Mith Samlanh/Friends outreach program is a link with the children and provides them with services allowing them to leave the streets or get involved in non-harmful income generating activities.
Mith Samlanh's "young migrants program" supports and provides information to young migrants (especially girls) about safe migration allowing them to find adequate placement and employment, thus reducing the risk of being trafficked into the sex trade.Thusday, March 23, 2006
By Kuch Naren and Michelle Vachon
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
February was a hard month for Mith Samlanh/Friends.
On Feb 16, Oeun Savoeun, who had managed its training center for three years, died of a heart attack. He was in his 40s.
Then on Feb 24, the NGO was told that its facility on Street 13 near the National Museum had been sold, said Map Somaya, the program director managing the NGO's Cambodian staff of 240.
No fewer than 800 street children, big and small, eat at the Mith Samlanh center each day. Hundreds of teenagers and young adults come to the center to learn a trade on any given day, while children may take catch-up classes so they can get into public schools.
Moving Mith Samlanh—a complex that includes the training centers, Friends-The Restaurant, and a shop, FriendsNStuff, selling products made by students—will greatly affect the organization's mission, said Patricia Baars, a US attorney who chairs Friends' board of directors.
"Every day, all those little kids show up. We need to be near them so that we can give them the services they so badly need," she said.
"They come here to get treated or simply to talk," said Sebastien Marot, who started the NGO more than 12 years ago.
The medical staff of 16, which includes six doctors, gave an average of 2,346 consultations per month in the last quarter of last year, according to the NGO data.
"Police officers bring sick children they find on the street, and cyclos and mototaxis also turn up," Map Somaya said.
Through its mobile units, shelter and center, the NGO deals with about 1,800 street children each day, she said.
"The strength of Mith Samlanh is that it's near young people" at a location they can easily reach, Marot said.
The facility was a bicycle factory in the 1980s, and possibly even during the Khmer Rouge regime, said Marot Around 1992, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy passed it on to private interests, and the facility was basically abandoned until 2000, when Friends moved in and started fixing up the buildings, he said.
The news last month that the rented space was being sold virtually shattered Friends' world.
The parcel of land on which Friends stands is an "L" shape that also includes the adjacent lot where Bates Cambodia advertising is located on Street 178. That building once housed Indochine Insurance office and may have been built as a royal residence in the 1910s.
Details of the sale remain unclear.
Marot and Map Somaya are under the impression that the deal was made without the knowledge of their landlady, Lay Hieng of the Lay Group, by one of her company's shareholders. They also had the feeling that the deal had not been finalized, but may be by the end of the month.
Lay Hieng maintained that the sale was not yet final.
"I don't want to sell the land. I want to continue leasing it [to Friends] but other shareholders want it sold because they need money to pay interests at the bank.... I will lobby them not to sell" she said.
The Lay Group's office is located at the Phnom Penh Center, which Lay Hieng manages, at the corner of Sothearos and Sihanouk boulevard.
Marot said he had asked Lay Hieng to let Friends know if she planned to sell, so that the NGO could try to raise funds to buy it. She always replied that she did not intend to sell, Marot said.
The price tag for the two-part lot is $7 million, Friends' section being $3.5 million.
If the deal does go through, it will be a matter of finding out whether the new owner is willing to rent to Friends, he said.
If all else fails, there may be a location in Russei Keo district near the CTN television station, which could work—but not that well.
The new location would be in a relatively remote garment-factory area and the road to get there is busy and narrow, said Chhay Chinleang, 18, a steel-welding student and a Friends student representative.
"Thousands of garment workers walk along the road each day, causing traffic jams and making it hard to travel on the road," he said.
The new facility would be bigger, but very far for street children to reach, said Ol Chanvibol, 21, a mechanics student and also a student representative.
In addition, teachers would have to ask the NGO for compensation, since getting to the new location would cost them so much in gasoline, said hair-styling teacher Kheang Pologne.
Above all, a change of location would really affect the small children, said Uon Monyleap, team leader of the non-formal education program. "They feel safe here," she said.
Donors will discuss the situation after the details of the sale become clearer, said Kate Elliott of AusAid, who serves as the donors' representative on the Mith Samlanh's board of directors.
She noted that besides the center, the NGO runs 13 important programs from HIV/AIDS and drug abuse prevention to child's rights and reproductive health education.
