The Long Road Home

I’m writing to let you know that the Sihanoukville Community Playground - Club Tapang - which followers of my ride home, including generous corporate sponsors, helped to fund - has been completed, and opened on 11th May.
To inaugurate the Playground, a show was performed by M’Lop Tapang kids, watched by more than 500 children and their families over two days. I’ll upload shortly some photos sent by the M’Lop Tapang team of the show, and the Playgound, so you can see the children’s amazing acrobatics stunts at the show, and also scenes of people using the Playground - local youth playing volleyball, kids doing sports and playing in the large covered area, children playing in the sandpit in the children’s area.
This is what Francesco Caruso, who works with the M’Lop Tapang team, wrote to say:
“The playground has reached beyond our expectations, with every dollar being used wisely. The images show a dream come true: images of children benefiting from a community playground that is happy, safe, clean and open to everyone.
“When we first tried to show the land where we wanted to build a playground to Lisa Genasci - director of ADM Capital Foundation - we could hardly reach it because the entrance was blocked by rubbish and stale water. Yet we knew there was potential, centrally located, right behind the town market.
“Chris Reid, the architect who volunteered to design the playground and monitored the construction, managed to transform that vision into reality. He not only helped build a beautiful playground, he has made sure it will be clean and environmentally friendly, with lights powered by solar panels and with a proper waste water system.
“During the opening show we saw M’Lop Tapang staff, from M’Lop Tapang director, Eve Sao Sarin, to the many Khmer volunteers who work with us. We saw smiles of pride and happiness. Watching hundreds of children enjoying themselves and former street children performing amazing acrobatics is worth all the hard work. These are children and youth who spend their days working and struggling to survive. Watching them grow and play in a safe environment, allowed to play like children want to the world over, is what matters the most to Maggie, Francesco, and all of us who work here daily and to all of you who support us. Moments of happiness like that are what our work is all about.”
Click on the M’Lop Tapang link to the left to read more about the centre, working with street children in Cambodia.
I’ll also update shortly on the Pakistan project, which readers also funded.
Thankyou again for all the support to make this happen,
Sue.

I’m now back in London. Thanks to a lot of people’s help, I got home safely, and we raised enough money for both the Pakistan and Cambodia charity projects to be implemented.

The field teams at the two charities are now using the money which you donated to help children and communities as planned. Here’s a New Year letter from Francesco at the M’Lop Tapang centre in Cambodia, explaining how the playground for which we have raised money fits with their wider work with people in Sihanoukville:

“M’Lop Tapang (“Under the Tree”) has been working since 2003 to provide a safe haven for street children in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. M’Lop Tapang’s mission is to provide street children with protection from all types of abuse, ensuring them a happy, healthy and safe childhood as well as a better future. We hope that today’s street children will in the future become responsible parents and members of society, ensuring a safe childhood for their own children.

2006 has been an incredible year for M’Lop Tapang: in December our 55 staff and volunteers have worked with over 800 children in our 3 centres, 2 shelters and in communities reached by our outreach team. These are significant numbers for an organization born 3 and half years ago.

Nevertheless at M’Lop Tapang we prefer to measure success in terms of children whose lives have been positively changed: children who are back with their families, children who now can study, children who are not ill anymore and children who are not risking abuse of any kind.

In fact the truest measure of our work is the ability to offer a chance of a better future to the street children of Sihanoukville, so if 2006 has been a year of fast growth, our focus for 2007 will be to improve the quality of our services.

We will have a new day centre where we will be able to work with more children and offer more services, including medical care. We will have a community playground for all the children and youth of Sihanoukville. We will step up our Child Safe campaign and efforts to protect all children from sexual abuse. We will reach more children around Sihanoukville and work with families in more slums. We will continue engaging young, committed students from local universities as well as from abroad.

Wishing you a happy 2007 we want to thank you for the support that you have pledged to M’Lop Tapang. Our activity would be impossible without the support of people like you, who provide financial means but also motivation to do our very best for the street children of Sihanoukville. We are committed to ensuring transparency and accountability to our investors. This is why in 2007 we hope to see you here in Sihanoukville to see in person what we do, together.

Happy New Year and Thank you!”

That’s the letter from Sihanoukville. You can read more about M’Lop Tapang at http://www.mloptapang.org

Thankyou again for being interested in this project! All the best for 2007!

Sue

This is from Francesco, one of the team at the M’Lop Tapang street children project in Cambodia, with news about the sports playground being built with the money you’ve been giving:

"In M’Lop Tapang (MT) street children’s refuge courtyard, children now discuss daily on who’s going to play the opening game, and what sport (basketball, volleyball, soccer) will be the first one to be played.

"The total area of the playground is about 600 square meters. We will divide it so that there is going to be a small playground for young children (50m2), a small deposit room and a good shower room (40m2).

"The sport facilities will occupy around 500 m2. The area will be multi functional: it will be a 18 meters wide and 25 meters long. This means that it can be divided into 2 regular size (18m/9m) volleyball courts, or into a basketball court and also a soccer court (5 on five).

"The first work to do is to pave (concrete) the access (a 10 meters long alley) and the whole area. At the same time the kids will paint the internal walls and the access to the playground in bright yellow, M’Lop Tapang’s color. The walls (over 100 meters in total length) will be a permanent board for kids to draw and will be always happy and bright. We want the kids to be in charge of most of the work.

"Since the rainy season is ending, we will not build the roof cover immediately, so that the playground will become available sooner.

"Our idea is truly that of creating a community playground that can be used by kids from 4 to 18. Mothers working at the market will be able to bring their children to play in a safe and happy environment. Here our staff will be able to build relations with the children and their families from an early age, the best strategy to prevent children from working in the streets at a later age.

