I heard about The New Cambodian Children's Life Association in Phnom Penh from two other travellers I met in Sihnoukville. They recommended it as they had also visited it a few days earlier and said it was really well run, the children were happy plus it was a privately funded orphanage which doesn't tend to get the same amount of exposure as the govt run organisations.
The NCCL provides poor and orphaned children with a safe place to live. They receive food, clothes, medicine and an education. The majority of funding comes from a non-profit Veiyo Tonie restaurant owned by Neth as his wife. I think they set it up 3 or 4 years ago.
I called up before to ask if it was OK to pop in, see the children etc. We arrived at the restaurant on the river front in Phnom Penh and we walked round the corner by the restaurant manager, Lay, to where the orphanage.
Around 20 or so children live at the orphanage which is essentially a large town house. It's cool and airy, the walls are bright and colourful with various paintings from the children and photos of trips to the country side, water parks etc. Basically it wasn't at all how I'd imagined it - it wasn't dark, gloomy, dirty and definitely didn't have a air of sadness as I'd originally thought.
After being shown around I then felt my hand being tugged and I looked down to see a little girl (Sarisha) of about 8 or 9 grabbing my hand and leading me to the picture board. In between her broken English and my pigeon Khmer she pointed as the pics of her and showed me around the orphanage and to her room which she shared with the other 6 girls at the orphanage.
The girls, ranging from 7-14, were really pleased to see Brooke and I and were only too happy to involve us in some of their games. I was pretty crap - try throwing a ball in the air and while it's in mid air picking up 5 pens from the floor - they round it hilarious and showed pride in demonstrating to me exactly how it should be done!
One of the girls had some nail varnish so I stuck to what I knew best and decided to share the love of painting nails. Definitely a bonding experience - I knew the hours and hours spent having mani's and pedi's would eventually pay off in a good way!
It seems it doesn't matter which nationality you speak too. At the end of the day children are children. So it was quite funny when Brett walked in to the girls room to see what all the noise was about. The girls found it hilarious when Brooke and I told him to get out and made 'er' noises as he was a boy - they loved it and all joined in esp when another boy came into the room with him! Some things are definitely universal!
It's funny how you can see immediately the pecking order. One leads, the other is a joker etc and naturally one has the mickey taken out of the them a bit more than the others.
One girl in particular was really quite and very shy. The others gently mocked her when we asked her name mainly I think because she was really shy. She sat in the corner with her face covered for the first 15 mins we were there. She didn't want to get involved in any of the games we played or chat - in fact she just pottered around us quietly as we spoke to the other girls. I later learnt that both her parents had passed away from an aids related disease and she'd lost her brother and sister to landmines. Back at the restaurant they have mini biogs on each child with some quotes from them. On her biog she said how much she liked living at the orphanage as she has regular meals and she's pleased as the others let her have her quiet time to herself. Pretty sobering.
Most the children there had either lost their parents to an Aids related disease or a landmine or perhaps worse (if you want to look at it that way) their parents just simply couldn't afford to look after them anymore. I'm struggling to work out which would have the most detrimental effect on a child. I mean obviously both situs are horrendous for anyone let alone a young child. To lose your parents is one thing but to have to leave them because they can't afford to feed or cloth you....that must be heart rendering too. Knowing they're out there but not being able to live with them. Luckily for me it's unimaginable. It's dreadful to think someone so young has to suffer to much. I imagine it totally robs them of any childhood as we would know it.
What I really liked about the orphanage is that it completely changed my opinion of them. I initially thought it would be a place of sadness, dark, gloomy. It was quite the reverse and most importantly the children seemed really happy and content.
All the proceeds from the restaurant go to funding the orphanage. All donations in the form of clothes, vegetables and rice are really welcome. Considering $25 will buy you a massive bag of high quality rice, which feeds the children for 2 weeks, it's incredible 12 quid (that's what I would usually pay for for 2 cocktails) can help so much.
The highlight of the children's week is that each Saturday evening they get to dress up and perform a traditional Khmer dance - I'm heading back to Phnom Penh to catch a flight back to Bangers before I fly to Kathmandu - I'm under strict instructions from the children to come along. To be honest I can't think of a better way to spend my Saturday evening!
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