Group of widows unable to care for children

A group of widows pleaded for our help in caring for their children. They lived on the island of Koh Kor, in the Mekong River nearby and the history of this island is very interesting. During the Khmer Rouge time – 1975–1979, it was a forced labour camp and a killing field. Then during the Vietnamese Occupation from 1980 to 1992 all the city’s sex workers were rounded up and dumped on this island to separate them from the community. Then when the United Nations came the women were released and the land was taken over by the Ministry of Social Affairs and subsequently given to a group of 32 families including the widows asking for our help. The land on which they live just does not provide enough food for them to live on and they are reduced to collecting clams from the river bed each morning, sometimes only earning Riels 2000 a day – about US$0.50.

When we were satisfied that their conditions more than met our requirements, arrangements were made for 13 of these women’s children to join our family. As we were already bursting at the seams at Sunrise, in the spirit of democracy, we put the decision of whether or not we would accept them to our children for a vote, explaining to them that if they came, they would have to share their beds, some having to sleep two in a bed, the dining room conditions would be crowded and everything we have will have to be shared even more. When a show of hands was asked for, our children unanimously voted that we take the 13 extra children. Don’t you just love them?