"Friends is not just a restaurant or a shop," Elliott said.
For additional information about Mith Samlanh: http://www.streetfriends.org
On Feb 16, Oeun Savoeun, who had managed its training center for three years, died of a heart attack. He was in his 40s.
Then on Feb 24, the NGO was told that its facility on Street 13 near the National Museum had been sold, said Map Somaya, the program director managing the NGO's Cambodian staff of 240.
No fewer than 800 street children, big and small, eat at the Mith Samlanh center each day. Hundreds of teenagers and young adults come to the center to learn a trade on any given day, while children may take catch-up classes so they can get into public schools.
Moving Mith Samlanh—a complex that includes the training centers, Friends-The Restaurant, and a shop, FriendsNStuff, selling products made by students—will greatly affect the organization's mission, said Patricia Baars, a US attorney who chairs Friends' board of directors.
"Every day, all those little kids show up. We need to be near them so that we can give them the services they so badly need," she said.
"They come here to get treated or simply to talk," said Sebastien Marot, who started the NGO more than 12 years ago.
The medical staff of 16, which includes six doctors, gave an average of 2,346 consultations per month in the last quarter of last year, according to the NGO data.
"Police officers bring sick children they find on the street, and cyclos and mototaxis also turn up," Map Somaya said.
Through its mobile units, shelter and center, the NGO deals with about 1,800 street children each day, she said.
"The strength of Mith Samlanh is that it's near young people" at a location they can easily reach, Marot said.
The facility was a bicycle factory in the 1980s, and possibly even during the Khmer Rouge regime, said Marot Around 1992, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy passed it on to private interests, and the facility was basically abandoned until 2000, when Friends moved in and started fixing up the buildings, he said.
The news last month that the rented space was being sold virtually shattered Friends' world.
The parcel of land on which Friends stands is an "L" shape that also includes the adjacent lot where Bates Cambodia advertising is located on Street 178. That building once housed Indochine Insurance office and may have been built as a royal residence in the 1910s.
Details of the sale remain unclear.
Marot and Map Somaya are under the impression that the deal was made without the knowledge of their landlady, Lay Hieng of the Lay Group, by one of her company's shareholders. They also had the feeling that the deal had not been finalized, but may be by the end of the month.
Lay Hieng maintained that the sale was not yet final.
"I don't want to sell the land. I want to continue leasing it [to Friends] but other shareholders want it sold because they need money to pay interests at the bank.... I will lobby them not to sell" she said.
The Lay Group's office is located at the Phnom Penh Center, which Lay Hieng manages, at the corner of Sothearos and Sihanouk boulevard.
Marot said he had asked Lay Hieng to let Friends know if she planned to sell, so that the NGO could try to raise funds to buy it. She always replied that she did not intend to sell, Marot said.
The price tag for the two-part lot is $7 million, Friends' section being $3.5 million.
If the deal does go through, it will be a matter of finding out whether the new owner is willing to rent to Friends, he said.
If all else fails, there may be a location in Russei Keo district near the CTN television station, which could work—but not that well.
The new location would be in a relatively remote garment-factory area and the road to get there is busy and narrow, said Chhay Chinleang, 18, a steel-welding student and a Friends student representative.
"Thousands of garment workers walk along the road each day, causing traffic jams and making it hard to travel on the road," he said.
The new facility would be bigger, but very far for street children to reach, said Ol Chanvibol, 21, a mechanics student and also a student representative.
In addition, teachers would have to ask the NGO for compensation, since getting to the new location would cost them so much in gasoline, said hair-styling teacher Kheang Pologne.
Above all, a change of location would really affect the small children, said Uon Monyleap, team leader of the non-formal education program. "They feel safe here," she said.
Donors will discuss the situation after the details of the sale become clearer, said Kate Elliott of AusAid, who serves as the donors' representative on the Mith Samlanh's board of directors.
She noted that besides the center, the NGO runs 13 important programs from HIV/AIDS and drug abuse prevention to child's rights and reproductive health education.
"Friends is not just a restaurant or a shop," Elliott said.
For additional information about Mith Samlanh: http://www.streetfriends.org
To donate to Mith Samlanh: http://www.streetfriends.org/CONTENT/SUPPORT/donations.html
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