SHANTY TOWNS AND COVID 19

Let us give you some news about our Shanty Town and the terrible virus which occurs actually around the world.  Everybody speaks about a « pandemic », terrible of the entire world.

We got some inside information about how is life in the community in Boeung Trabek Phnom Penh.

Life is more or less the same than for us in the big cities.  

One of our kid reports that nobody is going out, there is no school at all, children are taking this time as holidays, unfortunately….  They don’t have the necessary tools to follow classes online, no internet, no computer. So they are waiting for the school to re-open… 

They are all afraid of the virus  so they don’t go out.  They are very serious about it, and don’t want to be sick or give illness to the Elders.

They receive information from BTV, Khmer news, khmer times, Facebook etc..

Khmer New Year had been cancelled, rules are very strict around that : nobody out of the country, provinces and Phnom Penh.  If people don t respect the rules and if the person is taking time off of work, he or she will not get paid.   If the person is going for Khmer New year, he or she won’t be able to come back to Phnom Penh or to their province  before at least 15 days.  Officials mentioned that this festive period will be reported after the Corona Virus period to be able to enjoy better.  

All very hard for everybody around the world.

One easiest thing for Asian people is the mask, they are used to wear them.  Comparaison is made to European People who are not wearing those masks.  It would be so easier for everybody to take the same measures…  Asian’s people start to complain about this… Not wearing masks is a lack of respect for others…

But it is, also, necessary for us to provide to the poor communities masks, hands gel and hygiene products, cause it’s not easy for them to buy, they don’t have money to buy them.  Shanty Town Spirit , because of Corona, can’t take over the usual turn around ; but we ensures that they receive all they need  during this crisis (especially rice and hygiene products).  Thank you to Sokear and Maira to keep the link between the community and the Shanty town spirit NGO.

This period is really really difficult for them.  Because regular traffic is off, small jobs two.  Most of the parents lost their job during this awful period and they  keep smiling. We are hoping  it’s just for a short period of time…  We are very happy to see that they are helping each other very much.

They are all afraid of what is going to happen.    But all convinced that it’s gonna end soon…

When ? hum, we all don’t know, but we do hope for the best to come.

Keep your ears open, a smile on your face… and wash your hands….

Thank you for keeping them in your mind best luck to all of you and keep safe…..

                                   One Spirit, One Heart, One Community                                      

       You can help us by sponsoring the Shanty Town Spirit program:

 Click on Make a difference 

  Contact  Ermine Norodom: +855 (0) 17 49 27 19 (French and English)

norodomermine@gmail.com

Phirun Prak (Arun): +855 (0) 96 663 6666 (English and Khmer)

Victor sky.phi@gmail.com

Words by Nathalie Bonpain

A wonderful afternoon at the Swimming Pool

Thank you to Kathleen Gees, because of her, a very nice afternoon could have been organized at the swimming pool.

All the kids were full of joy and happiness.

Sokear, once again, enjoyed to take the role of organiser.  He took the responsibility to pay attention to all the kids, helped them for the lunch, and took part of all the activities in the pool.

They all played a lot

And the lunch was delightfull

Thank you again to Kathleen, and a special thank you to Maira, who was also an asset during this afternoon.

                                    One Spirit, One Heart, One Community                                      

      You can help us by sponsoring the Shanty Town Spirit program:

Click on Make a difference

                   OR contact  Ermine Norodom: +855 (0) 17 49 27 19 (French and English)

norodomermine@gmail.com

           Phirun Prak (Arun): +855 (0) 96 663 6666 (English and Khmer)

    arun.aenorodom@gmail.com

                                                         words by Nathalie Bonpain

Un après-midi vitaminé / An afternoon full of vitamins

20 Septembre 2018

 Ce sont les vacances scolaires en ce moment pour les enfants cambodgiens. Et durant une après-midi nous avons eu la joie de leur apporter des fruits, suite à une généreuse contribution d’une personne tenant à garder son anonymat, pour commémorer la date de décès de sa meilleure amie Nuria.

60 kg de fruits pour plus de 13 familles, cela représente du volume.

 Nous étions quatre pour effectuer cette distribution, et cela a été un réel plaisir.

 Il faisait très chaud, le soleil aussi chaud que les sourires que nous avons reçus tout au long de cette visite. Tour à tour chaque famille a reçu son lot de vitamines, nécessaire à toute personne dans son quotidien. Mais les fruits coutent chers et ils ne peuvent pas s’en acheter facilement.

