A stitch in time

As the United Kingdom gets ready to support the BBC Children in Need I thought it best to updated a previous same named blog of mine. Orphaned Children in Need This charity is very dear to my heart and some changes have occurred over the last few months that I need to shed some new light upon.



Since I last wrote about Orphans and Disabled Arts organisation back in February many good and positive things happened as a direct result, but unfortunately half way through the year the two original directors did not see eye to eye on certain issues. Mr. Houn Sokheng wanted to follow his visions and dreams with more gusto and so had to leave the original ODA organisation, he took with him his trusted friend and ex (now very grown up) orphan Mr. Pearom and a few of the older kids with him. It was touch and go to begin with as he felt he had to start all over again with no funding and a bunch of homeless parentless hungry kids and nothing to his name apart from his good will. Houn and his wife have second jobs and Mr. Pearom teaches art and English to the kids wherever he can, but no money was really coming in to support any of them. At the time this was heart breaking for me as I corresponded with him from China, Indonesia and Malaysia but could not help feel I was so far away to give a real hand, all I could do was email and Skype and give them a supportive reassuring voice for them to carry on fulfilling their dream for a better future for the Kids of Siem Reap, but between them things are starting to move forward, but they still have a long way to go.



Houns wish was to include girls into his expanding fold, as he felt that they too needed help and an equal opportunity at achieving an education and a better life. He wanted to help a broader range of locals that live in and around Siem Reaps world famous and wealthy Angkor Wat. Many of these families are struggling and living from day to day, with high unemployment, illness and early death, while millions of wealthy tourists walk by. But they cope. They pull together and between these very inner communities and help from us, they can survive.



Houn devised a new organisation called Help Orphans & Arts Association (HOA)



The children are between the ages of seven and sixteen years of age, both male and female have either lost their parents at a young age or have little extended family to look after them. They have little or no money to see a doctor when sick, the local hospital helps out as best they can. (Check out my Haemo-Globing blogKantha Bopha foundation children’s hospital in the town), which is where I last gave blood and who are still in need of more blood donations from us the travelling community. Over all the kids have no means to go to public schools as they can not afford uniform, books and the small daily fee of 50 cents is needed for 6 days a week. This leaves them with little hope of gaining even the smallest chance of an education, something a lot of kids world wide take for granted.



Houn teaches English and art, this combination gives good self esteem getting them by a little better than learning to beg on the streets. The kids can chat confidently to tourists and feel good about themsleves. He believes the kids need to be mentally active and learning as many things as they can from a young age, to comfortbaly mix with foreigners and to gain confidence in everything they do. He believes that this kind of up bringing gives them a better chance in life. Houn has a very spiritual approach when dealing with tough day-to-day matters, which he clearly passes these valuable lessons on to his kids. He feels that this combination of education and sense of close community will ward off any future physical or mental illness that may present it self at a later date, which could stem from all the poverty and sadness the kids have already experienced within their young lives.



He has just started to send some of the older kids to the bigger public schools nearby and is trying to encourage the schools and kids to work together more closely in gaining much desired computer lessons. Houn is doing his best to give them all a 21st Century starts in life. Of course they constantly need to find any early learning English books, dictionaries, textbooks, blank books and all kinds of stationary.



Houn and Mr. Pearom also need to feed these kids, they had struggled to get by with a bag of rice a day, small donations are now coming in and the kids are being fed fish caught fresh from the Tonal Sap river near by, this river is a well documented Cambodian life line. They are growing vegetables and some fruits fall from the trees when in season, he told me they preserve and dry their meats.



About ‘Help Orphans & Arts Association’ (H.O.A.)



H.O.A. is a Cambodian charity founded to help many orphans, poor street children and poor people who are unemployed and lack the vocational skills needed to support their lives. Their Organization aims to teach vocational skills and education to these children, which in turn will give them knowledge and the life skills necessary to be able to look after themselves and support their futures

Vision

Their goal is to enable orphans and poor street children to have the right to join social affairs the same every one else.

Mission

To work closely with poor

Its an art keeping it all together

orphans, street children and the local poor people, enabling them to have genuine knowledge and promote independent household economy.


Objective

To eliminate illiteracy, poverty and hunger and enable the Orphans and poor people to be able to look for a job and to contribute to Cambodia’s developing national society. Therefore H.O.A. has the following objectives:

To select orphans whose parent have died through AIDS and by other reasons, they also welcome the disabled providing vocational skills and enhancing their abilities to maintain their lives.

They provide the children with education, culture and general knowledge

Develop agriculture in remote and rural areas

Provides a stable home environment with nutritious food and support

Offer spiritual guidance to develop inner strength


Activity

H.O.A. provides the following activities for their children:

Sending them to public school

Teaching them English & Japanese language and computer skills.

Art skills including painting, stone, wood and leader carving

What I love about Houn is his pure energy and drive, when you stand with him you want to give him a standing ovation as his vision is crystal clear. When I am not with him I still feel this about him. He goes about his day thinking of survival outside the box, he weaves in and around the many daily obstacles he comes up against and does his best to get a job done to the highest standards, all of which is usually achieved with little means or support from others. He is a humanitarian at heart and is teaching others as he leads by sheer example as he too lost his parents to Pol Pots Khmer Rough regime in 1975, he witnessed his father being killed when he was boy.

I really wish this one blog could bring some new light and fresh funding to this fantastic cause.
Again I ask travellers who are visiting Siem Reap to please pop in and say hello. They would all love to see you.
Also leave a comment on here to tell me how things are…………

Please Help!

Director: Mr. Houn Sokheng
Email: sokheng_h@yahoo.com
Tel : (855) 12 410 758
Address:
Srah Srang Village
Nokor Thom Commune,
Siem Reap District
Siem Reap Province
Cambodia

DONATIONS:
ACCOUNT: 0100-20-354201-1-1 (ACLEDA Bank. plc)
Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

An updated blog entry by someone very special on this site who has the biggest heart...please read this entry a stitch in time-update by a visitor

THANK YOU

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