By Anya Palm
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Fifteen-year-old Pisey liked Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue's songs being blasted out through large speakers over the Phnom Penh Water Park on Jan 28.
She also enjoyed the company of her Australian friends, volunteers at The Sunshine House, the orphanage where she lives in Kompong Speu province. To show her appreciation, she had an Australian flag painted on one cheek, with a corresponding Cambodian flag on the other.
But the face paint might have had to be reapplied later on, because there was another thing Pisey also enjoyed: the water slide.
"It’s exciting," she said.
Pisey was one of 800 disadvantaged children and young adults from across Cambodia invited to the "Big Day Out" at Phnom Penh's Water Park, organized by the Australian Business Association of Cambodia to celebrate Australia Day.
Pisey, who does not have a second name, said she knew very little about Australia's national day. But the dozens of Western participants did, and many brought Australian flags, picnic baskets and sausages to put on that very Australian past-time, the barbecue.
Kelly Hutchinson, president of the Australian Business Association of Cambodia, said the event offered the orphans a rare opportunity to visit the park.
"Most of these children would never have the chance to come here if it was not for this event," Hutchinson said.
"We provide Australian food, music and Australian atmosphere. It is a big day for the children," she said.
Local businesses, the Australian Embassy and the attending NGOs, which included Maryknoll, Sunrise Children's Village and New Hope for Children, paid for the children's tickets at $2 each, rather than the normal cost of $4. The difference was subsidized by ABAC, which paid to hire out the facility and then donated its profits to charity.
Volunteers, including 42 Cambodians in blue ANZ Royal T-shirts, supervised the children as they splashed and played.
"We sent out an email looking for 10 volunteers and then 42 turned up here today with their families," said Australian Dean Cleland, ANZ Royal's CEO. In addition to providing staff, ANZ Royal also bought the tickets for some 200 orphans.
"It’s a great event, you can go get a beer, you can sit by the pool... It just does not get more Australian than this," Cleland said.
The $3,500 made from the event will go to the Children's Surgical Center, an NGO in Russei Keo district providing free operations for children.
"All our programs expand by around 10 percent a year, so the money will be spent on employing more nurses," said Penny Tynan, a fund-raiser for the center.
But such details seemed of limited importance to the VIPs of the day, such as Chumran Kith, an 18-year-old from The House of Progress orphanage in Kompong Speu, who shivered, his short black hair dripping with water.
"I like to swim. Behind my house, where I lived before my mom and dad died, we had a pond and my sister and I used to swim there," he said.
Chumran Kith lost both of his parents to AIDS when he was 11, but this hasn't stopped him from attending school in the province. If all goes well, he would like to be an architect some day, he said, adding that swimming at the park was far preferable to the lakes of Kompong Speu.
"The water park is better than the lakes. I can have my eyes open in the water and there is no mud," he said.
She also enjoyed the company of her Australian friends, volunteers at The Sunshine House, the orphanage where she lives in Kompong Speu province. To show her appreciation, she had an Australian flag painted on one cheek, with a corresponding Cambodian flag on the other.
But the face paint might have had to be reapplied later on, because there was another thing Pisey also enjoyed: the water slide.
"It’s exciting," she said.
Pisey was one of 800 disadvantaged children and young adults from across Cambodia invited to the "Big Day Out" at Phnom Penh's Water Park, organized by the Australian Business Association of Cambodia to celebrate Australia Day.
Pisey, who does not have a second name, said she knew very little about Australia's national day. But the dozens of Western participants did, and many brought Australian flags, picnic baskets and sausages to put on that very Australian past-time, the barbecue.
Kelly Hutchinson, president of the Australian Business Association of Cambodia, said the event offered the orphans a rare opportunity to visit the park.
"Most of these children would never have the chance to come here if it was not for this event," Hutchinson said.
"We provide Australian food, music and Australian atmosphere. It is a big day for the children," she said.
