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Cambodia
Mith Samlanh/Friends vocational training program (continued)
Barriers
Child level:
• An increasing number of youth are HIVpositive
(15% in Training Centre)
Family level:
• Families not allowing their children to get
training and education because they lose income
when a child stops working in the streets
• Families coming to “feed off” successfully
placed students, taking significant income away
and discouraging the young person
Local level:
• The municipality of Phnom Penh is dealing
with street children issues through forced
relocations. This makes work with children
difficult because they hide.
National level:
• HIV/AIDS and other crises bring many children
to the streets (140,000 AIDS-orphaned
children are expected by end 2004; as many as
30,000 are likely to become homeless), and an
increase in hard drugs (amphetamines and
heroin injections) is or will dramatically
challenge the work in streets and the centres.
• For successful placement it is important that
the employment market and job opportunities
keep growing.
How they are addressed
• Positive living approach
• Emotional support and medical support
• Exploring access to anti-retroviral drugs
• Including the family in the social work with the
child when possible
• Micro-credit initiatives
• Various support systems to family members
• Follow-up to troubleshoot
• Gaining media focus on the municipality’s
policy; a meeting with the municipality and
international bodies and donors; definition of
common policies/projects
• Research and media to alert local authorities,
GOs and NGOs to the current level of need,
and to implement strategies that can work
towards combating issues such as HIV/AIDS
among children and drug use
• Creating placements for young people whose
family situation limits their options
In responding to the problem of
exploitative labour, including the creation of
alternatives through micro-credit, it is clear
that approaches that build the capacity of
children build hope. They respond in ways
that recognise the resilience of children,
and could be summed up in the phrase the
Dom Bosco youth agency of the Catholic
Church takes as its motto: “It is better to
light a candle than curse the darkness”. Root
causes such as poverty will always need to
be addressed, but action that increases
livelihoods for children, youth and families
reduces the debilitating effect of poverty
and its contribution to child abuse and
neglect.
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