KHMER ANGKOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (KADO)

Business Overview

Chhey Village, Sangkat Teuk Vill, Siem Reap City, Siem Reap

In 2001 the Sangkheum Center for Children was established as a project with the main objective of preventing the increase of street children in Siem Reap.

The focus was set on prevention and on eliminating social and economic factors which might lead to life of abandonment and destitution. We started working with local partner organizations and village leaders to identify children most in need and evaluate how we could best support the child. A comprehensive program was created, not only to support the resident children, but also the children within the community through education, training, social and medical support.

Education

Public School

All children in our program are studying in or will be supported and reintegrated into the public school system. This will ensure that the children have the important opportunity to be educated within the Cambodian school system and learn how to read and write.

Supplementary Khmer Education

Many of the children in our program come from backgrounds where they have had limited or no access to education. To overcome this gap and to be able to follow the public school our educators run additional lessons in public school subjects for the children.

Recreational activities

Play and fun is a necessity in all children's life. We run a wide range of recreational activities including art, games and playful handicraft.

English language classes

Cambodia is a fast developing country and English is becoming an essential knowledge to have when applying for jobs or higher education. We run beginner and elementary English language classes to provide children the opportunity to combine their public school education with additional language skills.

Medical Care & Social Support

Thanks to the Angkor Hospital for Children (www.angkorhospital.org) we have the opportunity to provide medical care to all the children involved in our program. In addition we support them with means of transportation in cases where the caregivers cannot afford to travel or live to far away from the hospital.

Sangkheum Center for Children aspires to protect and support all children that are in contact with us through our programs. Our staff encourages and informs children about their rights as children and when problems surface or occur we are a there to support them through it. To ensure the well-being of children living further away we do home visits twice a month and encourage the children to join our activities in the centre, collecting them from their homes for any celebration or activity days arranged at the centre.

Sports

Physical activities play an important role in all children's healthy growth and in our program. Our premises contains plenty of open space for activities and big playground for the children. In addition sport teaches children important life skills such as teamwork, self-esteem and most important of all, it's great fun!

Our own little football club Sangkheum FC is inspiring children of all ages to take part in regular football training and games. Thanks to Spirit of Soccer (www.spiritofsoccer.net) we now have two FIFA D-license coaches. The workshop and the new experience have made a remarkable positive improvement on the football activities and we are very proud over both our staff member, taking the role as head coach, and our 16 year old kid's coach who is also a resident youth in Sangkheum Center for Children. We look forward to future cooperation with Spirit of Soccer to improve the football scene of Siem Reap.

In addition to our own activities we have actively taken part in arranging football tournaments for children and youths from other organizations and schools.

In 2006 Sangkheum FC, as the first team ever from Cambodia, participated in the worlds largest youth football tournament Norway Cup.

Training

Traditional Khmer Music & Dance

Music and dance has always been a strong tradition in both Khmer culture and at Sangkheum Center for Children. Children and youth are being offered the opportunity to learn traditional Khmer dance and how to play traditional music. The children are being taught this beautiful and fun art from professional trainers.

Our most skilled dancers perform in several hotels, which also in other ways support our children and share our vision of a brighter future for the children of Cambodia. The performing youths are being paid for each performance and the income also covers the costs of uniforms, make up and training.

Handicraft

Our handicraft grandmother visits us three times per week and teaches our children to make traditional handicrafts in rattan.

Dressmaking

For traditional Khmer dancing you need traditional Khmer practice outfits and for performance you need beautifully designed performance uniforms. Several of our youths have been trained in sewing in order to design and create these outfits.