Globalteer

Faces and Fables

Sam - Director of street kids centre.
Sam was previously the Globalteer Project Manager but then moved his skills to work closer with the kids as a project director.
After working as an Engineer in the UK for 5 years Sam’s position was made redundant. He received severance pay and decided to do what he had been planning for a long time – travel. After traveling extensively in South America, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand he arrived in Cambodia. His initial stay of 5 days turned into 2 weeks. After being asked to help out at the local pool by a friend when a local NGO took 40 street kids swimming, he began to volunteer. The enthusiasm and resilience of the kids got him hooked and weeks turned into months and Sam decided he wanted to stay on in Cambodia long term. The children now call Sam "Bong chan" (elder brother).


Tania and Rem - Founders of the day care centre for street kids.
Responding to an article about an orphanage in need, Tania found herself among the stifling heat and humidity with eyes, arms and heart wide open to the plight of the Cambodian children. A month later, she was back home, in body but not in spirit. By February 2005, Tania had packed up her life, home and office desk to return to Cambodia. No plan, no goal, no idea of what the future would bring. She described 'the calling' as being so strong that it defied all reasonable logic.
Her attentions were immediately drawn towards the street kids. Beggar children, who were often tiny themselves, were laden with babies on their hips in slings to attract more sympathy and... more money from rich foreign tourists. The children never held onto money for long. They certainly did not benefit from their hard work as there was always a desperate parent or older sibling lurking in the shadows ready to seize their earnings. More often than not, it was to subsidise their famalies' gambling, drinking or glue sniffing habits. Tania wanted to help. She wanted to give them something that could not be taken away from them.
The children had stolen Tania's heart and so had a lovely local man named Rem, who was soon to be Tania's husband and the other half of the team.


The late Venerable Rathana & Mr Togh - Director and teacher at the poverty children's school.
They want poor children to get a grasp of English so that they can survive in this city which is developing into a tourist destination. At the  school, there are over 300 students aged between 5 - 20 years, taking English lessons in four classrooms, basically huts made of bamboo and thatch. The parents cannot send the children to regular school because they cannot afford the daily fee of 300 Riels (six US cents) or the costs of transport, meals and books. The school, he explained, does not enroll those who can afford regular schooling. "We conduct interviews and check backgrounds to identify deserving cases, we even go to their homes to check.'' Rathana would like to expand the school and build a library and an orphanage to accommodate some of the estimated 60,000 orphans in Cambodia. Rathana argues that self-help does not mean self-funding because the resources simply do not exist at the community level. "At the moment we are dependent on volunteers. If there are no volunteers there's no school," he points out.

Educators and carers for orphaned children.
The orphanages provide a secure and loving home for orphaned, abused or neglected children. The Centre works with local partner organisations and village leaders to identify children aged between 4 and 17 who are most in need. The children live in ''family'' groups of five, in individual houses with a stable carer, while they attend school and receive agricultural and vocational training. An emphasis is put on teaching traditional Khmer dance, music and handicraft arts, which were repressed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The children, some of whom are HIV+, also receive regular health checks from the Angkor Children's hospital. Relationships with friends and relatives are nurtured by regular trips for the children to their home villages.

Cambodia schools.
Globalteer provide volunteer teachers for the free education programs for children in Cambodia. Volunteers work in various schools, providing English lessons in specifically built English schools. The Schools provide free education for children from the ages of 4-12 years. We also assist the more academically inclined children in attending the Government Secondary School to extend their education beyond the age of 12 years.

Mac and Trixie are both from London. They left England together to embark on a round the world trip. After travelling through a few countries in Asia, they made their way to Cambodia and that is were their trip ended! They both loved Cambodia and its wonderful people so much that they decided to stay in Siem Reap. In September 2005 they started the "Funky Munky Bar" in 2006 the bar was voted "best bar of the year in Siem Reap". The Funky Munky and it's patrons now support many local and provincial childrens charities through the Thursday night quiz.

The Kids
*names and pictures have been changed to protect the children’s privacy*

"My mother is a housewife and my father is a welder who earns about one dollar a day," said 15-year-old Sa Brak, one of the students. "That's why I cannot go to school -- it costs about 1,000 Riels (25 cents) a day if I go to school." Sa Brak rides a bicycle to school in the evening with two friends and says he wants to learn English to get a job in a hotel, where knowledge of English is essential, even for a cleaner's job. Most other students have similar reasons for wanting to learn English. Most are school dropouts and helping out their families, doing odd jobs such as collecting used bottles and selling them for recycling or even begging in the streets.
"I had stopped studying and was staying at home with my brothers and sisters, when I heard about this school," said Chanthorn, a charming 17 year old girl. "I want to learn English because maybe then I can find a good job in a hotel.''

Vuthy, Sophoan and Makara*.
Vuthy (11yrs), Sophoan (7yrs) and Makara (4yrs), are three brothers who have been living at the Centre for one year. After both their parents died of AIDS the brothers came into their Grandmother's care. However, fearful of the virus, the Grandmother abandoned them at the Angkor Children's Hospital. Later efforts by the Centre to involve the Grandmother proved fruitless as she wanted no further contact with the boys.
Despite their abandonment, the boys are now living happily together at the centre. While Vuthy is HIV+, he is receiving regular anti-viral drugs from the Angkor Children’s hospital. He enjoys learning English and traditional Khmer dancing. “At the centre, I will have a better future,” says Vuthy.

“Before my parents died, my brothers and I could not go to school,” he says. “Now we go to school, my parents’ spirits can watch us and be happy, and they will go on to paradise.”

Srey Mom, Sophal and Kuntie*
The plight of sisters, Srey Mom (14 years) Sophal (11 years) and Kuntie (2 years) was first brought to the Centre's attention by their mother. Dying of AIDS, she wrote to the Centre, expressing her concerns over the girls being left to live with their father, an abusive alcoholic who had previously tried to sell Srey Mom and Sophal at Poipet market. When their mother died a week later the girls came to live at the Centre, although their 8 year old brother, a deaf mute, stayed with their father. All three sisters were severely traumatised when they arrived at the  centre. Kuntie screamed when anyone other than Sophal tried to touch her, while Srey Mom remained extremely angry about her mother’s death. She resented the confines of the Centre after her previously un-restricted days working as a rubbish picker, and ran away to re-join the street children in Siem Reap. Luckily Centre's staff found Srey Mom at 2 o’clock the next morning, and she consented to return with them. The girls are all now happy living at the centre. Recently their father, now re-married and with another child, tried to regain custody of Srey Mom so she could do the housework for his new family. Srey Mom refused to go with him, and staff are in Court proceedings to ensure she can stay at the Centre with her sisters. The Centre is also working with another organisation to remove the 8 year old brother from his father, after the boy was found chained with a dog collar in a back room of his father’s house.