In attendance were Government of Cambodia representatives along with representatives from Save the Children’s ‘Families Are Stronger Together (FAST)’ initiative, UNICEF and the USAID funded ‘Family Care First Cambodia (FCFC)’ project among others. 3PC implementing members are heavily involved with the outcomes of these programs, as of course among the key objectives of 3PC are strengthening family based care and reintegrating children and youth who are out of parental care with their families.

The following review of some of the conference activities comes from Katherine Neidorf (Children in Adversity (Family Care First) and Education Advisor USAID/Cambodia). We are very pleased indeed that the significant work being undertaken in Cambodia by 3PC on implementing alternative care options and helping families to stay together is receiving recognition on the international stage, as of course this  also runs in tandem with the global awareness raising and behaviour change campaigns our ChildSafe Movement are currently spearheading.

Over to Katherine –

“With over 400 participants from 76 countries, the momentum is strong for alternative care reform on a global scale and ensuring children are thriving in healthy family settings.  

Presenters are here to share lessons learned in Rwanda, Uganda, Moldova, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Cambodia to name only a few.  It’s encouraging to see the key themes of emerging practice align with the work we are doing in Cambodia.  Further, FCFC will be able to build off of partners’  learning and experience working children with disabilities and engaging with the health sector to strengthen our own approach.   

The work happening in Cambodia has been strongly represented with the presentation on the Government Action Plan on Alternative Care by MoSVY’s Ros Sokha; the poster presentation manned by USAID, UNICEF, Save the Children, and Global Alliance for Children (GAC); Rebecca Nhep’s presentation “Establishing a Foster Care System in Cambodia” highlighting the work of Children in Families (CIF) and their partners and the emerging alternative care panel; and finally later today, GAC’s networking champion, Kathleen Strottman, will be moderating the “Leaving Care” session.    

There have been a number of rich side meetings and smaller conversations between partners and colleagues, typically separated by oceans and timezones, as well as with old and potentially new partners.  Jamie Gow presented on the Columbia research at the data side meeting and John Williamson facilitated a side meeting regarding children with disabilities.  

A big thank you to the team who took time out of their busy work schedules and spent many hours designing the poster with 17 Triggers: GAC, Save the Children, UNICEF, M’lup Russey, Cambodian Children’s Trust, and Friends International (shout out to Robert Common for spending his weekend perfecting the visuals with 17 Triggers). 

Additional special ‘thank yous’ to:

Save the Children, for submitting the abstract, organizing the partners in preparation for the poster presentation, and creating the terrific film highlighting FCFC’s direct service providers doing the work on the ground.  

Global Alliance for Children (GAC) for funding the beautiful scarves and poster design and making the powerful visuals a reality.   

Royal Government of Cambodia for their engagement, specifically Ros Sokha, the Director of the Child Welfare Department, for the acknowledgment of USAID, FCFC, and 3PC during the fantastic presentation on the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Action Plan on Alternative Care. 

UNICEF for the facilitation that ensured the RGC could be present.

GHR for the demonstration of their continued support by being present and their support for FCFC activities.

Friends International for creating the scarves and offering office support in Geneva.

17 Triggers for designing the poster on such short notice.”

Further information on the conference can be found at the following link –

http://www.alternativecaregeneva2016.com/index.php/en/

Back in August the Kaliyan Mith ChildSafe team organized a screening of the movie “The Voluntourist” at the Hangout Hostel in Siem Reap. “The Voluntourist”, directed by Chloe Sanguinetti, puts the spotlight onto some young voluntourists and their motivations for volunteering, along with their thoughts on the real impact that their efforts are making. It has proved a welcome addition to the growing debate on the issues surrounding the growth of voluntourism, particularly those relating to children and child protection. The screening was followed by a discussion on volunteering in Cambodia, in particular on the growing local industry of voluntourism, the effects it might have on children and on the local community, and to also tackle what would constitute responsible volunteering.

Following the screening and discussion the team took the opportunity to ask the movie’s director, Chloe, a few questions.

How many screenings have you done of the Voluntourist so far?

Since the release of the documentary in September last year, I have done around 20 screenings and presentations. Most of them took place in the UK, but also the US, Australia and Cambodia.

Can you tell us about the reasons why you decided to make this documentary?

When I was 18 I participated in a voluntourism program in Vietnam. I paid a ridiculous amount of money to teach English to (so called) street children in Hanoi for 10 days. At my first lesson I really questioned why I was there. I’d never taught before, never worked with children before. The most striking thing was that I also realized that the children in my ‘class’ knew this. They’d seen conveyor belts of well-intentioned volunteers coming to teach them how to count to ten, and I was just another of them. I felt ashamed to have assumed that my ‘help’ was needed. I came home, resumed my studies, and never stopped doing research about voluntourism. I even wrote my final year essay about the sociology of volunteering, mapping out who decides to volunteer and why. After graduating I set out on a round-the-world trip for 18 months, and decided to film short-term, unskilled volunteers in different countries and question local organisations about their need for this type of volunteering. I conducted around 25 interviews with volunteers, local organisations, local people working with international volunteers and child protection organisations. All this footage then became the film The Voluntourist. The film tries as much as possible to raise awareness of this type of volunteering.

Can you give us more info on the ongoing impact of the documentary?

