CAMBODIA Catholic Center For Handicapped Kids Supports Their Education, Teaches Values

Posted: 30th March 2006

Handicapped children in the Center

ុPHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- Srey Nuch is a 12-year-old girl with curly hair, small eyes and fair skin. She also has a stunted body and a hunched back.

Sitting in Light of Mercy Center in Phnom Penh, watching television with her young housemates and two women caretakers, she told UCA News, "My parents died when I was a child, and I don't remember their faces any more."

The sixth-grader is one of 19 children, aged 8 to 18, who live at the center started in 1997 by Sister Marie Adelf, a Sisters of Providence of Portieux nun. The center, now run by Jesuit Service Cambodia, cares for and supports the education of disabled children. Some have impaired hearing, some suffer from cerebral palsy or polio, and some have lost limbs to landmines. But they all come from poor families, from various parts of the country.

Srey Nuch said she was living with her grandparents and her younger sister in Kompong Thom province, about 165 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, until she came to live at the center in the capital's Boeung Tom Pun area.

She acknowledges that she struggles with her disability at times, but it does not keep her from being an outstanding student. "I place second, third or fourth in my class" every month, she says with a smile.

The center's children, most of whom are hearing-impaired, study at different schools. These include the Smile of a Child school, run by a French couple, and Lavalla School, run by Marist brothers from Australia.

Srey Neang, the 31-year-old center manager, told UCA News that the center pays the children's school fees and spends about US$35 every month per student. It admits only three or four new children a year.

According to the manager, some parents fear at first that the center might put their children to work or even sell them, as happens in Cambodia. "Our staff members have to carefully explain our program until the parents understand and agree to send their children," she said.

Kim Phalla, a teacher who helps out at the center, told UCA News it serves "children from 8 to 18 years and supports them in their studies from grades one to seven."

However, if they are able to go on for secondary or higher-level education and wish to do so, the center will help them or ask other organizations to support them, Phalla added. Those who do not continue academic studies the center helps learn a skill such as sewing, motorcycle or machinery repair, or massage, according to their talents and interests.

In addition, Phalla said, the center also teaches about morality and values, and encourages the children to be good Cambodian citizens.

Samnang, 47, a Buddhist Khmer woman from southern Vietnam, one of six staff members of the center, is like a mother to the children. She does the cooking, cleaning, washing and sewing, and also helps with schoolwork. "It is not easy for me to take care of them," she said. "But I love them and that's why I came to work here with all these wonderful children." Somnang has been working at the center since 1999.

The children feel the affection. The staff "always look after me and my friends as if we were their own children," 14-year-old Sokny told UCA News. "When we do something wrong, such as arguing with each other, they always give good advice to us and help us solve the problem." Sokny, who comes from the same province as Srey Nuch, has a withered hand. The sixth-grader studies at Lavalla School.

Light of Mercy also supports 20 children who live at Krousar Thmey (new family) School, a school for blind children. Meanwhile, it provides some money, food, school bags and uniforms for many children from the villages around Phnom Penh.

Disability Action Council, a group that advocates care for the disabled in Cambodia, estimates 50,000-60,000 handicapped children in Cambodia, according to a report it released. For now little assistance is available for these children outside of Phnom Penh.

Article Source: UCANEWS and C.S.C