June 2009

This trip was to visit CCAM, a place of refuge for many children who have fallen on hard times. All are youngsters from difficult backgrounds – orphans,  street kids, children sold into slavery, kids who were members of gangs, poor children whose families could not feed and educate them, abused children, abandoned kids from broken homes, teenagers on their way into prostitution, etc.

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Power struggles, war and genocide have devastated the Kingdom of Cambodia in recent decades. After French colonization, a pro-western Prime Minister Lon Nol seized power and his opponents went into hiding and formed the Communist Khmer Rouge. Following the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in 1975, Pol Pot (their

leader) and his followers evacuated all cities and towns; for the next 5 years between 1.5 and 3 million people died from execution, enforced hardships or starvation. The legacy is a very poor country where 50% of its inhabitants are under the age of 18.

You can check out our last visit in 2006 here.