OUR WORK
SIEM REAP & CAMBODIA
Cambodia is a nation with a rich cultural history, though its current population has been hugely affected by recent wars, famine and the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. An estimated 2 million people (approximately a quarter of the population) were killed and the specific targeting of doctors, lawyers and teachers as well as foreign immigrants and a return to 11th Century agricultural models all but destroyed the Cambodian economy. Further political instability and civil war in the 1980s stalled recovery from the genocide until stability was restored in the form of a multi-party democracy underneath a constitutional monarchy in the early 1990s.
UNICEF has designated Cambodia as the third most land-mined country in the world resulting in over 60,000 deaths and countless thousands more injuries since 1970. Most of the victims are children herding animals or playing in the fields. Though health indicators are generally improving, in some regions of Cambodia 22.9% of infants die before age 5. As with many countries in the region, HIV rates are growing, with an estimated 75,000 adults (0.8%) of the population living with the virus in 2008.
HONOUR VILLAGE CAMBODIA provides a home, education and loving care to 50 children in need, together with children whose parents are too poor to provide for their basic needs. Our aim is to repatriate them to their families where possible, where they have them. We have not yet found an NGO, apart from the local SOS Children’s Village, now full, that will take babies and children under the age of five. We want to fill this gap with a nursery for 4 babies and young children. We employ both able-bodied and physically disabled people on our staff team. Every member of staff utilises his/her gifts and strengths and is committed to care for children who have been in extreme need.
HVC also offers free education to all the surrounding village children five days a week who join us to play and learn both Khmer and English.
