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When
friends adopted a Cambodian child, her longing to work with
children in need was renewed. “I learned a little bit about
Cambodia from them, then started studying (the country) and
decided that is where I wanted to go,” said Smith.
While
surfing the Internet to find organizations that worked with
Cambodian orphans, she came upon NCLO, No Child Left Out, a
non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to helping
children in desperate situations worldwide. Research led
Smith to realize that NCLO’s ideals matched her own and she
immediately wanted to get involved. She signed up to be a
Writing Buddy, someone who e-mails a Cambodian orphan to
help him or her with English skills, learn about another
culture, and feel cared about. Smith’s involvement grew
quickly and it wasn’t long before she was hopping on an air
plane to Cambodia.
First
impressions of Cambodia
Smith became an NCLO volunteer and embarked on a 10-day trip
to Cambodia last July. A talented photographer, she knew
she’d be taking photos for NCLO, but didn’t really know what
else was in store for her. Upon arrival, she and other
volunteers worked at several outreach centers painting walls
and delivering supplies, played with the children and gave
them as much love as they possibly could during their short
visit. Night after night, they pumped up soccer balls and
sorted through bags of donations. But it was during Smith’s
first trip to Stung Mean Chey, the Phnom Penh city dump,
that she really began to see her purpose.
Orphaned
children live in Stung Mean Chey, scrounging for things they
can sell to get enough money to eat. “They are as young as
four and five, and often are working barefoot or naked in
rotting, disease-filled, rat and snake infested garbage, for
up to 14 hours a day,” said Smith. “The average daily income
is about 50 cents.”
“I knew from
the moment I arrived here that this was a place I would be
returning to, but at Stung Mean Chey, I began to realize
why,” Smith said. “The children there are so far beyond
desperate. I have seen children get into a fist fight over a
small piece of fruit out there. They are fighting for their
own survival.”
Cambodia’s
condition
According to Smith, there are over 200,000 documented orphan
children in Cambodia, which is a country roughly the size of
Oklahoma. This does not include the children who live in the
streets, at the dump, or in the many temple complexes
throughout the country. When people ask how the country
could be in such a horrible state, Smith gives them a
historical perspective. “During the Vietnam War, Cambodia
became embroiled in a vicious civil war that stemmed from
communist rebels, known as the Khmer Rouge, taking over the
country,” she explained. During this time, many thousands of
Cambodians were taken to places known as killing fields
where they were executed and dumped into mass graves. Over
20,000 people were exhumed from one killing field near Phnom
Penh and only about half of the field has been excavated.
There are at least three other killing fields in Cambodia,
according to Smith.
Smith said
that during this time, families were torn apart. “Almost
every Cambodian you speak to over the age of 30 has lost
someone…to this genocide.” Landmines are one of the
lingering problems from the genocide. The Khmer Rouge
planted over two million landmines throughout the country.
Many of
Cambodia’s orphans are products of these mines, as parents
step on them while clearing the fields, Smith said.
Diseases, such as malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis and AIDS
are also rampant in Cambodia, leaving many children orphaned
and left to fend for themselves. “Child prostitution is a
fate many of them befall because the orphanages simply
cannot support any more children,” she said.
A job offer
Smith was slated to return to Cambodia in October for a
week-long trip that would give her the opportunity to help
NCLO’s founder, Elizabeth Mallory, open its first orphanage
there, The NCLO Children’s Home and Educational Center.
Three weeks before she left, Mallory offered her a paid
position as operations director for The Center and Smith
accepted. “The actual decision to do this was very
difficult,” she said. “I had to leave behind all that was
safe and familiar, a good job, good friends, a loving
family. The hardest part was telling my family.” Smith’s
family had less than three weeks to prepare for her move to
the other side of the world. Her initial stay was for three
months. Then she came home for the holidays and returned to
Cambodia in late January for seven months. After coming home
for a visit this September, Smith’s stays will be for a year
at a time.
The opening
of an orphanage
NCLO has been providing support to existing orphanages
across Cambodia for a couple of years. But it wasn’t until
St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sharon Center, Ohio
offered to cover the expense of renting a facility that the
organization’s goal of opening its own orphanage began to
take shape. Smith’s first priority when she arrived in the
fall was starting the long and delicate process of
registering the organization with the Cambodian government.
After an incredible amount of paperwork, the process should
be nearing completion soon.
Currently,
Smith is working on finding children for The Center, which
is large enough to house up to 30 orphans and the
appropriate staff. “We’ve decided to focus on the children
living in Stung Mean Chey,” she said. “…First, we have to
identify the children. We then have to do a thorough
background check on them to ensure they are true orphans.”
Once that is complete, the children undergo a full medical
evaluation to identify any serious illnesses. “After that,
they have to be cleaned up, as these children live and sleep
in the dump. They are covered with lice and any number of
skin diseases,” noted Smith.
At the same
time, Smith has been working on getting beds built, buying
all the necessary supplies, hiring staff, enrolling the
children in school, and finding a hospital that is willing
to treat the children for free or at very reduced rates.
Smith also oversees project leaders and translators at each
of the six orphanages supported by NCLO in Cambodia.
Even after
months of work, The Center is only a temporary facility.
NCLO is hoping to open a permanent facility, called The
Village, in 2007. Both will be founded on the same mission –
to provide a loving, family-type home to children in need
that also reaches out to improve the conditions at area
orphanages and poverty-stricken villages.
Making a
life in Cambodia
After working until nearly midnight, Smith is up at 6:30
a.m. when she immediately logs onto her computer – her
connection to people around the world. “My schedule is a bit
strange because I need to talk to and deal with people all
the way around the planet,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for
me to be on instant messaging at all kinds of crazy hours,
hashing out some issue or another.”
Smith lives
at The Center and said the atmosphere is home-like, not
institutional. Unlike home, however, she has a security
guard living on the grounds. He watches out for her safety,
and will protect the children and other staff members when
they arrive.
Challenged
by the language barrier, Smith said she’s slowly picking up
the native tongue, Khmer, but gets pretty far by smiling and
pointing. At the market two blocks away, she buys
freshly-picked fruit and drinks juice straight from a
coconut. The hot, humid, snow-less climate is a world apart
from western New York
In her spare
time, Smith likes to hop on a moped, accompanied by a
driver, and take photos out in the country. “The rice
paddies shine like fields of emeralds, green beyond any
color you can imagine,” she describes. “You see people out
working the fields with teams of oxen, up to their knees in
water.”
A member of
the New Covenant Worship Center when she lived in Holley,
Smith’s experience teaching children’s Bible classes,
leading a children’s ministry team, and going on a mission
trip, along with college-level coursework in world missions,
may come in handy in Cambodia. But nothing could have
prepared her for what she’s now experiencing. “You just have
to throw yourself in headfirst and do it,” she said. “You
learn more about yourself, how strong you are, how weak you
are, so very fast in a place like this.” Smith now relies on
her faith more than ever…and still takes her inspiration
from Mother Teresa.
Note:
For more
information on NCLO, Stung Mean Chey, and sponsorship
opportunities, and to read Smith’s ongoing journal, visit
www.nclo.org or
www.nclosam.org. Information provided for this
article was communicated largely by e-mail. Ellie Murchie
took the photo of Sandi and the children used on page one.
Sandra Smith shot the other photographs used in the article.
In a message
received March 7, she said, “We just got our first child at
our orphanage two days ago! His name is Chanthy, and he is
absolutely the sweetest little boy. He doesn't speak a lick
of English, so it is a little challenging, but I'm learning
Khmer fast, and we figure it out as we go. He's a child from
the dump at Stung Mean Chey.”
March 12,
2006 |
