Taking Steps - helping secure the right to learn

Photo courtesy of The Cambodia Trust

People generally want the best for their children. They want them to have everything they need to be happy, healthy, and engaged productively in their communities. We certainly want that for all of the children in the Children In Families ABLE program. ABLE is an acronym for accepted, belonging, loved, and empowered, and we are continually striving to do all that we can to live up to our name. One of the components of being equipped to engage productively in community is education, and all children deserve to receive an education which makes appropriate accommodation for their needs to enable them to participate with the least restriction. This has come to be widely accepted as a universal right, even by governments of developing countries, such as Cambodia. That's a good thing.

Unfortunately, however, reality often falls far short of the ideal. Though there has been some positive forward movement, a recent article in the Phnom Penh post has Ngin Saorath, director of the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization (CDPO), quoted as saying, "For children reliant on wheelchairs, only 10 per cent of schools have ramps or seated toilets, and most will drop out young because their school is too far away." He explained that most children with Down syndrome or developmental disabilities are also prohibited from learning.

In the article, Saoroth stated that resources being centralised in Phnom Penh is another key issue, as most disabled and poor children live in outside provinces devoid of resources. (To read the full article click here.) 

As you may know, Children In Families' ABLE Program is taking steps to develop a respite day center in the rural village where we have the highest concentration of children. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that we see it as an avenue toward building relationships with the local school in order to build a foundation for inclusion of more children with disabilities and better individualized support for those who are in school. 

Please pray for all of the pieces to come together and that we would be able to build good relationships with others in the community to make both the respite day center and, eventually, inclusion for all children with disabilities a reality in our little village out in Svay Rieng. 

If you would like to contribute to the ABLE program to help us with this project as well as other resources for children with disabilities in Cambodia click here. (Donations to the ABLE program are processed through WorldVenture and are tax deductible for U.S. donors)