PSE blog – Summer 2019

The objective of PES is not only to lift children out of poverty, but to get all of their families out of poverty. And, if the children came to the School Continuity Programme at least 3 times in a week, they receive several kilos of rice weekly. Throughout the year, PSE also helps families to rebuild their houses, educate their children and take care of them while their parents work. Now, with l’Atelier, they also provide jobs to children’s mothers. In total, there are 35 people working at l’Atelier, for one or the other of the two existing production lines. The first is dedicated to manufacturing the uniforms of PSE children and students in professional training: cooks, mechanics or housekeeping for example; the second is dedicated to the development of the NGO brand’s products, Le cartable de Chenda.

Emotional Intelligence is basically the ability to recognize, understand and manage emotions, one’s own emotions as well as the others’. Although it sounds easy and simple, in reality, it is not at all. It is essential to know when they are felt, how did they happen, how to control and manage them. All of these help developing self-confidence and empathy.
Health is not only about physical health, but also about mental and most of NGOs’ education centers don’t take it into account enough. That’s why, with the help of Fernando Restoy, who is volunteering for the Summer Program for 6 years and is a student from Daniel Goleman’s School – world expert of emotional intelligence, PSE wants to start developing this new kind of education starting from next year. The concept of emotional intelligence has gradually been introduced throughout the School Continuity Program to ensure the children have the basic knowledge. 

After a year travelling all around Europe, a former Summer Program monitor and her boyfriend decided to grow a new project for PSE. Indeed, Margaux and Enguéran spent several months traveling from biological farms to autonomous communities and learnt the basics to cultivate a vegetable garden. Initiated to permaculture techniques (techniques according to which the association of different plants and vegetables actually helps each other to grow because of their complementary characteristics and needs), and already sensitized to volunteering, little by little it became obvious for them to couple these two.

In this place where everything starts, where the School Continuity program was born for 200 children, the project now welcomes more than a thousand children a day: it is Central. “The second camp welcoming the most kids after Central takes care of a third of the kids we have every day. It is a project of an incredible scope for both the kids and their families. I think it is impossible for any other camp to take care of that many children”, Rodri, 1st year european monitor. The Central program takes place on the main campus of PSE in Phnom Penh, where is the heart of PSE and where the monitors staying in Phnom Penh sleep and spend their free time.

The brown gate at the entry of the paillote is a direct entrance to a scene of joy and affection. Wherever you look, there is only vitality and energy, as the children and monitors are, colourful walls and an important vegetation.

Entering Phum Russei Paillote, also called Paillote II, is entering a new world. Only 15 minutes away from Central Phnom Penh, hundreds of children push the red portal looking for new stories, new adventures to be part of. Being a daycare center throughout the year, in August Phum Russei welcomes every day 200 to 400 children from 3 to 14 years old divided into two groups. Paillote I – the original one, the first one that Papy and Mamy opened – having been closed 2 years ago, the one located in Phum Russei, created in 2004, is the now the oldest one still welcoming children.

Along the railway and in front of a practically deserted train station, 15 minutes drive away from Central Sihanoukville and in a middle of a sad, grey and extremely poor environment, there is a very small colorful school where the Sihanouk Paillote Summer Program takes place. Every morning 16 monitors and their raincoats get off the white and blue bus of PSE, ready to dance and sing for the children they will welcome all day long. 

Tenderness is the first feeling that invades anyone arriving to this place. Dedicated to  babies, from six months to four years old, Kindergarten is a colorful and joyful place where the kids running and playing non-stop. You will always see a monitor going after one of the children, because they are small whirlwinds.

In the South West of Cambodia, there is a seaside city with beaches, fishermen’s villages and… lots of casinos that have emerged in the past few years. Indeed, the ideal location and the growing potential of Sihanoukville have attracted a lot of chinese investors whose aim is to make Sihanoukville the new Macau. In this way, these investors have exploited all the potential of the city, building casinos and luxury hotels. Although they created jobs for local people, the managing positions remained in the hands of the Chinese businessmen who moved in Sihanoukville. These changes had a significant impact on people’s lives, the atmosphere of the city and therefore on the children’s everyday life. More than ever, the summer program is essential for the children of the city who not only need to be taken out of misery but also to have the opportunity to enjoy their childhood for a few hours everyday.

The medical team is vital to the School Continuity Program. They are responsible for ensuring the health of all the monitors but also for trying to improve the lives of children through workshops and presentations about health. They are interacting with children the same way as the monitors, participating and organizing activities, but they also care for and protect them.