Apologies for the delayed update. First off, we'd love to hear from you if you are reading this blog. Send emails to stanandnicole(at)gmail.com or sberends(at)gmail.com. Tell us what you have enjoyed and what you'd like to hear more of. We're not getting much feedback, so let us know if anyone is reading.
We have been looking at two orphanages in Siem Reap ACODO and CDO. Both have real needs, but we have settled on CDO as it has the lower profile and, in our opinion, the much greater need.
ACODO orphanage gets quite a lot of attention because every evening at 6:30 the children put on a performance, playing local instruments and dancing some Khmer dances. The children seem to have a great lot of fun doing this. Because of this performance, the orphanage seems to get regular donations, though they too struggle for money. The day we were there a little girl had been bitten on the neck by a dog and a little boy had stepped on a nail. We met a little boy who was 12 years old, but only came up to our waists. He was so malnourished before he got to the orphanage it had stunted his growth.
The little boys loved the monkey dance and did a great job of it!
All the kids doing the final bow.
We enjoyed ACODA, but a few doors down there is another orphanage CDO which we only found by accident as we were walking when 20 kids came running up to us as we walked passed calling "hellooooooooo" or "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii". We stopped and went inside where we met the lady, "Mum", who runs the orphanage. Mum looks after 27 children, some are orphaned and some are from families in rural areas which too poor to look after their own children.
CDO building with "Mum" out front.
While there we met a young Australian couple who were helping out for two days. They had bought some "mattresses" and had helped build some school benches for the kids.
Here you can see the "mattresses". The children all sleep in the one room. You can also see the "library" on the right.
We called in after the Australian couple had finished. We spoke to Mum about the immediate needs of the orphanage. Their biggest need was a sign along the road. All their income comes from donations that tourists leave. Currently, the only way people know that an orphanage exists is when the children call out "hello" to people passing by. We left money for a good quality orphanage sign and some money for some clothes for the children.
We brought the children some toys we had brought with us from Australia. Some we had bought and some Waurn Ponds Safeway had donated. These were a tiny "etcha sketch" with lollies inside and some torches which projected images of smiley faces, soccer balls, cats, eyeballs, etc. The torches also had a lollipop inside.
Kids showing their toys. Thanks to Waurn Ponds Safeway for providing some of the toys.
Checking the toys out. (This area is the younger kids school room.)
Amah going cross eyed trying to see how the smiley face in the torch worked.
While we were at CDO, Nicole had an opportunity to use some of her nursing skills. We donated a lot of band aids and bandages, so Nicole put to work looking after the scrapes and burns of the kids. One of the kids, Ping, had burnt himself pretty badly and the wound just continues to ooze. We'll keep an eye on this as we continue to work at the orphanage.
Ping with his band aid on and his toys.
The students get taught irregularly by volunteer teachers, which happen to mostly be untrained tourists like ourselves who come past. Sometimes they get no one, other times, like now, they have Nicole and Stan as well as a Canadian couple to help. This of course makes it hard for any curriculum to be taught as the current teaching depends on if there are any teachers and what the teachers feel like teaching. We'll be coordinating our teaching with Tina and Andrew a Canadian couple who are here for a short time. We'll be teaching the older students under the orphanage in the classroom, while the younger students are taught on the floor where the "toy photos" (above) were taken.
Stan and Nicole will be teaching from here. Note the new desks which had just been built by an Australian couple.
Anyway, we'll leave things here. We appreciate your prayers, thoughts and suggestions as we start teaching on Monday. Also, if anyone wants to contribute to medicine or food, please let us know. If you like, you will get world wide recognition when your name is included in this blog as we know that people in 5 countries are reading this! :-)
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