CAMBODIA: PHONM PENH: NUMBER OF STREET CHILDREN GROWING RAPIDLY скачать в хорошем качестве

CAMBODIA: PHONM PENH: NUMBER OF STREET CHILDREN GROWING RAPIDLY

(31 Jul 1995) English/Nat More than 10-thousand 'street children' are estimated to be in Cambodia's capital - and the number is growing rapidly because of continuing conflict. Now, a charity is running a drop-in centre in Phnom Penh to provide the youngsters with food and education, in the hope of turning them away from a life of crime. The streets of Phnom Penh - like most capital cities - are dirty, busy, noisy and hardly the best environment for children. These are just a handful of the children who are left to scavenge to survive on the streets of the Cambodian capital. As many as 10-thousand urchins flood the streets, scavenging for food from the market's nearby trash dump. Those that do not fall to pick pocketing pedestrians, rummage through trash looking for anything that will bring in a dollar to buy some food - whether cardboard scraps, tin cans or bottles. Many of these children have lost their parents to the war or their families have lost their land and were forced to move to the city to scrape out a living. World Vision's project manager Tony Culnane blames the ongoing civil war for ruining the lives of the country's children. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) "We feel that many of the children are affected by the ongoing war. They are displaced, their lands have been ruined by the war and by land mines, and they come to the city in the hope of getting money to survive." SUPER CAPTION: Tony Culnane, World Vision World vision is a charity which takes in the street kids to give them food and shelter. But the charity can only accommodate three-thousand street kids and feels it only faces a future of increasing numbers of homeless kids. Culnane tries to place the kids in training centres so they can learn basic skills, such as reading, and more specific ones such as car repair. The nonprofit organisation thinks the Cambodian government is too busy concentrating on other things, to take care of street children like Nov Sophay. His family lived in the western province of Takeo near the Thai border, until his father was killed in fighting in the province. SOUNDBITE: (CAMBODIAN) "I don't like to live on the streets but I have no choice. My father was fighting for our country against the Khmer Rouge but he was killed. My mother could not afford to feed me so she told me to go to Phnom Penh to try to earn some money." SUPER CAPTION: Nov Sophay, Homeless Child SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) "The government is occupied with other things. It is unfortunate from our point of view. We think the children are very important. Their needs, programmes for them, and so on. But the government is still very occupied with the ongoing civil war, which as you know, is continuing, particularly in the north and the northwest of the country. And so much of the resources, much of the budget is going to that effort." SUPER CAPTION: Tony Culnane, World Vision World Vision is working to encourage these children to leave petty crime by providing them with life's essentials and useful skills. But they are also concerned with street girls who reach the age of puberty, fearing that the youngsters will become victims of prostitution. A growing problem because of the growth in so-called sex tourism. By taking the children off the street, it's at least managing to put smiles on their faces - for now. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...