Yesterday began with an early morning stroll. Me and a couple of other volunteers followed a frail 12-year-old girl as she winded her way through the Psar Touch slums picking through household and local business garbage for any items of potential resale value. This is a walk she makes every day to supplement her family’s income (she is one of nine children in her family). From my perspective, the most dangerous aspect of this 20-minute trek is not the risk of picking up an infectious disease by sorting through waste, nor child snatching; it is the hazard of walking in Phnom Penh’s chaotic street traffic. There are no sidewalks in this community, and the rush hour stream of motorcycles, cars and mototaxis (tuk tuks) takes little notice of pedestrians.
Tailing this little girl was the first leg of our “Advocacy Walk” offered by my sponsoring agency, Riverkids (Riverkidsproject.org). This 14-hour experience is intended to offer first hand insight into realities of the crushing poverty in Phnom Penh slums. After the walk, we shared breakfast with the little girl. Through an interpreter, I asked if she did well this morning. She said the best part was meeting us, but that she otherwise did not pick up much of value. She later said that she hoped for a chance to become a doctor. I have to hope that this is really a possibility for her and the other Psar Touch children.
For the remainder of the morning we visited several of the other Riverkids project sites and walked through the adjoining neighborhoods. Each site had its own distinctive history and origins. The area next to the river was perhaps the most memorable. Largely inhabited by undocumented Vietnamese residents, this area is primitively constructed with wooden planks and corrugated metal. Entire families live in hutches maybe 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep – usually with two stories (household items are moved to the second story during the wet season when the first level is under water). There are no doors; all homes are open from the front. There is electricity but no running water or plumbing. The river is used for waste disposal, and there is no garbage pickup for the area. Not surprisingly, the smell can be overpowering. I have to admit to being happy that we didn’t linger at this site.
Riverkids, by offering neighborhood-based supplemental education and vocational training, offers a glimmer of hope to area residents. Children are offered a clean and safe environment with which to sharpen their Khmer language skills, to receive health education, or simply to have supervised play with other neighborhood children. Parents receive training in sewing, handicrafts, cosmetology and other marketable skills.
We spent the afternoon and evening learning about the local sex industry. I’ll have more on this in my next post.
By the way, we were not allowed to take photographs during the Advocacy Walk, thus explaining a lack of photos in this post. Also, I’ve been a bit hesitant in general to take photos in the poor areas, not wanting residents to feel on display. I’ve since found out that there is an industry known as “slum tourism”, and I want to be a socially responsible visitor in the lives of community members.
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