Riverkids Project

Why We Adopt: Simply Her August 2006 (Singapore magazine)

The Family That Grew And Grew: Today August 2007 (Singapore daily)

October has come to a close and has been another busy month for Riverkids. Continuing to work closely with our communities of Phsatouch and Doemkhvet villages, our social workers spent time with our families there. Dealing with the usual problems, such as minor illnesses, absenteeism from school and small disputes, Riverkids’ social workers were able to find solutions and provide support so that our families there remain tended to.

Some more serious problems had arisen though. Violence had erupted in one family. A 10-year old girl left in the care of an older sister was being beaten up by her father. The mother is at work at a factory near Chaumchauv and is unable or unwilling to intervene. Riverkids has enrolled the abused girl in one of our centres and is caring for her there.
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27th of November, 11.50pm.

But the highlight of the day was yet to come. After lunch back at the House, I volunteered to help the music committee at Blum, having not taught a single lesson to the children there. First impressions suggested it would be a dreary affair, the long walk over sapping out of me whatever energy gained off feasting on pork trotters. A few minutes into lessons and my mood dramatically swung. The smiles and squeals of the children had gotten my adrenaline pumping. These were no ordinary children. Despite the existing language barrier between the children and us, they were able to pick up the lessons quickly through the help of translators, displaying a keen sense of rhythm each time they played their respective instruments. Especially endearing was the relentless display of friendship by the children as they lent a helping hand to those who were unable to perform sections of the music pieces.

The end of the music lessons did nothing to subvert our excitement as it simply marked the start of ball games. Some of the children were not familiar with games like soccer and basketball, but their enthusiasm was often sufficient to make up for the lack of playing ability. The kids also readily asked for piggyback tours of the school compound – which we were in no position to object to. Hand games also provided another outlet of interaction and excitement; despite the fact that my punishment for losing these games – a couple of slaps on the palm – was often multiplied twenty fold by the mimicry friends of the winner. Of course, the craziness so steadily infused into the atmosphere ensured that there were no hard feelings, and we had immense fun until the instant these kids were dismissed for home.

As the drudgery of the evening routine of dinner, discussions and witless jokes ensued, it dawned upon me that it was such fun times that would truly be etched in the memory for years to come; not the outings to heritage sites, the lessons, or even the night time bridge sessions with my roommates. Only the genuine interaction with the Cambodian children, to have great fun in each other’s company, would make the trip truly meaningful and memorable to me.

Written By: Carvin Choy RJC (ISLE 2008)

End of October 2008 report: After state school holiday finished, 169 of Riverkids’ children (including the old and new students in state school) were sent to schools again. The registration was over after happening for a month. Our children go to 8 different schools.

Meanwhile, the result of the old year study of our children was so good. Now the number of children going to state school and the number of children coming to Riverkids Foundation are increasing rapidly.

Even though, there are 15 children who have dropped out from state schools. The Education Department in Riverkids Foundation has already sent this report to its Social Department to follow up this case.

Moreover, there are 33 more children registered into Riverkids Foundation in this year, 2008 – 2009, (28 children come to Kindergarten Class and 5 Children come to Blum Project in Riverkids Foundation)

Finally, all of our children who are studying in Steven House and Blum Project can go to state school and the process of their studying is now going so well.

Total Children in School
169: Dropped out: 15. Old Project: 21. Blum and Steven House: 133

Total: New Children coming to Riverkids this year
33 (Kindergarten: 28. Blum: 5, they have already sent to state school this year)

It is sadly pretty common for the children in our program to drop out of school for a month or switch to another school or sometimes, just run away. This doesn’t remove them from our program, but pretty much pushes them even higher up our priority list. The social workers visit families and work to get them back on track.

I’m very happy to be able to post our 2008 Jan-Mar financials in full. I’m now working on the second quarter financials.

The files are available as PDFs or .xls Excel files:

• 2008 Q1 overview (PDF – Excel)
• January 2008 (PDF – Excel)
• February 2008 (PDF – Excel)
• March 2008 (PDF – Excel)

These are our internal accounts, and not accountant-prepared. Some expenses, like credit card reimbursements, have not yet been recorded, and some donations are made in advance for a year, but recorded as a single donation occurring that month.

We will again be submitting all our records to an external accountant and putting up the full ledger and report from them, but that will be about Feb 09 for the 2008 records.

If you have any questions about specific expenses, receipts, etc. please do comment below or email us at dale@riverkidsproject.org. We are always happy to answer questions.

September was a busy month for Riverkids, with our staff and volunteers tending to the needs of our children, meeting with parents, organizing training and coaching, looking for resources, looking after our infrastructure, introducing new volunteers to Riverkids, and visiting the many families that are part of the Riverkids network.

Of these families, there were a number who were leaving their children without care for all or part of the day because the parents are out working or looking after younger children. Three siblings in the riverside area were being left on their own while their father collected scrap and their mother tended to her baby. During the rainy season this area is prone to heavy flooding, and children left unattended could easily get into a nasty accident, so Riverkids has taken in these children.
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All our bank statements for the Singapore OCBC bank account, RIverkids Project, are online now as jpeg scans. They’re filed by date, e.g.: 2008-03-OCBC for March 2008 OCBC’s bank statement.

Some of them are a few pages long, so they are the same title with a -b, -c or -d suffix. When the last page was a bank advert rather than record, I skipped scanning it in.

We will be updating this directory with every new bank record, and we will add a link to the month’s bank statement scan from the 2008 monthly financial reports posted here.

The Cambodia ANZ bank account, Riverkids Foundation, will be posted less regularly because you have to actually go to the bank branch in Phnom Penh and request a statement, rather than have it sent routinely. That will similarly be updated and linked to from the monthly financial report. Our ANZ account only opened in late-2007, so there are fewer statements online.

Ellie Kerlein in March 2008

A newbie to Phnom Penh

Today was my first day in Cambodia. Dale and I arrived early in the morning, quickly claimed our luggage and headed out of the airport to meet Sok Lee. We exited the airport into the normal sea of people clutching their name signs. As we searched the crowd for Sok Lee, who of course I had never met and therefore was no help in the search, she popped her smiling face out from inside the crowd and guided us through the crowd to our awaiting tuk tuk. We packed the tuk tuk (an example above) full of our luggage and stuff we brought from Singapore for the Riverkids sites and somehow made space for ourselves as well. Then it was straight to Riverkids’ Alexandra site in one of Phnom Penh’s slums. I had heard of the bright smiles of the Cambodian people and it’s all true. All it took was a slight smile from me and in return I received many mouth-wide-open welcoming smiles. Read more