A not-for-profit organization based in Sihanoukville is using art as a therapeutic means to help abused children and warn others of the dangers they face from abusers.
‘Let Us Create’ is training 160 beach children at their center and helping to cut the number of beach child-vendors selling children to paedophiles.
“The majority of children are the beach kids who work from morning until late night,” says, ‘Let Us Create’ Program Manager Leah Kidd.
“Sometimes they don’t go home at night because they need to earn money for their family. I cannot speak for the children themselves, but I imagine they are very tired. They have to work so hard.”’
Kids at the beach sell souvenirs like necklaces, fireworks or bracelets to tourists every day. While most visitors happily patronize their offerings, children can be at risk to those who might abuse them.
Aside from offering free education to the children,’ Let Us Create’ provides some form of financial aid to their families to allow their kids to attend art classes.
Mainly foreign artists teach the kids on how to draw or use acrylics and paint. Leah believes that art is like therapy that helps heal some of the children’s problems, allowing them to express their feelings.
“These children came from the poor background. I guess they are the poorest children,” Leah says. Through arts, the children can express their feelings of loneliness, sadness and joy.
‘Let Us Create’ sells the paintings the children created at its gallery in Sihanoukville. A series of paintings titled ‘Entitlement to Freedom’ will be put on display in the Botanic Cafe in Phnom Penh on July 23.
Chab Chamreoun, president of ‘Let Us Create,’ wants people to appreciate the paintings rather than the children’s background.
The “let us create” initiative of the Cambodian Children Painting Project may give the unsuspecting Tourist / Volunteer a nice impression of lovely Cambodian Children learning their painting and creative skills. The Kids deserve every initiative to get them on their feet. Most of them are street kids or from poor families which sent them around to beg, collect garbage etc. So to give them something to start their creative skills is generally something i would applaud. But there is a dark side to his whole project. The kids are encouraged to sell these pictures which have often not even been drawn by themthelfs. I witnessed a kid of about 6 years at the beach trying to sell a picture for 10 $ which is quite a lot. The kid explained that 5 $ was for their “Teacher at the Let us Create project and 5 $ for him. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
Later i went to check out the Facility on Ekareach Road and was confronted with a Mass of foreign (white) Tourists wearing Let us Create T-shirts, playing with the kids. As appealing that may be for the Tourists to enjoy the unspoiled love of cambodian kids it is as damaging to the children. They quickly attach to the loving Tourist, not realizing that they will leave in a few days or week dropping them in their misery again.
I recommend you look at this documentary to get an idea of the negative impact ot the evergrowing Voluntourism Business in Cambodia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQcTpRjJi7o