 Tout un chacun connait l’importance de manger des fruits régulièrement pour avoir suffisamment de bonnes vitamines, comme la vitamine C (orange) pour les défenses immunitaires, la vitamine B (pour booster les neurones, etc…

 Toutes ces familles sont heureuses lorsqu’elles nous voient arriver, nous sommes toujours accueillis avec des grands sourires et beaucoup de chaleur humaine.

 La visite continue auprès des mamans, et distribution des fruits aux enfants qui nous suivent. Un bonheur à prendre, comme la joie de ce petit garçon qui reçoit un fruit de ma part.

 Ces visites apportent de la joie des deux côtés, du côté des personnes qui reçoivent tout autant que des personnes qui donnent. Nous essayons de faire cela de manière régulière, autant que nous le pouvons…..

 An afternoon full of vitamins

 20th September 2018

 It’s time for holidays for the Cambodian students. And during a full afternoon, because of a generous contribution from an anonymous person, we had the real pleasure to bring them fruits. For this person it was a special occasion, in memory of her best friend Nuria, who died a year ago.

 60 kg of fruits for more than 13 families.

We were four to do this distribution, and it was a very happy moment.




 Temperatures were really high, as high as all the smiles and nice welcome we received during this visit. Every family received fruits, and they were very pleased because fruits cost some money and it’s on very rare occasions than they can have some.

 Everybody knows how it is important to eat fruits, for the vitamines, as oranges for the vitamin C to boost the immune system, or bananas for vitamines B12 and potassium for the brain and the heart. All those families welcomed us with smiles, nice words, and we could see that for them it is very important to receive those contributions.

 We follow up our visit with the mummies, taking care of the distribution of fruits to the kids who are following us. A happy moment to share such as this little boy who received a fruit from my side.

 Those visit bring joy and happiness from both side, from us and them, we are pleased to give them and they are delighted to receive. We try to do this as much as we can, because it is very important to deliver basics food to all those people. We are constantly looking from new donors.

                                  One Spirit, One Heart, One Community                                      

      You can help us by sponsoring the Shanty Town Spirit program:

Click on Make a difference

                                                                       OR contact                                                               Ermine Norodom: +855 (0) 17 49 27 19 (French and English)

norodomermine@gmail.com

           Phirun Prak (Arun): +855 (0) 96 663 6666 (English and Khmer)

    arun.aenorodom@gmail.com

Nathalie Bonpain: +855 (0) 15 652 691 (English and French)

  bonpainnathalie@gmail.com  

words by Nathalie Bonpain

Little Girl with a Big Smile: Portrait of Terry

Meet Terry. She is 11 years old and arrived to Phnom Penh from a province two years ago. She lives with her Grand mother- Mrs Uk who is her main caregiver. 

11 year old Terry & her infectious smile

She started school when she was eight years old and struggled a lot with her studies. After moving to Boeung Trabak, Terry would spend her free time walking around the dusty streets collecting plastic bottles and rubbish for recycling, in order to make enough money to go to school. 

Terry in her school uniform & her friend

Terry used to see the Shanty Town Spirit team visiting her slum community and wished that one day that they might notice her and help her. One day her wishes came true when Ermine came to meet her grandmother. Ermine saw Terry's magnificent bright smile and knew she needed to support Terry with her schooling so she could just be a little girl and not have rummage the streets to make a few dollars. 

Having fun on a Shanty Town Spirit recreational outing

Since joining Shanty Town Spirit, Terry is very motivated to work well at school and her goal now is to be in the first 10 of the class because she wants to prove herself worthy of receiving the program's support. We know Terry is already worthy but we encourage her to aim high and do her best. Her grandmother Mrs Uk also receives a modest allowance so Terry doesn't need to collect the rubbish anymore. 

This is just one example of how Shanty Town Spirit is helping one child to reach towards her potential. We have many more. Help us Help them! 

                                    One Spirit, One Heart, One Community.                                        

You can help these kids

by sponsoring the Shanty Town Spirit program

Click on Make a difference

OR contact

Ermine Norodom: +855 (0) 17 49 27 19 (French and English)

Norodomermine@gmail.com

Jessica Sander: jessicasander87@gmail.com (English)

Phirun Prak (Arun): +855 (0) 96 663 6666 (English and Khmer)

Arun.aenorodom@gmail.com