Andy Brouwer's Cambodia Tales
Sunrise
and a ray of hope
It
was 8.30am and I was waiting for Rosanna White in the early
morning sunshine, sheltered in the shade of a palm tree in front
of the Independence Monument. Rosanna is the volunteer
co-ordinator for the Sunrise Children's Village, a Phnom Penh
orphanage with a high profile, due in no small part to the
extraordinary efforts of its founder and patron, Geraldine Cox.
Described by some as 'larger than life', Geraldine was on one of
her regular trips abroad seeking out funds to keep the orphanage
afloat and the day to day administration was in the capable hands
of Rosanna. I'd been in e-mail contact with both of them for a
few months before my trip and they'd kindly invited me to visit
the orphanage, temporarily located in Takhmau, some fifteen
kilometres south of Phnom Penh.
Geraldine's high
profile - she's written a book, there's an award-winning
documentary about her life and a feature film in the offing - and
her tireless work go towards providing a home for around fifty
disadvantaged Cambodian children between the ages of 3 and 18.
Most are orphans, all have sad tales to tell, but the orphanage
provides them with love, food and shelter as well as regular
schooling and extra English, computer, sewing, music and dance
classes, designed to give them the chance of a brighter future.
Its a worthy cause which many Australians support with individual
and corporate sponsorship. However, as Rosanna explained on our
drive out to Takhmau, a great deal of extra funding, as much as
$600,000, is needed to fulfil the Sunrise dream envisioned when
Prime Minister Hun Sen donated ten hectares of rent-free land to
the orphanage. It's certainly an ambitious project and the
publicity created by the support of some very famous Hollywood
names is currently giving it real momentum, while Geraldine's
powers of persuasion continue to play their part in making the
dream come true.
A
toot of the horn and the gates of a non-descript villa opened up
as we were welcomed in by Sopheun, the orphanage's housemother.
Rosanna received an update on the latest batch of cuts and
bruises, tantrums and colds (and the theft of a bicycle) since
her last visit a couple of days earlier before giving me a guided
tour of the tidy, but cramped house and grounds. On the ground
floor were the girls dormitories (the boys sleep upstairs), with
hammocks and mattresses taking up most of the space and a few of
the girls busily drawing pictures with coloured crayons. Outside,
the more boisterous boys were playing games of tag and marbles
and I joined in a game of football with Chanry and Sin Long, two
eight year olds, who were obviously best of friends and who
hammed it up for my camera. I also showed my skills, or lack of
them, with another group who were playing 'tot sey' (foot
shuttlecock).
Nearby was the
well-stocked computer room, where Phalla, the computer teacher,
was fixing a pc on his day off with the help of a couple of the
older teenagers. He showed me how the recent rains had flooded
the room and damaged the wooden computer stands and was very keen
to hear about my website devoted to my travels in Cambodia.
Outside, I met Sok An, the head cook, who was preparing
vegetables for the children's lunch with some of the older girls
under an awning in the concrete yard, when Sary and her
wheelchair (she's the only disabled child in the orphanage)
whizzed past and came to a halt at the water tap, where she began
washing some clothes. Rosanna explained that Sary, a polio
sufferer, is now learning to walk with the aid of callipers and a
brace and is fiercely independent, but an absolute sweetie.
Upstairs,
we visited the volunteers room, which also houses the medicine
cabinet and is where Geraldine, the patron, sleeps when she's in
town. Next door, the dance and music practice was already in full
swing. The children are working hard in preparation for a once in
a lifetime visit to Australia for an arts festival, and
rehearsals form a key part of each day for those lucky enough to
be going. The orphanage is home to about fifty children and over
half of them will be making the trip to Adelaide in March 2002.
Today was a Sunday, so no school meant extra practice sessions
for the dancers and musicians. In a cramped room, I grabbed a
seat to watch the dance teacher, Monitha, guiding a group of the
youngest girls - six to eight year olds - through their
traditional Khmer dance routine. They were delightful and were
followed by the youngest boys who danced and banged their coconut
shells in harmony as Srey Mao (right), the youngest of the girls
with a smile and a nature guaranteed to melt any heart, sat on my
knee to watch her friends perform.
At
the back of the room, some of the children were playing
traditional Khmer instruments to accompany the dances and were
being tutored by 70-something year old Mr Chea and his daughter
Thierry, both outstanding musicians in their own right. Next on
the dance floor were the teenage girls and particularly 17 year
old Srey Mich, the orphanage's leading dancer who glided across
the floor with grace and poise in abundance. Following them, as
the tempo increased, were a mixed group of four boys and four
girls who moved in well-rehearsed unison and who rounded off a
thoroughly enjoyable hour watching the children perform. In fact,
I enjoyed it so much I forgot to take any photos until near the
end. I was mightily impressed. This wasn't a performance staged
for visiting guests but a daily practice session, yet the timing
and elegance of all the dancers, whatever their age, was a joy to
watch. They'd worn their normal clothes for the practice, so I'm
sure they'll look even more professional when they wear their
hand-sewn costumes for the real thing.
I had another
quick kick-about in the courtyard with Chanry and Sin Long as
Rosanna did her final rounds of the villa with most of the
children giving her a goodbye hug. Then it was back in the 4WD
and out into the busy back streets of Takhmau and our return to
Phnom Penh. My visit to the orphanage had been a brief but
thoroughly enjoyable one. The children I met were happy, the
level of laughter and their playful nature made that abundantly
clear, but their temporary premises are simply too small. Its a
stop-gap until the Sunrise Children's Village and the dreams of
Geraldine, Rosanna and the children themselves become a reality.
I sincerely hope that's sooner rather than later.
* * * * *
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It
was 8.30am and I was waiting for Rosanna White in the early
morning sunshine, sheltered in the shade of a palm tree in front
of the Independence Monument. Rosanna is the volunteer
co-ordinator for the Sunrise Children's Village, a Phnom Penh
orphanage with a high profile, due in no small part to the
extraordinary efforts of its founder and patron, Geraldine Cox.
Described by some as 'larger than life', Geraldine was on one of
her regular trips abroad seeking out funds to keep the orphanage
afloat and the day to day administration was in the capable hands
of Rosanna. I'd been in e-mail contact with both of them for a
few months before my trip and they'd kindly invited me to visit
the orphanage, temporarily located in Takhmau, some fifteen
kilometres south of Phnom Penh.
