In May 2008, Ruth visited GREEN GHEKO Children's Home in Cambodia with donations from our students and college.
The GREEN GECKO project is an initiative founded to benefit the lives of street children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A recently emerging town located in the north west of the country, it is home to the world's largest religious site 'Angkor Wat' and consequently, a hastily growing tourism industry.
http://www.greengeckoproject.org
Although the GREEN GECKO project is still in early stages of development, we have been overwhelmed by the support and the results already received and achieved. In July 2007, the GREEN GECKO Project became a registered NGO in Cambodia and on 16th August 2007, we signed a 15 year lease on 1 1/4 acres of land. So while we are very proud of how far the kids have come, we are even more excited about the potential of their future. With continued support - moral, physical and financial - we are very confident that the future for these children and their families looks promising.
The sad reality then was that these children, as young as 5 years old, were often desperate, either living in very poor housing or no housing at all. Some of the children slept unaccompanied on the pavement, defenceless to abduction, abuse and disease.
Thankfully, today we can describe these terrible conditions in the past tense at least for the children that have been helped by the program. The Green Gecko project now supports children that are ex-beggers! 97 % of the children supported are off the streets completely and all children of school age are now attending accredited Khner school.
The Green Gecko project is about empowering these children with skill education, care and support to enable them to break the begging cycle and live to the highest potential.
At Green Gecko the children can eat 3 meals per day, attend an English class, feel secure, play, get a hug, put their pictures up on the wall, have a shower, get their hair combed, nails cut, brush their teeth and receive regular medical checkups.
You can contact the organisers on the email address below.
getinvolved@greengeckoproject.org