Sunrise's Response

Cambodia, like many other Third World countries, has more than its fair share of orphaned and abandoned children. Thirty years of war, foreign occupation, genocide and civil war has become the norm for this battered country.

The original group of 24 Sunrise children came from Site B Refugee Camp (also known as Prince Sihanouk's Camp) in Thailand, where their parents and families fled either the Khmer Rouge Regime between 1975–1979 or the Vietnamese occupation, which followed from 1979–1992.

In 1993 almost all Cambodian refugees in Thailand were repatriated back into Cambodia to take part in the UN-brokered elections. However, as these children were already orphaned in the refugee camp, they were abandoned again, just over the border in Cambodia in a very poor village called Ampil, in the province of Oddar Meancheay.

After the Khmer Rouge brutally killed a teenage boy from the group, they were moved to another temporary area in the city of Sisophon in the same province for a few months.

Military activity again forced them to move to the city of Battambang to even more Spartan living conditions, until finally land was found for them outside of Phnom Penh and Red Cross buses carried them to the capital in late 1994.

The coup of July 1997 once again threatened their home, as rebel government soldiers tried to take over the land that had previously been military barracks.

In January 2001 we were again forced to move, as the owners of the land required it for another purpose. So, until September 2002, we were temporarily located in a rented house 12kms from the capital in a town called Ta Khmao. At the previous land we were not paying rent, so it was even more vital for us to find more sponsors, both private and corporate, to assist us in building a new centre on land presented to Sunrise by the Cambodian Government in 1999. In September 2002 we were able to move to the new land and our lives were much improved.

When children are brought to us, before we accept them, we send our staff to the villages to assess the situation on the ground to ensure that the need is real. If it is not too traumatic for the children, photos of the living conditions are taken to compare later with life at Sunrise. Once the situation is confirmed as bona fide and that the children are in need and vulnerable, we bring them to Sunrise, have them medically examined and vaccinated and registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Following are some of the things that Sunrise provides for the children under our care:
• Love
• Food
• Shelter
• Inoculation against Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Tuberculosis, Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and B
• Clothing (includes provision annually of 3 school uniforms per child)
• Medical and Dental Care
• Education at Government School
• English Language Lessons
• Traditional Cambodian music and dance lessons
• Sewing Lessons
• Computer Lessons
• Classical Piano Lessons
• Art Lessons
• Field Trips to the beach and river boat trips
• Personal Counselling when required
• English Language Library and Craft Centre
• Physical Exercise Program, Health & Hygiene Instruction, Family Planning and HIV Aids/STD Awareness
• Agricultural Training
• Life Skills Workshops
• Outreach Program for Students over 18 to enable them to complete the Government School syllabus or attend vocational training courses
• University Scholarships at the Royal University of Phnom Penh for those who graduate from Grade 12
• University Scholarships in Australia for those who pass our Psychology Testing Program
•Employment and Accommodation is secured for the children when they are ready to be independent
•Financial Assistance with Wedding Receptions when they marry

Our schools for English, Music, Dance, Computers and Sewing and Carpentry — delete are open free of charge to poor and disadvantaged children from nearby villages and this ensures that we are fully accepted by the community. Children come when they can, but helping their poor families on farms to feed themselves, takes priority over free classes, so often attendance from the villages is low. We also, however, have some regular monks from the local pagoda learning English and computers!