CAMBODIA
SOME OF OUR GRADUATES. Most of them came to us when they were just 12 or 13 years of age. From left to right: Vuthea (33) Medical Doctor, Sararn (34) Civil and Project Engineer, Narin (33) Bank Loans Officer, Bunthoen (34) Dental Technician, Rith (41) Executive Directer for Empower Asia Cambodia and Project Coordinator for World Vision, Soky (34) Human Rights Worker.
Our work in Phnom Penh has been operating since the year 2000. Originally the ministry was pioneered by an Australian woman who then passed it on to the local Khmer Christian community to control. Our ministry there is a registered local non-government organisation with the Royal Cambodian government. We have two projects; Joshua Boys' House and Deborah Girls' House.
ADVERITSEMENT MOANA ROAD: Sponsors of Empower Asia Latin America
Joshua House
The “Joshua House” boys live in our own four storey detached townhouse that we purchased some years ago. We have 18 boys staying. Their age range is 13 to 20 years. A number of them will shortly be embarking on university education.
Meanwhile our girls' ministry home, known as Deborah House, has 20 girls living there. This includes two girls now studying at university.
The Cambodia work has a very good track record. Over the years we have seen many young people develop as good and positive Christian citizens. As a consequence of this, we are now seeing most of our volunteer board positions being filled by our graduates.
At present the ministry has produced: three doctors, a few engineers, two social workers, many business graduates, two lawyers, accountants and a number of others who are making significant social impact.
All of our kids attend a very good quality bi-lingual school. Yes, this is more expensive for us, but we are serious about developing educated Christian leaders.
Soky Sokea (aged 34 years) writes:
"As a child I was orphaned. So my brother and I grew up with our grandparents. They did not own land and had to work for others. Their daily wages were very low. This meant that we could never financially progress. I would cry in despair because I just felt like my life was hopeless. I knew that I would never have an opportunity to study because we had no money to support my studies. When I went to school I was often late arriving for school and returning home each night because I had to walk 2-3 hours each way. Many times I had no lunch."
"Eventually when I was selected to live at Joshua Boys’ House back in 2002 I simply could not believe how good life with Empower Asia was! Now I could daily go to school, I had food, school books, clothing and I learnt about God. Now I felt that I had a future! After high school I studied management at university.”
Soky's house where he lived prior to coming to Joshua House.
Now Soky is a social worker operating within a Christian NGO working with children on the front line by both rescuing and preventing them from involvement in Phnom Penh's massive sex industry. Soky continues, “If you could help more kids [like I once was] to come to our Empower Asia boys' and girls' homes then that would be wonderful.
Although the socio-economic situation in Cambodia has improved there is still a severe shortage of health clinics, education and basic infrastructure. The sex industry is huge and accompanied by an acute HIV rate. The life expectancy at birth was just 63 years in 2010. Cambodia has the highest infant and under-five mortality rates in Although the socio-economic situation in Cambodia has improved there is still a severe shortage of health clinics, education and basic infrastructure. The sex industry is huge and accompanied by an acute HIV rate. In 2010 the life expectancy at birth was just 63 years. Cambodia has the highest infant and under-five mortality rates in the region. Malnutrition affects many Cambodian children with 40% showing moderate or severe stunting (UNICEF 2008-12.)
Primary school enrolment rates are high, but so many children repeat grades that it takes on average more than 10 years to complete primary school. Less than half of all students make it that far. (UNICEF, June 2011)