Charity actions

 The day started with a nice breakfast at Fred’s - a Frenchman who has been running his bistro in Takeo for years.

It's a nice place surrounded by tropical vegetation, where you can gently enter everyday life.

The next part of the day was not so easy.

We rode with Dr Rysio 20 km south of the city, where a homeless three-generation family lives in the Kampong Chrey village, for whose children the only chance to get out of this situation is education, which nobody in the family can afford!

Children, in addition to compulsory education in a state school, where they do not gain much knowledge or vocation, cannot afford to pay additional schooling, which is for them the opportunity to receive education that will allow them and their families to break away from poverty.

Rysio and several other people who have been working charity in the area, came across this family several months earlier and recognized the situation as requiring an intervention.

First, they took care of the health of the family, threatened by minor diseases, then food (powdered milk) for the smallest children and other basic food products for everyone.

The next step was finding a job for a 19-year-old mother (today an 8-month-old child) who turned out to be a talented, born teacher and spoke reasonable English.

They managed to find her a job in a private school "Home for Kids International Academy. Her monthly salary - 100 USD - is the only income of this multi-person family.

Despite the buzzing name, it is an ordinary village school, where pupils from 3 to 15 years of age learn basic subjects, especially English. The level of teaching is much higher here than in the state schools.

The next stage was to find sponsors, so that a few kids with outstanding skills, and above all the willingness to study, could learn by paying USD 100 per term of study.

It worked well. Three children have got the tuition fees granted for several years. This process is recorded and sponsors are informed about the educational results of these kids.

Today we went to the village intervene in the matter of food for two small children: the two-year-old girl adopted by the homeless family, and a teething eight-month-old boy - the son of a newly hired teacher who had not yet received her first salary.

I did not take pictures of a hut which the family uses for the night, in the respect and protection of their dignity. Because they are worth it. They keep smiling, are cheerful and humble in a way that allows them to go on living.

I bought two kilograms of powdered milk which must be enough for a month to feed those children. To show how expensive this is for the family: the price - 28 USD !!

I am sad to say that such single actions, although necessary, do not solve problems for long.

What else can you do?

After visiting the school, talking to the mother - teacher, to children who are happy going to school, and finally with the grandmother who deals with "home", when we tried to positively influence those people, we had to relieve the hidden emotions.

On the way back we stepped into a local pagoda, to turn off our minds for a moment and cut off ourselves from the outside world.

It worked!