Category: Children’s Home

I visited the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia again recently to see what new strategies could be applied to significantly improve food sufficiency for the children and staff at the Home. One of these focuses on rice production at two separate lowland parcels with an aggregate area of 0.8 hectare.

The past attempts in growing rice at the Home led to yields that were dismally low because of poor technology, low level of inputs, and inadequate crop-care activities. With an improved system of rice intensification, outputs can be expected to more than meet the daily staple need of all the residents at the Home for a year.

Hybrid rice is highly recommended because of its superior yield compared with that of inbred varieties. However, if it is not available in Cambodia, a local high-yield variety and preferably certified seeds should be used. Instead of the transplanting method of crop establishment, however, direct seeding should be practiced to save on labor requirements. This will also enable the adoption of an annual rice/rice/upland-crop pattern in the area—a pattern of growing an upland crop after two crops of rice, instead of letting the land lie fallow.

Another recommendation is the raising of Pangasius at one of the vacant fishponds. A riverine catfish found in the Mekong River, Pangasius is a fast-growing species that is excellent for fillet, soup, and broiling. It starts life as an omnivore, but after losing its teeth at 6 months it becomes mostly herbivorous. It can, therefore, thrive on kangkong (a semi-aquatic water plant also known as “water spinach”), sweet potato, and duckweed diets. Under ideal conditions, it can reach a length of 4 feet after 18 months. In Cambodia, the fingerlings can be sourced from fishponds in Phnom Penh.

Duck raising is one other option. A start-up involving 100 month-old ducks can supply the egg needs of Home, starting at 20 weeks of age (average of 285 eggs per bird per year). The excess eggs can be hatched into ducklings.

Other recommendations would be to expand the area planted with Moringa, a plant that can provide many nutrients; to plant sugar cane, because the juice is needed for fermenting animal feeds and brewing vermitea (a liquid fertilizer prepared from compost produced by earthworms); and the establishment of an orchard on the 0.75 hectare idle lot.

Apart from schoolwork, the children at the Home are already involved in agricultural and other livelihood projects, so although these options would widen the skills that they can acquire and increase food sufficiency, resource constraints would limit how the recommendations can be implemented. A step-by-step approach is the most realistic.

Earlier this month, Goducate Children’s Home, Cambodia, welcomed 5 new children into the “family”. These children, Nat, Lynn, Kanya, Mon and Nia, come from Battambang, a 12-hour drive away from the Home. They come from very poor homes and have received little education. They came to the Home in hope of a better education and a better life in the future.

The new children were taken for medical check-ups upon arriving at the home to make sure that they are healthy. They are looking forward to joining the rest of the children and to starting school very soon. The children at the Home were excited in having a new “brother” and several “sisters” and have welcomed them warmly. They are getting along very well and enjoy playing with each other. They new children have already even begun to help out with chores around the Home.

We are excited to see the new children grow and learn and are very glad that they are now part of the Goducate family.

Last year Timothy and Nathan, two boys from the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia, spent 8 months at the Goducate Training Centre in Iloilo, Philippines, training to be community development workers. They returned at the end of the year, and are now helping as staff.

Among other things, they were taught agriculture and how to be effective in reaching out to the poor communities. Timothy is now engaged in the agricultural projects around the Home, such as aquaponics (growing crop and fish together in a re-circulating system) and vermiculture (worm farming).

Nathan is being trained in skills such as welding and electrical work and his duties are mainly connected with the boys’ workshop in the Home, and both he and Timothy are currently working on constructing the foundation of a girls’ workshop.

Both the boys also go into the community every Thursday to teach children English through story-telling and simple songs. There are also plans for further literacy work in the community later this year.

Timothy and Nathan have grown in many ways through their training at the Goducate Training Center. The two boys are setting an example for the other children at the Home and giving them hope that they too have a future to look forward to.