SEN SOK: ORDER, COLOUR AND TENDERNESS – Sponsored by Fundación Felipe Segovia – Colegio SEK
Sen Sok is a district in the north of Phnom Penh. Driving from the NGO’s Centre can take about 45 minutes. Throughout the year, Sen Sok centre is a day-care centre and in August, it turns into a fairytale land for kids of all ages! They also get help from some of the teachers at the nursery to achieve this.
Rainbows in sight
Welcome to Sen Sok!
After passing through the large and lively village, you arrive at the PSE centre of Sen Sok. The most striking and distinctive element is the playground at the entrance, with its multicoloured stairs and slides. Bea, the centre’s coordinator, explains how, due to the limited space, they really have to work their imagination when carrying out all the activities. To illustrate this, she tells us about the children’s showers.
The most striking and possibly the most distinctive element is the playground at the entrance, with its multi-coloured stairs and slides
It’s hard to get the kids away from this area when it’s time for activities!
At around 11 a.m, while the girls are playing, the boys line up and start a walk between the slides where they leave their clothes, put on the krama —a typical Cambodian handkerchief with which they bathe— and slide down to refreshing stream of water! What better motivation for getting clean than going down the slide and take a dip in the water at the end!
“The children here are naughty, since they spend a lot of time on the street, but they’re never disrespectful”, Gabi, instructor
Naughty and always smiling!
It’s all about taking care of the coordination, almost as much as the order of the children’s multicolored shoes, placed in pairs while they play. Gabi, a veteran who in the Teenagers’ programme last year explains that “the children here are naughty, they spend a lot of time on the street, but they’re never disrespectful.”
Gabi and the kids caught in a moment of pure fun!
The biggest and most used room here is also the most colourful. On its ceiling hangs handmade ornaments made of paper and bottles that serve as pots to small plants. Some book shelves lead us to the reading area, where a neighbouring room is used for activities. One of these games is a particular adaptation of the classic “Hangman”. Both teams have to throw a foam ball at the target to add points, while letters are suggested to complete the assigned word.
The people of Sen Sok
During the School Continuity Programme, around 175 children between the ages of 3 and 13 come to this center each day, although the majority are between 3 and 6, as they attend the nursery throughout the year.
Maria always smiling during the day
Some children spend the whole day at the centre, others just in the afternoon or in the morning, as the rest of the day go to school. They come from nearby communities, from where some adolescents go PSE headquarters to join the Teenagers sub-programme. “Some days, we have fewer children, partly because they may have taken the PSE bus to go to Central,” Bea explains, “Other days, however, there are too many, given the limited space available. In any case, everyone is always welcome.”
“Either many or few of them, all kids are always welcome”, Bea, coordinator
It was Bea’s second time coordinating
To work with children at Sen Sok, there are 14 monitors, half of them Khmer and the other half European. The rapport between them is essential, as it is for the other teams in the School Continuity Programme. That’s why Sen Sok instructors have decided to set up a day of role-playing between monitors.
The Sen Sok Team worked well in terms of integration!
The European monitors usually create the activities and the Khmer ones help them to move the groups around, apart from translating the instructions to the children. The latter action is irreplaceable, but now the Khmer instructors have to prepare the activities, while the European leaders are in charge of controlling the groups. “Last year we already played this small challenge and it worked, so we wanted to repeat it. It helps us to work on empathy between monitors,” Bea explains.
Old friends reunite
Iñaki was coordinator here two years ago and is now a supervisor for multiple camps including this one!
Iñaki, coordinator of Sen Sok’s sub-programme two years ago, and supervisor of several centres today, meets children he still remembers and who recognize him. This time, they even made him a welcome home banner. Two of them, Smey and Komhong, already in their teens, are now volunteers for the summer programme. “It’s a source of pride to see that they’ve grown and are looking forward to coming here, this time to help,” says Iñaki.
“It’s common to see children from the same family”, Iñaki, last year’s coordinator at Sen Sok
The children were ecstatic when seeing Iñaki walk through the gates!
“It’s common to see children from the same family, like Sreynith, who brings her two brothers,” says Iñaki. In short, a child who attends the programme can motivate the rest of their siblings, who will have the same opportunity to enjoy the summer programme and will be more prepared for eduction.
