kind of activities, adapted to their different characteristics and capacities. But what they love the most are the outings: to the swimming-pool, the vocational center, to Oudong, to the cinema, to the rehabilitation center… Everything is done to make them forget their daily life, mainly consisting in going to school and, sometimes, only going to school because of their limited capacities.
Thanks to the work of NGOs as PSE, their lives completely changed.
In Cambodia, some people still don’t fully understand and accept these children’s situation, so they often are victims of discrimination and rejected by the society but also by their own families. Thanks to the work of NGOs as PSE, their lives completely changed.
“I want the Khmers and everyone to know about the Specials and the teams behind them, to encourage people to talk with these kemey kemey (enfants) and to push people to open their mind and to know the work done with and for them. I know some people don’t like children with disabilities but we want that to change”, says Soknov, the Khmer coordinator of the program when she is asked why she chose to coordinate the Specials’ project.
The School Continuity Program stimulates them, give them the opportunity to be entertained and to be surrounded both pas kids like them and by other kids as those from Kindergarden or Pensionnaires. They can simply be kids. “The program is really important for disable children, it is the time to bring them happiness, inspiration, motivation et to make them know they’ve never been left behind”, explains Yoeun Chanthim, a khmer monitor.
Within these project, two different groups of kids coexist : the first one, gathering those with mental disabilities as schizophrenia or the Down syndrome, et the second one with the children with a physical or mental deficiency, most of them need a wheelchair.
This year, there are also sixteen children from another NGO with which PSE collaborates, Action Cambodia Handicap, and two others who came with their mothers from Battambang where the NGO Sauce is located. Celia, the European coordinator of the project, has been working for Sauce for several months. “One of them is autistic, and the other, Kuma, has hydrocephalus, he can’t move his legs and has a very big head. Kuma had never left his home in Battambang. As his mother has to work long hours in a factory, it was his 80-year-old grandmother who took care of him and so he remained alone at home, lying on his back. He started without speaking, and ended up expressing himself first with his elbows, then laughing, both with the instructors and with the other children, singing, dancing… Her mother told me it was the best experience of her life,” Celia said.
That is why PSE’s work for these children and their families is so important.
The personal situations of these kids are all very different. Some have been abandoned and now PSE is taking care of them, others are in foster families and others are living with their families. Parents or grandparents can only very rarely afford to pay the costs of caring for their child and even something as simple as taking them out on the street becomes complicated because of the parents’ long working hours. That is why PSE’s work for these children and their families is so important.
The organization of the day is the same for both groups: breakfast, activities, meals, naps, then other activities. The difference is that it is necessary to help physically handicapped children to shower, feed, brush their teeth…. This is the role of the instructors who, with the help of Chetra, distribute the different types of help to be provided. Four years ago, he was only one more child in this program but since last year, he has become an instructor and a valuable help to the rest of the volunteers and accompagnateurs. He knows the particularities of each kid, and indicates which tools to use with each of them, which foods they can eat and which ones they cannot eat…..
The activities they participate to are very similar to those of the other camps, but adapted to their particularities. For example, doing a gymkhana with these children means that the instructors also participate: by driving their wheelchairs or holding their hands. With the group two, many visual and sensory activities are set up, activities around textures, music, smells… And also motor activities requiring volunteers to help them move around. The Specials’ monitors are particularly active as they must also play and be part of the teams at for every organized activity. Although the children are extremely grateful to their instructors, all the effort seems small compared to the satisfaction of seeing them smile and have fun.
The progress of the children can be noticed on a daily basis, a greater physical mobility, a better ability to speak, to understand…
As for activities concerning emotional intelligence, only one group can really participate, with the others it is too complicated. “We play games like the pilla-pilla (a game in which a child has to catch others and those who get caught start catching others too), but the kids have to catch the monitor who plays the emotion requested at the beginning of the game. We also do a lot of preventive health activities, in addition to the Medical and Dental teams who also come to animate some. They consist in teeth brushing, handwashing activities… inside the gymkanas. Simple things, but they are done on a daily basis,” Celia explains.
The progress of the children can be noticed on a daily basis, a greater physical mobility, a better ability to speak, to understand… Lisa’s case illustrates these incredible progress: four years ago, she had to use a wheelchair, three years ago she started using crutches, the following year she started walking a little, and this year she runs. All of this is possible thanks to the investments made by PSE in specific equipment for children. And to all the children’s carers, employees of PSE, who take care of them all year round.
Connecting with them is very simple, and forgetting them is impossible.
“Being every day with disabled children, I am falling in love with them and I am beginning to understand them so much that I appreciate every moment I spend with them,” says Luis, European monitor for the second time but for the first time in the Specials… Each of them has something magical, difficult to describe with words. Not all of them can talk, but with a simple look or a gesture, they can be perfectly understood. They fill you with affection, whether it is drawing you hearts, hugging you while they take a nap, not letting go of your hand while they are in a workshop or just smiling. Connecting with them is very simple, and forgetting them is impossible.
PSE would like to thank Bankinter for their economic support to this project.
