Roadshow - CCH

Today I went with CCH to one of their roadshows. I have not been to one before because they involve getting up at 6am on a Saturday or Sunday. However, this weekend I managed!

We travelled from CCH in the truck that would later turn into the stage for the roadshow. At the roadshow the children from CCH teach vulnerable groups about child rights, HIV, domestic violence, drugs, trafficking - It is very worthwhile.

The village that we went to was one of the villages set up to cater for people who have been forceably evicted. By chance the people in this area came from the Dey Krahorm area I mentioned in my earlier post a few days ago.

The final people from this district were evicted this week but some have moved to this area provided by the company who evicted them/the governement about 3 years go. On arrival you can tell it is a village that is the result of an eviction.

The "houses" are all in ordered plots and it has a very temporary feel to it. It is also generally in the middle of nowhere - no water and no electricity. The people are extremely poor. There are no jobs in the middle of nowhere.

At the Roadshow first there is a traditional dance, followed by a role play to educate the audience in an entertaining way, some audience participation and then reading, drawing and oragami. All the CCH children knew what they were doing and soon after we arrived the entertainment for the people of the village was underway. There was well over 100 kids together with mums, dads, grannies etc.

The CCH roadshow is very pracical in the advice that it gives and it talks about very real dangers that these people face. It is extremely worthwhile and the children from CCH appear to enjoy giving something back to the type of communities that they came from. One of the young people from CCH told me how sometimes there is only a small audience on Sundays because if a church visits they go to that event instead because there is food available at the end. This highlighted to me even more the way in which these people are very vunerable not just in terms of HIV/drugs etc but also in terms of the information that they can be subjected to...because they are so poverty stricken they can be manipulated to attend events contrary to their own religious beliefs so that they get food - they then miss out on information that may save their lives. I hope that the church groups are doing something more constructive than just teaching about Jesus because in Cambodia, quite frankly, this is just not enough to get you through.

Here are a few of the pictures I took... there are a few!

Oragami folding lesson

Happy children after the roadshow - The discovered the camera and could not get enough pictures!

Drawing class in progress - the house in the background must belong to some one "important" as none of the other houses were anything like this one - People were living in shacks made of thatching and iron.

Children of all ages learn about corrpution!

Listening carefully to the education via comedy role play!

It was funny! (and also in Khmer so I am guessing by the laughs)

He's only 11 but playing the part in the role play of a man who has slept around and so caused his wife to catch HIV. Heavy but important issues.

Hands up if you know.... The participants got a note book and pencil

CCH kids Apsara Dancing

The village

Eviction - Dey Krahorm

Yesterday we went to Meta House with 3 of the young people from CCH – It was supposed to be an evening for “Khmer Kids” – the idea being that NGOs dealing with kids would show documentaries and get together... An eviction of residents living not too far from our house (Dey Krahorm) instead took precedence as the topic for the evening. I had been to the eviction site with the children from the Smile Photography project when I took them there to take pictures. Here are some of my pictures from the district. These people's homes and businesses are now flattened.

It was a good documentary and the young people from the evicted district spoke in a very moving way about their experiences. It was interesting to hear about the eviction which has made front page news in the English newspapers here but not the Khmer ones (but this is not surprising).

The eviction is the result of a company called 7NG who has effectively been given land by the government and then who has then evicted the residents with force (a kind of “compulsory purchase order” but without the “purchase” bit and without any form of reasonableness!). Although the dispute has been going on for years it is reported that people were only given hours to get their things together before they were physically forced out and their homes bulldozed. Last night we were told how 500 men supported by police forced the residents to leave and immediately destroyed the area. We were told how one women begged to stay as her husband was sick and could not move but she was arrested, handcuffed and beaten.

I understand that people who own 7NG have government links/are in the government but that is how things tend to work around here. Someone suggested a petition as a way to help. Nice sentiment but these people are the type of people who beat and drag old ladies from their homes they are not the type who care about the “force” of petitions! I’m not sure I’d write my address next to my name if I signed one either otherwise I may not have such a happy time here.

Sadly, this is a typical news story here - people being evicted without regard for their human rights as land prices are so valuable and those in charge are capable of exploiting their position over the poverty stricken and the vulnerable to make a quick buck. They talk of "tidying the town" on the basis it was a shanty town but it was not. It had houses and businesses with some people living there having called it their home for decades.

You can read more on the eviction of the residents here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7848634.stm