Help Us Build a Loving Home for Orphans Whose Parents Have Died of HIV-AIDS
The Foster Care and A New Life Center is a loving home for orphans and foster children in Cambodia who have lost their parents to HIV-AIDS. During the Pol Pot period, many children were left parentless as nearly two million people perished from starvation, torture, and exhaustion under the cruel regime of the Khmer Rouge. Nowadays, there are fewer genuine orphans but countless poor children whose parents are unable to care for them and who inhabit most of the country’s orphanages. In addition, a growing number of children are becoming orphans as their parents die from HIV/AIDS. These children are among the most vulnerable and in addition to poverty, many have experienced child abuse by their former caretakers.
To give them a loving home and hopeful future, we established Foster Care and A New Life Center in 2007. Currently, there are over 40 children at our center, located on farmland on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. For the past decade the Hodge Schuyler Family Foundation has funded operations. The children here are physically healthy and not afflicted by HIV/AIDS. They attend a local state school and benefit from additional tutoring and enrichment classes after school at the center where they learn computer skills, English, music and dance, and participate in sports. We are very proud of the tremendous academic and personal growth we have seen in the children at our center and believe this is because they are well supported, and happy children learn and thrive.
When our children turn 18, they leave the center and live independently. Our program offers scholarships to universities and vocational training while providing support for independent living to make this transition successful. Some of our graduates have chosen careers in teaching English and IT at our rural schools, a prestigious and respected job in Cambodia.
Why We Care
Unfortunately, because there are many scam orphanages in Cambodia where the care and living conditions are substandard, the response of the government has been to crackdown and close those orphanages. As there are only 12 official social workers for the whole country, there is no working foster care system and those children end up on the streets. While our foster care center is a drop in the bucket to address this immense need, we strive to give the best support we can to our children, advocate for others to provide foster care, and to set an example. In addition to providing care for our children, we bring in experts in child psychology who deal with the issues our children face. Our workshops are open to the public and to other NGOs who wish to help the most vulnerable children in Cambodia.
