best times of the day to do things (especially for great photos) he is on time and never complains about anything, genuine, honest with charging, knows great places to go and see, gosh......good man.

Director: Leng Touch
Phone: 011-366-179
Email: oda_association@yahoo.com (he can only catch up with email once a week)
Address: Siem Reap Office
Srah Srong South Village
Nokorthom Communce
Kingdom of Cambodia.

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