By: Heather Jennings
thebatt.com (Texas A&M Student newspaper)
Fourteen anxious faces peered through the windows. They had been waiting all day for the arrival of the eight Americans. Suddenly the excited cry went up, "They're here! They're here!" Tiny feet shuffled into position as the door opened, and finally the children were able to say what they had practiced for weeks.
"Welcome to Cambodia!" all the voices said in unison.
For Crystal Mathews, a Texas A&M graduate student in agricultural economics, the welcome of these children was priceless.
"We had been traveling for 42 hours by the time we reached Phnom Penh, Cambodia," Mathews said. "We walked through the door of the Bykota House and immediately felt welcome."
This year, Mathews took her spring break in early February to minister orphans at the Bykota House in Cambodia. The Bykota House, which was founded one year ago, is sponsored through the Bykota Church in Carthage, Mo., and is now home to 14 orphans.
"I had been thinking about going to Cambodia since last summer," Mathews said. "I have a real passion for helping people, especially children. When the chance came to travel with a group from the Bykota Church, I jumped at it."
The plight of orphans in Cambodia is heartbreaking, Mathews said. After the age of 8, orphans cannot be legally adopted. Children that are not lucky enough to be adopted before turning 9 years old are often dumped out on the street, or sold into the child sex trade.
"It is estimated that 25,000 children are engaged in the Cambodian child sex trade," Mathews said.
The Bykota Kids, as they are lovingly called, have seen a lot in their short lives.
"Bee was one of my favorites," Mathews said. "He is 5 years old, but he looks 2 years old as a result of years of malnourishment. His mother tried to kill him twice, once by poison and once by throwing him in front of a car. His father and grandmother wanted to give him a chance to live, so they gave him up as an orphan."
The first night, she met Hosanna, 16 year old in a wheelchair.
"After knowing me for only a few minutes, Hosanna said to me, 'I feel as if you are my sister,'" she said
Mathews and the rest of the group spent most of their time playing games with the children and teaching them health lessons.
"Cambodia is filthy," she said. "In America, kids do not wash their hands because they don't want to. In Cambodia, they don't even know they are supposed to wash their hands."
A lot of the problems in Cambodia still stem from the dictatorship of Pol Pot from 1975 through 1979. During his rule, he killed about 20 percent of the country's population in killing fields or torture camps.
Mathews visited the killing fields while in Phnom Penh.
"The killing fields made me realize how blessed I am to be an American," she said. "On these fields, people were suffocated and buried alive, and babies were bashed against trees."
Cambodia is not under an oppressive dictator now, but the country is years behind in many ways.
"The average per capita income is $300 per year," Mathews said. "People are grateful for a job, any job."
The kids we visited are growing up in this society and are very low on the social status level, she said. A common response to this problem is to simply throw material goods at the kids, but that is not the right answer. They really just need to be loved.
"When we visited a government orphanage, the backs of the babies' heads were flat because they had been picked up so few times," Mathews said. "Kids are abused and neglected, but they feel like the have a family when they come to the Bykota House."
"Some people have told me that there are too many kids for the Bykota House to really make a difference in the orphanage crisis in Cambodia," she said. "However, the house has already changed the lives of 14 children, and it can raise up kids to change Cambodia from the inside out.
I am very blessed to have been able to share some of my time and my spring break with the children from Cambodia. Showing them love was a wonderful and heart-breaking experience."
The little faces watched as the Americans left. They had been able to hold the hands, touch the faces and see the love of their American family.
They are only a handful of the orphans roaming the streets of Cambodia, but they have been given another chance - a chance to live and a chance to change Cambodia from the inside out.
"Welcome to Cambodia!" all the voices said in unison.
For Crystal Mathews, a Texas A&M graduate student in agricultural economics, the welcome of these children was priceless.
"We had been traveling for 42 hours by the time we reached Phnom Penh, Cambodia," Mathews said. "We walked through the door of the Bykota House and immediately felt welcome."
This year, Mathews took her spring break in early February to minister orphans at the Bykota House in Cambodia. The Bykota House, which was founded one year ago, is sponsored through the Bykota Church in Carthage, Mo., and is now home to 14 orphans.
"I had been thinking about going to Cambodia since last summer," Mathews said. "I have a real passion for helping people, especially children. When the chance came to travel with a group from the Bykota Church, I jumped at it."
The plight of orphans in Cambodia is heartbreaking, Mathews said. After the age of 8, orphans cannot be legally adopted. Children that are not lucky enough to be adopted before turning 9 years old are often dumped out on the street, or sold into the child sex trade.
"It is estimated that 25,000 children are engaged in the Cambodian child sex trade," Mathews said.
The Bykota Kids, as they are lovingly called, have seen a lot in their short lives.
"Bee was one of my favorites," Mathews said. "He is 5 years old, but he looks 2 years old as a result of years of malnourishment. His mother tried to kill him twice, once by poison and once by throwing him in front of a car. His father and grandmother wanted to give him a chance to live, so they gave him up as an orphan."
The first night, she met Hosanna, 16 year old in a wheelchair.
"After knowing me for only a few minutes, Hosanna said to me, 'I feel as if you are my sister,'" she said
Mathews and the rest of the group spent most of their time playing games with the children and teaching them health lessons.
"Cambodia is filthy," she said. "In America, kids do not wash their hands because they don't want to. In Cambodia, they don't even know they are supposed to wash their hands."
A lot of the problems in Cambodia still stem from the dictatorship of Pol Pot from 1975 through 1979. During his rule, he killed about 20 percent of the country's population in killing fields or torture camps.
Mathews visited the killing fields while in Phnom Penh.
"The killing fields made me realize how blessed I am to be an American," she said. "On these fields, people were suffocated and buried alive, and babies were bashed against trees."
Cambodia is not under an oppressive dictator now, but the country is years behind in many ways.
"The average per capita income is $300 per year," Mathews said. "People are grateful for a job, any job."
The kids we visited are growing up in this society and are very low on the social status level, she said. A common response to this problem is to simply throw material goods at the kids, but that is not the right answer. They really just need to be loved.
"When we visited a government orphanage, the backs of the babies' heads were flat because they had been picked up so few times," Mathews said. "Kids are abused and neglected, but they feel like the have a family when they come to the Bykota House."
"Some people have told me that there are too many kids for the Bykota House to really make a difference in the orphanage crisis in Cambodia," she said. "However, the house has already changed the lives of 14 children, and it can raise up kids to change Cambodia from the inside out.
I am very blessed to have been able to share some of my time and my spring break with the children from Cambodia. Showing them love was a wonderful and heart-breaking experience."
The little faces watched as the Americans left. They had been able to hold the hands, touch the faces and see the love of their American family.
They are only a handful of the orphans roaming the streets of Cambodia, but they have been given another chance - a chance to live and a chance to change Cambodia from the inside out.
1 comment:
Tears drop as we read this story and there is no word to express how thankful and greatful we are to get to know you, Ms. Mathews.
We like to dedicate this special moment to not just Ms. Mathews, but all American who open their hearts and souls to touch the lives of our poor and unfortunate Khemrs's children.
From the buttom of our hearts,
Ordinary Khmers
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