What Chris Does

Well, despite deciding to be a man of leisure while I worked, Chris has a job, or rather, Chris has an NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) called Destiny Rescue which takes up a good deal of time and effort. He works doing aid and development type stuff with the villiages surrounding the Phnom Penh rubbish tip, an area called Steng Men Chey. This takes the form firstly of a child sponsorship program and a micro-loans scheme, loaning to people considered to be "the lower poor". Those in the sponsorship program recieve monthly packages containing rice and a few other bits and pieces, and Destiny Rescue also assists with getting their kids into school, and health and medical costs etc. The loans scheme is not limited to those in the program, and there are some great stories of change coming from this.

So that is the program as it stands, very briefly. However, Chris being who he is has seen other areas of need and is wroking to expand in an effort to meet some of them. One way is through providing training - buisness training, health and hygene etc before people can reicieve a loan. It is very exciting that a friend has just come back from Australia and is really interested in starting this up with Chris. So hopefully that is not too far from happening.

Another area of need is for abandoned mothers - many who are pregnant, or off giving birth when their husband leaves them. Chris is hoping to start up some kind of centre where abandoned mothers with no resources can come and stay for a few months and get themselves back up on their feet. Another area is for the older people. There is no social services or anything here outside of family, or the local Buddisht temple, and for many is Steng Men Chey they have no family or their family cannot support them. OFten the only way to get food (and hopefully peace) is to become a monk.

At the other end of the age spectrum are the street children, and trafficked children. We have mentioned before that Chris is working towards opening a home for trafficked children, and hopefully it will be possible soon. However, he also really wants to work with the street children, but rather than pioneering something, it would be great to join with an organisation already here.

So that is what is taking up Chris's time at the moment. He also learns language, and it is going well, as he gets lots of practice at the village. And then there are computer games, when he's not doing other things. And for Chris, at the moment, that isn't too often.