Author: Grace

Cambodians generally do not celebrate their birthdays. However, at the Cambodian Children’s Home we do celebrate the children’s birthdays. It is one of the ways by which we let the children know that they are special.

With nearly 40 children in the Home, we try to observe the birthdays in the most economical way, yet make the celebrations full of fun. We thus celebrate birthdays with a little party by the month, with different kinds of cakes each month.

Although the parties are for combined birthdays, we do something special on each child’s birthday. There are no fancy balloons, clowns, or mascots, and there may not even be cakes. We often burst out in song, perhaps with special food and a gift. We may surprise the birthday child by suddenly singing while in the learning center, or even while the birthday boy or girl is still sleeping. Or we may go through most of the day pretending to forget that it is somebody’s birthday before acknowledging it. But it is always something special to let the birthday child know that he or she is loved and remembered.

June last year saw the opening of a boy’s workshop at thet Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia. Since then the older boys have gone a long way in terms of the practical skills they have gained from the weekly training sessions. Under the careful supervision of their trainers, the big boys can now confidently do some carpentry, welding, electrical wiring, plumbing works, and basic car/vehicle repairs.

Among the projects the children have been actively helping with are the construction of the new Boys Dorm and Girls Workshop, both of which are expected to be ready before the end of the year. The Home’s leaders and staff are very proud to see how the children have improved in their practical skills. The skills learnt in the workshop have been extremely useful not only in the construction of new buildings but also in the daily maintenance of the Home’s facilities. In addition, many of the items in the Home, from tools such as rakes and hoes, to furniture such as lockers, beds, tables, and benches, have been made by the boys.

We hope that the training given at the Cambodian Children’s Home will open work opportunities for them. When resources permit, we will extend training to boys who are not residents at the Home.

With additions to the staff, the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia is now busy implementing new projects. One of the projects that the home wishes to jump start is organic farming. A fertilizer used by most successful organic farmers is vermicast, the manure produced by earthworms. Vermiculture is the art of growing worms, which in turn produce the vermicast..

Five months ago, with the help of Goducate’s consultant for agriculture, the home started vermiculture with 20 earthworms of the African night crawler species, obtained from the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines. The older boys at the Home are being trained in vermiculture, and the estimated population of African Night crawlers is 2000. In a year’s time, there should be enough worms to produce sufficient vermicast to satisfy the fertilizer needs of the children’s vegetable farm, which occupies about 120 sq m of the grounds at the Children’s Home. In another year’s time, we expect to have sufficient vermicast to sell to the public.

The plan also is to include the girls in the training in vermiculture.