Cambodian kids bring tears of joy! - Our visit to a remote school in Thailand
Steps With Hope
Desperately in need of funds to continue their support of this little school in Thailand, Founder of Steps With Hope, Jen Spoor, hosted a Mother's Day High Tea. After her presentation, I said to Jen, "if you want to make a bigger impact, you need better photos".
So that was that and I committed to visiting the school on their next trip.
Meet The Kids
If you're like us, you will want to meet the kids right away.
There are about 70 children currently attending the school with three classes starting at Kindergarten age. These children come from poor Khmer families, remnants of a recovering population that has endured one of the darkest times times in its history. Around 3 million people slaughtered and many more terrorized by the Khmer Rouge has left a devastated people still clawing its way back to normality.
Families reside in makeshift huts just over the border in Cambodia. The children walk across the Khlong Hat border checkpoint into Thailand each day for their lessons and a hot meal.
The kids were shy and reserved their emotions at first though it didn't take long for them to warm to us and us to them.
Lunch Time
The children are meant to arrive around noon but quite a few kids were already at the school in anticipation of our visit.
After a few messages from their teachers, they are sent one class at a time to receive a hot meal.
With their small containers or bowls, they line up for vegetables, rice and a piece of fruit. Some chose to take the food home to share with their families.
This darling boy has given up his lunch for his little sister who had been hanging around the school. What a sweety.
Craft Time
Between us, our team packed over 80Kgs worth of craft activities, wall decorations, learning material and clothing into our luggage to bring to the children. We also had spent a great deal of time preparing the activities so were keen to share these at the school.Believe it or not, the photo on the right is extremely special. For two reasons. One, from the first day, this kinder girl appeared extremely sullen. There was a heartbreaking sadness in her eyes. After a couple of days, she warmed to us, thoroughly enjoyed her crafts and by the end of our time, she was smiling from ear to ear.
Second reason this picture is meaningful. This was the toughest craft activity I have ever come across. This was a major achievement for us as well as the kids.
The craft that Caity and I were responsible for were the framed portraits of each child and teachers. The team had primed the frames previously so that the kids could paint them right away. Meanwhile, I took each child's photograph. Remember, we had only just met the kids so this was not an easy task.
The morning after, whilst the team readied for breakfast, Tat (our guide and leader of the school foundation) and I had the photos printed in Sa Kaeo town.
Once the frames had dried, the kids decorated them with diamantes and stickers. They were absolutely thrilled with their frames. They've probably never had a framed picture of themselves in their lives so this was pretty special.
It was difficult not to be moved by these children who despite their circumstances, approach each day with pure joy and revel in happiness.
Stay tuned for more about our school visit in next week's post.
Thanks for stopping by. Back to reality now...
Thanks for visiting!
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