A bridge of hope

// you’re reading...

« A professional beggar

Street Kids of Surin »

Poverty

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ July 2, 2006 ⋅

Email This Post ⋅

Print This Post ⋅ View comments

Out of the 12.5 million people living in Cambodia, over 10 million live in rural areas. They are subsistence farmers and fishermen eking a living off the land. Living out there in the remote areas, they have to struggle against numerous natural hazards that threaten their survival.

There are floods that sweep away the paddy plants and their bamboo huts. There are prolonged droughts that dry up everything. There are millions of small crabs, locusts and insects that destroy the crops before they can be harvested. There are poisonous snakes that bite and diseases that kill both the strong and the weak. On top of these, there are hidden man-made dangers out in the fields. Though the country is now enjoying some sort of peace, there are still 4 to 6 million land mines and unexploded bombs throughout the country.

Now there are several groups working to clear the mines but it is a slow and expensive process. Some farmers could not wait, so they try to clear the land themselves. A few were successful but many were not. In a period of 18 months, 22 people in one commune alone in Battambang province were injured or killed by land mines. Livestock and cows are killed when they wander into the mine fields. The loss of animals further reduces the productivity of the farmers.

When any kind of disaster strikes, the loan ‘’sharks’’ are always there to “help”. Those farmers who borrow from those sharks will eventually lose everything, including their loved ones. Many of the children would be sold to brothels in Phnom Penh or across the border to Thailand.

Then there are the corrupt officials and the demobilized (but not disarmed) soldiers. Both extort money and food from the defenseless poor and often use trickery to seize land from illiterate farmers.

When these helpless families have lost everything, they will often leave their village and head for Phnom Penh, hoping to find a better life. Many will end up as rubbish collectors at one of Phnom Penh city dumps.

Today, Setha, a shy eight-year old boy, looks around with the sharp practiced eyes of a “hunter’’. The “mountain of trash’’ is still burning from a recent fire. Suddenly his eyes lights up and a smile brighten his face as he spots a “treasure’’. Quickly he moves to pull it out of the ashes and put it in his plastic bag before another can claim it. His red plastic bag is already three quarters full—not bad for a day’s work. Soon he must seek out the “Recyclers’’ and sell the still hot pieces of metal for the price of a meal.

Setha is but one of the hundreds of people eking out a living by scavenging among the trash at the city dump and along the streets. They go through each heap of rubbish and each bag of trash carefully, sorting out rags, plastic and any reuseable items. Then they burn the trash to extract metal. Some use their bare hands, others have tongs and long metal hooks. All either wear a pair of slippers or go bare-footed in their “hunt’’. The slippers are no defense against infected hospital waste and other dangerous refuse. Loads of needles are dumped there from the AIDS Patients’ Hospital. Many rubbish collectors’ live right there at the edge of the dump in small makeshift cardboard and corrugated metal homes. n

After completing the WEC Candidate Course, I flew out in 1999 from France, with a one way ticket to Cambodia. For almost 6 years I have been working among the street children of Phnom Penh. During the last 2 years in particular dozens of local Christians and overseas workers have joined the twice weekly Street Outreach. We go out in teams of 3 to various areas of Phnom Penh. We share food, clothes and the Gospel to the many street children, with a special emphasis on the ones collecting rubbish. They are easy to spot: many of them are pulling a wooden cart where they stack all kinds of items they find in trash bags along the road.

We meet people in desperate need: boys and girls and babies sleeping on the pavements, maimed and disabled beggars, young boys addicted to glue sniffing, widows, orphans, homeless young mothers. There are children we never see again. Many times I wander where they have ended up. Have they been sold? Phnom Penh has now become one of the world’s capitals for human trafficking.

Meeting the children on the streets is not enough. We can’t just hand out food , clothes, a pair of slippers and a Gospel tract. They need to start a new life away from the dangers of the streets. We need to find a peaceful place when the children can come and find long term help. A safe haven where they can start a whole new life.

And this is why the vision of a Drop-in-Center for street children was born. A Day shelter. A Half way house that served as a bridge between the streets and a better future.

This summer, the ‘Bridge of Hope’ house will open. On the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 700m from ‘Smoky Mountain’, the big city dump, where children like Sitha work and live.

At the Bridge the children will find:

a place to rest , where they play with toys, games, craft and books
clean clothes and something to eat
basic medical care
awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, exploitation, and
someone they can talk to and pray with.

Ultimately we don’t want the children to stay at the Bridge for long periods. We want to be facilitators between the streets and Residential Care in an Orphanage, a Foster Home or even a Cambodian family who would take the children as their own.

If the child is sick, if needed we will take him to hospital.

If he has no schooling we will ensure he goes to school or for the older ones into Vocational Training.

The children will be given the possibility to join a Christian fellowship with a good children’s program.

The Bridge will also be a meeting place for prayer open to all Christians who have a heart for Cambodian children in crisis.

7 years ago as I was working as an assistant pastor in France, I got a phone call one morning. Therèse an elderly Christian lady started to share a vision she believed the Lord had given her for me. ‘I saw a big house, in a far distant land. The house was full with children dressed in little shorts. And there you were Tim, among them’’. She would often write to me reminding me that her mentally handicapped daughter and she were praying much for me and the work in Cambodia.

A few months ago, two friends and I were driving through Phnom Penh looking for a suitable house to rent for the ‘Bridge of Hope Project’. For many days now, we had been looking for a place. After driving for 2 hours that Saturday morning I took a left turn down a narrow dirt road. It would be our last try for today.

And then we saw it! A house with a sign ‘to rent’. This is exactly what we need. Big gate. Open space with some trees. 4 rooms, a kitchen and a garage. This nice house will become ‘The Bridge of Hope’ center. A few days after finding the house, I got an email from France giving me some sad news. Therèse, who had been fighting cancer for a few years had just passed away. Therèse was the one who back in 1997 had already ‘’seen’’ the house.

It seemed that the Lord would not take her home till that house was found.

One day in heaven I will meet Therèse. I will introduce her to those ‘little children with shorts on, from that big house in that far distant land’. Children who have cross the ‘Bridge’ into the Land of God.

by Timothée Paton, a WEC field worker in Cambodia, www.timpaton.com….