PHILOSOPHY
Imagine Cambodia Foundation was formed in 2008 to provide for the needs of impoverished children and young people in the Siem reap area of Cambodia. This is done through the Imagine Cambodia Children’s Centre which is located in Siem Reap. Through the centre and the support of the children and young people in our care we are providing an opportunity for a better future for 19 young Cambodians.
HISTORY AND AIMS
The Foundation was formed by Dr Jon Ryder, Peter Joyce and Theary Leng Ryder in June 2008 and a house was opened to children in July 2008. Initially we had 4 children and more were added over the next 2-3 years culminating in the 19 we have under our care now. As they get older the role of the foundation is shifting more to planning for their future with them.
In 2010 we self-funded the purchase of land and built the house where are now located.
Imagine’s key focus has always been on the kids themselves and for the centre to be more like a home to them. We are not an institution, although we do have rules like any household, we provide as close to a home as we can make it. We do not have a cut off point in age, unlike many others in Cambodia, our aim is to provide the young person with the life skills and education so that they can be independent. We encourage those that are now living elsewhere to return to the house when they wish and they do regularly continuing the strong bond they have with the staff and the other children and young people they have largely grown up with.
Since 2008 we have had the same staff and many of the same visitors to the centre providing a level of stability and a sense of belonging and safety for the children. We are also part of the local community and neighbourhood and many of the local youngsters can be seen regularly at the house. We provide for the needs of the children from basic nutrition, health, safety, love and care as well as a local khmer education, daily English classes and tutoring at the centre in maths and other subjects. We have always focused on a strong grounding in English and education but we are also aiming to provide a strong moral framework, a respect for their khmer and Buddhist culture and a knowledge that those who are looking after them care about them as individuals, something many of them have missed out on in their lives.
DESCRIPTION OF CURRENT STATE
We now have 14 of the 19 we care for living at the centre. 5 others have now left and have moved on to other post school training and work. One of the boys is a trained chef and works in a restaurant in Siem Reap. He was trained at the Haven Restaurant and Training school in Siem Reap and we continue to support him in his transition to the workforce and life away from Imagine. He is a regular visitor to the centre where he still has a brother staying with us. We have another young man who graduated from Haven last year working in an International Hotel in Siem Reap. We have one girl graduated from hospitality school working in Phnom Penh and two others studying business in Phnom Pehn.
We have multiple sets of siblings and cousins in the centre and that was always part of the criteria we had for the children. We wanted to keep relatives together if we could to at least provides some initial stability for them.
We now have 10 of those in the centre completing year 10 in 2017. This is really because of the timing of when they came to us as most of them had little or no schooling to that point of their lives. This means that the focus of Imagine is going to have to change to one of helping them transition their lives to what their adult future will look like. Like most sets of young people they are diverse in their skills and motivation and that will be a challenge for us.
We aim to help nurture string, educated, healthy young people who will benefit Cambodian society in the future. The more this happens the stronger Cambodia will become and the less need there will be for organisations such as ours.
ASSISTANCE AND VOLUNTEERS
We encourage all our supporters to visit the centre if they are in Cambodia but apart from that we do not utilise any volunteers. Any visitors to the centre are required to sign the Imagine Cambodia Foundation Child protection policy.
Our philosophy is that this is where the kids live and they are not performers, they are children and young people going to school and learning to be adults and live in Cambodian society. Our staff are occupied fulltime in care for them and maintaining a house and to introduce volunteers would be another job for them when they have a difficult job now.
Apart from their normal khmer school, they go to English classes have tutoring at the centre and have to do their study and homework. They lead very full lives and are occupied with all that entails.
CAMBODIA AND CARE FOR CHILDREN
There has been continuing publicity around the proliferation of Childrens centres and orphanages in Cambodia. There is no doubt that there is a wide variety of the level of care provided to children in these places and some are outright scams. We do not support any centre that takes children for financial gain, treats the children as performers or does not have the best interests of the children as their primary aim.
Imagine Cambodia foundation care for some children who have living parents and relatives. Where this is done it is with the knowledge and support of those families and it is done with the care of the children at the forefront of the decision. Basically it comes down to the inability of some families to care for their children, there is no way that they would be better off somewhere else and our centre is the only place they will get proper care, nutrition, safety, hygiene, education and a future.
As an example of how hard this area can be we have two boys we have had in our care since 2008. We believed them to be orphans and so did they, and 4 years ago we were surprised to learn that their mother was killed in a motor bike accident. They were surprised too as they had no idea she was still alive ( they had been in care well before they came to us). They had been abandoned and they had just no memory of having a mother, or at least none they spoke of. We had to persuade them to go to the funeral because they had no emotional attachment to her. We also learned to our surprise that they had a younger brother, one they were also not aware of.
We do care for truly orphaned children as well but as can be seen the background of these children is not always clear in Cambodia.
All the children in our care are registered with the local village as being under the legal responsibility of the Foundation and we take that responsibility very seriously.
ABOUT OUR WEBSITE
Our website is designed and maintained free of charge by Temerity Digital. A big thanks to Elliot and his team for providing this service and helping our organisation.