The Cambodian Kids Foundation is a not for profit organisation and a registered Cambodian NGO.
Our foundation aims to educate and empower the people of Cambodia through a number of projects that ensure maximum sustainability and success.
In particular our foundation looks to the future and the creation of a better Cambodia for its people.
We believe that in order to change the future for the better we must nurture and empower the youngest generation, the next leaders of Cambodia.
We help the people from a grass roots level, ensuring all of our projects are sustainable and headed by the Khmer preople with us working closely beside them.
In 2009 the Cambodian Kids Foundation began working in Kampong Thom Province, whilst we we working there we started spending a lot of time in one village in particular, Mous Village.
Mous Village was by far one of the poorest villages in the province and were most in need of some assistance.
It was difficult to get people from outside of the village to come in to help, apparently this village had a bad name for itself, it was poor, it was dirty and therefore most people avoided it, even it's name was something to frown upon, Mous Village had been given as the name of the village one day when a drunk man wondered through and decided there were too many Mosquitos - hence the name Mous Village. Nobody ever remembered what the village had been called before then, they had been Mous Village for so long. For so long people had told this village that they were poor, dirty, uneducated and worthless, and we all know that if we are told certain things over a long time we eventually start to believe these things.
At first Mous Village couldn't understand why we wanted to help them, they didn't think they were good enough to be helped.
We explained that they were, at that they could be the most beautiful village in the province- all they had to do was believe in themselves.
It took months of working together but as each month went by we started to see pretty gardens emerge, wooden fences being built around the front of the house, houses roofs being repaired and a new coat of paint to everything that needed it. Although the greatest thing that we began to see was pride, people were beginning to take pride in their village, they were proud to live there and proud to be a part of what we were creating together. A number of projects began in the village which helped to empower the people, but most of the work was done by them.
In early 2011 the village came to us and told us that they were planning on changing the name of the village, they were no longer Mous Village - but a new beautiful village that deserved a better name and reputation. Soksan Village was what they decided to call themselves, Soksan meaning Peace, Wealth & Health. We couldn't think of a better name for such a beautiful village.
From this day on the village is now known as Soksan Village, to everyone in the province. People from other villages always talk about Soksan Village - the lucky village where good fortune comes, but luck has nothing to do with this transformation - the people worked hard and believed in themselves. Each month it seems a new family moves into Soksan Village, the most beautiful village in all of Kampong Thom Province, with the most beautiful people in all of the world.
Our foundation's primary aim is to provide people living in Cambodia with access to education and health care.
People often forget what exactly it means to have an education. What it means to have access to educated opinions and experiences.
Being educated does not mean being the brightest bulb in the box, it means being able to make educated decisions to improve the life of your family and your children and help pull families in Cambodia out of the horrible poverty cycle many find themselves in generation after generation.
Most people living in rural Cambodia believe that battery acid is a common cure for the dreaded toothache. They think this because their great grandmother told their grandmother who told their mother and so on. People come to us frequently complaining of a sore mouth only for us to find that the battery acid has unsurprisingly burnt the inside of their mouth.
Now the people we work with are not unintelligent, they just have never been taught other practices and they have never been taught the harm that such practices can cause.
Our foundation is able to provide education through our projects and programs. We are providing education to thousands of Khmer people through our Free Schools, Kindergartens, Health Care Clinics, Women's Empowerment Groups and more.
Please check out the projects page on our website to learn more about our projects.