As I was filming I didn’t really think about the impact that the documentary would or could have. It just felt like I was filming for myself, asking questions to volunteers to satisfy my own curiosity in a way. But it turns out that voluntourism is a hot topic right now and a lot of people showed interest in the film, which was a great surprise. The film has been viewed around 12,000 times so far and has been used as educational material by a few different organisations; volunteer sending agencies and even universities.
I’ve also had positive feedback from volunteers: two days after the launch of the documentary, I received an email from a volunteer who was working in an orphanage in Cambodia. She said she’d watched the film and stopped her placement right after. She was writing to thank me. It was really heart-warming and encouraging.
It’s now almost been a year since the documentary has been out and I keep getting requests for screenings and debates about the topic. I really feel like the film has been a part, if only small, of the global debate on voluntourism and hopefully will keep on being an impactful film for people who are thinking of volunteering.

Now that you are living in Phnom Penh, have you got any plans on producing a second documentary? Can you please tell us about your projects?

I have recently moved from London to Phnom Penh for work. Aside from raising awareness about voluntourism through the film I am also a freelance communications consultant.  I am currently looking for work, doing educational videos mostly. I never stop thinking about making another documentary, maybe on voluntourism, maybe on another topic… I don’t want to say too much as nothing is certain, and I am more in a ‘research’ phase at the moment. But I definitely will not stop making documentaries.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I am still available for screenings and presentations or even just for a chat about voluntourism, I can be contacted through the website http://www.the-voluntourist.com.

If people are interested in the topic, they can follow the Facebook page of the film: https://www.facebook.com/TheVoluntouristDocumentary/, or the Twitter: @VSolidaires.

(Thank you to Chloe and to the Kaliyan Mith Siem Reap ChildSafe Team.

Further advice on responsible volunteering can be found at http://thinkchildsafe.org/when-i-volunteer/ )

1 | How did you first learn about the ChildSafe Movement?

We came in touch with Friends International because we wanted to feature an NGO in our online payment page and we had heard of their good work in Cambodia. When we were discussing with them, they introduced us to ChildSafe  and we were immediately engaged by the initiative.

2 | Why is it important for you to be ChildSafe?

It is important to be ChildSafe for us because we have Cambodia in our name, in our roots and in our values as a business.  We are proudly Cambodian, and as such, we are committed to putting our “grain of sand” to help out the people who are able to do good development work and make a difference. It is important to realise that development work can be done by anyone: from tourists, to private companies and to NGOs. This is how we see ChildSafe: it helps to involve more people in the process of fighting against child poverty and marginalisation. As a travel start-up, we felt the need to use our position to help out in this respect and educate our customers and our partners on what ChildSafe is what each of us can do to help.

3 | In what ways do you implement ChildSafe protection as an individual or within your business or organization?

CamboTicket raises awareness about ChildSafe all throughout our communication: website, newsletters, tickets… The goal is to educate travellers on the dos and don’ts when they arrive in Cambodia. For most of them it is the first time in the region and they have not heard about how to deal with situations like begging children at tourist sites or crossroads. Also, and even though we joined ChildSafe only recently, we also have a lot of work to do with our partners. Our operator partners go beyond the Cambodian border and span all over the country. This big transport network gives us a privileged position to enforce ChildSafe with Cambodian businesses and will ensure we continue to do so in the near future.

4 | What experiences have you faced personally which have demonstrated the need to be a ChildSafe advocate?

You don’t need to go to Angkor to find begging children in the streets. The sense of helplessness when you encounter one of these situations is what motivated me to personally push our involvement in ChildSafe. We’re giving people the first and most important step in this fight: information.

5 | Do you have any examples you can share of ways you have enforced ChildSafe protection which led to a positive outcome?

Since our involvement in ChildSafe is fairly recent, we do not specific information about the outcomes our effort has had just yet. We hope its giving travellers the tools to react positively when they encounter children at risk. I am sure we will know more about our impact due to this project in the near future.

How did you first learn about the ChildSafe Movement?

I became aware of Childafe through The Friends restaurant in Phnom Penh nearly 8 years ago and also through seeing tuk tuk drivers wearing childsafe t shirts.

Why is it important for you to be ChildSafe?

Construction sites are dangerous places and Cambodia has a culture of allowing families to stay on construction sites. We absolutely do not allow under 18’s on our sites. We provide accommodation off site for our workers, to ensure they don’t need to bring their families along with them and their children can stay at home and continue to attend school. Our over 18’s only policy ensure we are not supporting child labour. We do not even allow client’s children on site. Our policies and procedures reflect the childsafe principles.

In what ways do you implement ChildSafe protection as an individual or within your business or organization?

In many of our company policies there are references to child protection.  We only employ staff of 18 years and above they must have ID cards or family books to prove this. There is zero tolerance of any employee being involved in any offences related to children. This is grounds for immediate dismissal and contacting the police. We make all our employees aware of our childsafe principles on their employment by thoroughly explaining our company policies. We vet any NGO we are involved with for CSR to ensure they are ChildSafe. Where we can we use chilsdafe accommodation and transport. Full time employees must provide a police check from their home province. For some projects we also require this from casual  labour. Our full time staff are all ChildSafe certified agents. Our staff are not permitted to volunteer with an organization that is not ChildSafe. We display ChildSafe leaflets in our office. We update our childsafe training yearly.

What experiences have you faced personally which have demonstrated the need to be a ChildSafe advocate?

I have seen underage girls with older men at hotels being groomed. I have seen children playing on building sites. I have been approached by begging children. I have seen children abusing substances in the street. I have seen drugged children being used by adults/older children to beg. I have seen child labour on building sites and in brick factories.

Do you have any examples you can share of ways you have enforced ChildSafe protection which led to a positive outcome?

By accommodating our workers on site – children are left at home to be able to attend school. By not employing under 18’s we prevent child labour. I personally have phoned the ChildSafe hotline when I was worried for the safety of a child.