From landfill to school
‘All children have a dream: to become a teacher, a doctor, a mechanic… but not to live surrounded by rubbish!’
For Kun Ray, a social worker with the Children of the Mekong association who has been working in the region for over five years, this is obvious. Responsible for the Cintri waste collection programme on the outskirts of Battambang, in north-western Cambodia, this former beneficiary with a frank gaze maintains constant contact with the families living in the landfill. There are about thirty families living in this unsanitary place. ‘The conditions are deplorable,’ says Martin, a Bambou volunteer in charge of the programme. ‘Their houses are made of a few sheets of metal hastily assembled and tarpaulins for walls. Their garden is the waste disposal site!’ However, the ragpickers have no choice. Their meagre wages, barely fifty euros, do not allow them to pay for other accommodation. The whole family takes part in sorting the rubbish to separate plastic, glass and aluminium from household waste, which can be recycled and therefore resold.
Only half of children attending school
‘Of the 24 children at the landfill who are of school age, only 12 attend school,’ explains Kun Ray. The primary school is close to the landfill. But once they reach secondary school, the costs multiply: uniforms, textbooks, and extra lessons that have to be paid for… ‘Some are forced to drop out of school when they start secondary school because they can’t afford to pay for boarding school or buy a bicycle to get there,’ explains Martin. However, there is a solution to help these children: sponsorship. Kun Ray is all the more convinced of this because he himself is a former beneficiary of Children of the Mekong. As he organises distributions and social support for families, he doesn’t hesitate to share his own story: “At the waste collection centre, we also help 10 families with young children who are not yet in school. There is so much to do.
A Helpfing Hand
We would like to regularly fund hygiene kits and food products, as well as nappies and infant milk,‘ concludes Martin, after detailing the significant improvement in living standards since the sponsorship programme was set up. Above all, most children who attend school for half a day also benefit from a ’school of life” run by social workers on the landfill. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 can enjoy proper meals and learn life skills (hygiene, interpersonal skills, understanding emotions, etc.), self-confidence, creativity (art, reading books, etc.) and English. These are precious moments and a welcome boost for these children who dream big!
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