Established in November 2001, Prison Fellowship Cambodia has quickly developed into the primary provider of education and reintegration services to prisoners in Cambodia. PFC reaches thousands of prisoners annually with a wide range of activities.
Stories of real life transformation continue to be witnessed in the lives of many of those who are touched by Prison Fellowship staff and the programmes they run.
Cooperation between NGOs to save children
According to the Kos SantePheap daily news paper, on the first page, there is a picture of 3 children and the body of their mother who died by the domestic violence of her husband the day before the news announced. Because of this news a Human Rights NGO contacted the Prison Fellowship Cambodia, Freedom project leader, she went to assess the needs of the children on the same day of the funeral. The family of these children is every poor the mother was the key person who made income to feed this family. The father has been arrested and put in jail. Their lives are now destroyed, they all are every young. Their ages are16 the oldest brother in the family and the youngest is 6 years old, a girl. There is 1 brother and 4 sisters in the family. The oldest brother and sister were indentured to work at Poi Pet(near the Thai border) as house servants and they were paid $25 per month. Their mother got 5 months salary as a loan in advance so they were still working for a family in Poi Pet until the loan is paid back with interest. Next day, PFC through social workers and reintegration project intervened in helping the villagers to care for the children by providing basic aid such as 30 kg of rice, a big box of noodles, a dozen cans of fish, fish sauce, 1 kg of sugar and of salt. After the funeral we picked up the 3 younger children and took them to the PFC centre called Michael House. There they were provided with food, clothes and a safe place to stay. Then we cooperated with Adhoc (a Human Rights group) to save the 2 older children from Poi Pet. We had a case conference with another NGO , Hagar, about giving good care to these 5 children but after discussion we decided to place them at a village called Rescue, an NGO, who amongst other things, help orphans. We made contact and referred all these 5 children. Rescue has placed the children in group homes, 10 children to a house mother, the girls in one house and the boy in another. They are so pleased to be safe and in houses near to one another.
Each year, we at Prison Fellowship seek to improve, expand and develop our services to truly meet the needs of those within and affected by the prison system of Cambodia. We are continually and constantly amazed by what God is committed to achieving through us and we seek to honour Him in all that we do.
Thank you to all those who have journeyed with us this far in so many ways. We value your involvement and commitment.
Kind Regards from the Team at PFCambodia,
Linda Chisholm, Executive Director.