"The sport facilities will be accessible throughout the day, both on a drop in base and on more structured training activities. Particular attention will be given to girls, who too often have no access to any sport facility nor are allowed to "play".

"Children working in the streets will be able to drop in at the playground for a basketball or volleyball game. At the same time they’ll be able to take a shower and our staff will provide life skills training and learn how these kids can be best helped by other activities at M’Lop Tapang, such as the clinic, remedial school, or drop-in centre for drug users etc.

"Kids have been involved in the decision to create a multipurpose playground and will be the centre of the development of the centre. They will paint it, advertise it, manage it through our team of street volunteers (ex street children working as peer educators).

"Our outreach team expects more than 100 children will use the facilities every day, while tournaments will be developed during the weekend.

"The street volunteers are excited by the fact that they will be able to reach a greater number of their peers and build strong relations. In the words of Tren (17), a street volunteer with a background of drug use and life in the streets, sport is what helped him to quit drugs and learn to live in the community, and this playground will be his tool to help many other kids like him. Watta (16), who until 3 years ago was living on the beach and now is the top student in his class, is keen in teaching volleyball and soccer to younger children as that is "the best way for them to learn to accept rules". Danin, a 13 year old girl who attends the centre daily and lives in a hut a few meters from the playground suggested that we have activities for girls, especially volleyball.  Danin is keen for the centre to stay open until sunset because many girls will be able to play after 5pm, when their mothers go back home and they do not have to look after their siblings.

"Setha, the outreach manager, who will supervise the activities run at the playground, is extremely excited: hundreds of kids he meets daily cannot attend the other MT centre facilities because they need to make money on the streets for their families. The playground in his opinion is the best way to provide happiness and "a break" in their lives. He’s convinced that he and his team will be able to make sure this break from work and dangers in the streets becomes longer and eventually last all day long.

"Finally, as part of an educational campaign on the environment, the outreach team is planning a small clean-up/recycling initiative linked to the playground: the idea is that kids will bring some plastic (from the slums, their homes, etc) as a token to use the facilities.  The plastic will then be picked up by the public garbage company and properly disposed rather than abandoned in the streets.

"We are approaching a few sports people in the hope that they will take part in the opening day, and without a doubt some will accept to witness a special day for the kids of Sihanoukville."

That’s the letter from Francesco. You can find out more about M’Lop Tapang, and the street children and the centre at  www.mloptapang.org

A huge thankyou to everyone who’s making all this possible, especially the top corporate sponsors Deutsche Bank, Prudential, Crosby Capital, ADM Capital, and also Virgin Atlantic, Kodak and Beeline Bicycles.

AND if you have been enjoying this project, please also think of BEN HAINES from Reuters who is a VOLUNTEER, and who set up and run this website in his spare time from his bedroom or somewhere, uploading files etc thru the night, and making podcasts etc possible. He is the top behind-the-scenes person without whom this project would not work.

If you have ideas on what more we could do to help at M’Lop Tapang or elsewhere, pls just drop a line.

The charity workers at M’Lop Tapang (MT) street children’s centre in Cambodia have now found and purchased land for the sports centre, thanks to the funds we have raised through ‘The Long Road Home’ adventure.

The money we are raising is for two charity projects, one in Pakistan for 10,000 children and one in Cambodia for 5,000 children. We still need over 50,000 USD to meet the overall fundraising target, but the Cambodia project has more or less funded - hence implementation can start.

The land MT have purchased is at a site a few hundred meters from Sihanoukville’s central market, in the very centre of town. The location is five minutes from the slums, and five minutes from MT’s drop-in centre for older, mostly drug-abusing children.
Thouch Seth, MT outreach manager said, “This area is an ideal location, as there are many bored youth using drugs nearby.”
The playground will have a small info point, where all children can meet social workers if needed. “The families of many children do not allow their kids to attend our centers, but this playground allows those children to meet outreach social workers, and at the same time have fun and be safe”, Thouch Seth said.

Currently, it’s the rainy season, and conditions are particularly hard for Cambodia’s poor. Slum areas become a river of garbage, water borne diseases and mud. The MT education center is full of up to 100 kids at any time.
MT tries to help street-children build stable lives and reintegrate into their families and communities. This summer, Map, an 18 year old, ex-drug user, has just been reintegrated with his family after 8 years of no contact. The MT drop-in center and outreach team encouraged him to leave the streets, stop using drugs, learn new skills and seek out his family. Now he has his own small business with pony and cart in his home province. His family are delighted to have him back and thought they would never see him again. The MT Outreach team does regular follow up visits and Map is extremely happy to be both back with his family and making his own income.

Tren, an 18-yr old ex-drug using, street-living kid who has been attending the MT drop-in center for over a year, was one of 20 people selected to attend a MT training programme on how to work with street children. He did so well that he was selected as full-time volunteer in the MT outreach team, a great role model for kids who are still using drugs on the street.
MT expects more than 300 kids a day will use the sports centre, making a terrific difference, not just to MT but to the whole community. Maggie Eno, who runs M’Lop Tapang, writes: “The sports centre will be one of the most effective programs yet. Sports can help enormously when working with kids, for building self-esteem, making friends, keeping fit and replacing boredom. The space will be open to all children, from every background. It will be their place. It will be unique.” A huge thanks and pats on the back to EVERYONE who has made this possible through donations. As the sports centre goes up, I’ll write again with news and photos from the MT team, so you can see for yourself how the funds you have donated are being used. Thanks again to all - and I really hope that we can also reach the target for the Pakistan over the next few months, so that project can also start implementation.

Meanwhile, I’ve now finally made it to Baku in Azerbaijan, on the other side of the Caspian Sea, and am getting ready to set off on my next leg, through the Caucasus…