Local businesses, the Australian Embassy and the attending NGOs, which included Maryknoll, Sunrise Children's Village and New Hope for Children, paid for the children's tickets at $2 each, rather than the normal cost of $4. The difference was subsidized by ABAC, which paid to hire out the facility and then donated its profits to charity.
Volunteers, including 42 Cambodians in blue ANZ Royal T-shirts, supervised the children as they splashed and played.
"We sent out an email looking for 10 volunteers and then 42 turned up here today with their families," said Australian Dean Cleland, ANZ Royal's CEO. In addition to providing staff, ANZ Royal also bought the tickets for some 200 orphans.
"It’s a great event, you can go get a beer, you can sit by the pool... It just does not get more Australian than this," Cleland said.
The $3,500 made from the event will go to the Children's Surgical Center, an NGO in Russei Keo district providing free operations for children.
"All our programs expand by around 10 percent a year, so the money will be spent on employing more nurses," said Penny Tynan, a fund-raiser for the center.
But such details seemed of limited importance to the VIPs of the day, such as Chumran Kith, an 18-year-old from The House of Progress orphanage in Kompong Speu, who shivered, his short black hair dripping with water.
"I like to swim. Behind my house, where I lived before my mom and dad died, we had a pond and my sister and I used to swim there," he said.
Chumran Kith lost both of his parents to AIDS when he was 11, but this hasn't stopped him from attending school in the province. If all goes well, he would like to be an architect some day, he said, adding that swimming at the park was far preferable to the lakes of Kompong Speu.
"The water park is better than the lakes. I can have my eyes open in the water and there is no mud," he said.
4 comments:
That's great that disadvantaged Cambodian kids have the opportunity to enjoy the waterpark in Phnom Penh. I have to say though that the water park itself is a disgrace. It is in complete shambles, is dirty, a health hazzard, badly constructed, disasterously managed and frankly a waste of money and time. Most of the supposed water attractions are either not funcitioning or only function when enough people visit the centre - yet no reduction on the ticket price is made when fewer people are there. The place is filthy with tin can, spilt food, rubbish etc littering the site and floating in the water. The various pools are used for washing hands and dirty feet. I witnessed a group of teenage Cambodians having a birthday celebration only to destroy the cake by throwing it at each other and rubbing cake all over each other - each one then went and washed it off in the water slide area while others used the facilities - a gormeless security guard looked on powerless to intervene. It is really a foul place and the health authorities (of course this will never happen) should be called in to test the water and perhaps shut it down until they raise the standards and fix the dilapidated premises. The owner should be ashamed for running such an awful place. That's my last visit with my kids for sure. Really a disgusting day out!
Yes, I agree the Phnom Penh Waterpark is an accident waiting to happen - the place is a dump and should be condemned. I have never seen such a badly run and run-down complex which is supposed to be some sort of entertainment complex. Nothing is working there and it is true the whole complex is disgustingly dirty. People are allowed to swim in full day clothes and rubbish and food litter the site and the water. It is no doubt someone's idea of how to make a quick buck only it didn't work because people stayed away out of fear of being injured in the poorly designed pools and slides as well as fearing for their health with all the crap and waste floating around and on the floor. A ghastly place and I would dare say that people are less likely to fall sick if they kept to swimming in local ponds and that's saying something!!! Shut it down quick before someone is seriously injured or worse!!!
Alright, alright, let us not panic
here. These kids have great
immunes system that matched the
environment. Plus, we have a lot
of experiences with all sort
of fatal parasites. Anything that
could possibly show up, will be
detected by our expert immediately.
Therefore, we should not jump any
conclusion and deny kids their
recreations and turn them into
drugs, porns, and gangsters ...
Sorry but you seem to have missed the point entirely! That's a big leap to make - going from making the owner of a waterpark responsible for hygiene and safety at his badly run facility to turning Phnom Penh's youth into gangsters, sexual deviants and druggies. If you have been there then you would know what the previous two messages are about. The place is disgusting dump. That's all.
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