Home Of Hope Orphanage

Cambodia has suffered wars, genocide, poverty and political collapse during decades.

Horror, tortures and death marked the terrible period of the three years and eight months (1975-1979) in which the Khmer Rouge exercised their power, killing millions of people under the orders of Pol Pot.

After five years of civil war, which had been initiated by this group of communist revolutionaries, Pol Pot took the power of the country.

The imposed communist state intended the social reconstruction for its conversion to a communist agrarian community. They immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They also discarded Western medicine, with the result that while hundreds of thousands died from starvation and disease there were almost no drugs in the country. It was common that the people were forced to carry out days of 18 hours and if they were not capable of complying their function, they were murdered without any distinction neither of age nor gender.

Khmer Rouge victims

The family was respected as a form of natural resistance to the absolute power of the Party, for which they were separated and punished the paternal authority. Even the children were obliged to officiate and spy on informers of their own families which in many cases resulted in the execution of these family members.

Any form of property remained prohibited, the money was suppressed, the use of mass media was eliminated, the mail and the phone system was suspended, the death penalty was issued for the possession of books and the intellectuals or any person with a minimum education in the country were pursued to be executed. Many professors, technical masters, medical staff and specialists were executed along with their families, if there intellectual title was real or invented. This was one measure in the overall suppression of every science and cultural aspect to the country that was not seen as ancient. This signified the renunciation to the modern medicine and gave way for the expansion of epidemics while a political repression flooded the pies of common graves.

Approximately three million people were torture victims and subsequently murdered cruelly during these years, around a third of the total population of the country.

To this period, years of political instability and of guerrilla warfare continued, until the Khmer Rouge surrendered in the year 1999.

At present the country is found tranquil and six of the former leaders of the state Khmer Rouge are in prison waiting to be heard for crimes against humanity by a court of the United Nations. Pol Pot and other members of this brutal regime died as a consequence of their advanced age before being able to appear in the courts, while many others enjoy liberty in neighbouring countries.

All these innumerable conflicts and massacres that the country has lived, have confined the majority of the Cambodians to live in a situation of extreme poverty. This has resulted in few sanitary and medical resources and is translated in to many deaths each year by illnesses. Just like the thousands of land mines that are still found buried in the country today, and the hundreds of continued deaths of civilians (approximately 700 per year) from accidental detonation, as well as leaving hundreds more mutilated without capacity, not even to work and provide money for their families.

Cambodia is the country with the biggest number of mutilated people, above all in adolescents and children.

Among all of the victims, undoubtedly the children are the most defenceless and affected. Thousands of orphans wander around the streets of the cities and Cambodian fields, seeking food between the trash and without the possibility to a lodging nor having access to a minimum education.

In October of 2007, part of the Rainfer team travelled to the country and we visit an orphanage that belongs to two dedicated men, Chamn Sokdaraveachear and Yith Panly.

Guillermo Bustelo with the orphan

children in the Center

The two, in spite of their reduced material and economic possibilities, collect children orphans offering them a small lodging, 10 km from Siem Reap.

A rented house of reduced dimensions, a school built with their own hands, an orchard, a library and some small pools, constitute the HOME OF HOPE Center.

Bedroom. In this two beds is Kitchen of the HOME OF HOPE Center

where all the children sleep

In this school is where Chamn and

Panly teach by their own several materias

There is approximately about ten children who reside at the centre, since for the time they do not have more money to collect others. According to Chamn, more than 200 orphans are found on the outskirts of the area without any attention.

It is in the Centre where these ten children sleep, eat, study and play. They are also in charge of feeding the fish and chickens to be able to sell them and obtain a little income for the maintenance of the Centre.

The purpose of these men is to take care of and to educate these children that reside in the Centre, help them to obtain a job and if they want in the future, that they could collaborate on their experiences helping other children with their same problems.

We could verify the new life that these children live thanks to the aid of Chamn and Panly.
The work that is carried out is highly admirable due to its effort and commitment which is reflected in the dedication of the children. Still in spite of the great difficulty and the hardness that faces this project, it is encouraging to see the hope of improving the life of children where in normal conditions they would not have future.

For all of this, Rainfer decided to collaborate economically with them and to try to bring to light this beautiful project so that the effort of these people can be supported by the major number of people possible.

If you desire to help the children of HOME OF HOPE, you can carry out directly a donation or if you prefer to send them material from the following listing (although the transportation at times is more expensive than the material and they can buy it there)

_MEDICINES_ _SCHOOL EQUIPMENT_ _FURNITURE_

For colds Books (English, Khemer, Thailand) Tables and chairs

For fever Notebooks Blackboards

For cough Ballpoint pens, pencils, rulers and rubers Wash, toilets and kitchen

For Malaria... Backpacks, uniforms and sports equipment Fans...

Our friends Chamn and Panly report periodically the advances of the centre and of the children and we will communicate it equally to the end of this section.