With the closing of Wat Opot, some children could not be returned to their families and were therefore placed by Social Services into the care of another orphanage. It is a much smaller operation than we were and the conditions, although not the same as Wat Opot, are satisfactory. We have been putting off our…

Phnom Penh has grown so much in the past couple of years that I now get lost in a city that I once could walk around with confidence, easily identifying my location by looking for one of only a few five-story structures that made up its skyline. Today, however, the buildings below sit on a…

I haven’t gotten out of the house much lately because of the extreme heat, but was given the opportunity to attend a meeting with Social Services and two of the Wat Opot Children who were being placed in another children’s center, because they were not doing well with the previous placement. It was also my…

Years ago, when I first arrived in Cambodia, I would ride a ferry across the mighty Mekong River, to Vietnamese fishing villages on the other side. There were no tall buildings at the time in Phnom Penh, yet the differences between the two sides were drastic. The fishing villages had no electricity, or running water,…

Nightly visits at my flat are becoming more frequent as the kids in Phnom Penh learn that I have returned. Today Mr. Dara and I started the follow-up home visits with the children who have been returned to their families. We spent the whole day on the road but the results were encouraging. Everyone we…

This was the final group picture of the children living at Wat Opot. A few days later Mr. Dara and the reintegration team would begin taking children back to their homeland to live with their families or relatives. For some, the change will be good, for they will have the opportunity to use, what they…