In advance of his visit to Ireland at the end of March, I caught up with Im Chetra, director of Tearfund Ireland partner M’Lup Russey in Cambodia.
The name M’Lup Russey means ‘the shade of the bamboo’ in the Khmer language and represents how the organisation seeks to be an umbrella or shelter to keep children safe in their family and community and to support them to grow up to be empowered and independent adults.
M’Lup Russey began as a project conducting research into the impact of growing up in an orphanage on a child’s life.
One of the key findings of the research was that 80% of children living in orphanages in Cambodia have at least one living parent who could care for them with the right supports.
The research further found that the main driver for parents to place their children in orphanages was poverty. Parents living in poverty lacked confidence that they could provide for their children’s needs. They thought that an orphanage could provide a better education, a better place to stay, and a better future.
However, Chetra tells me that spending time living in an orphanage is actually just delaying the impact of the issue that put the child into the orphanage in the first place. The issues are further compounded if there is poor child protection in the orphanage setting.
M’Lup Russey’s research has found that 90-95% of orphanages in Cambodia don’t allocate funds to the case management of individual children or emotional supports and preparation for the transition back to family and community when young people age out of the care setting. This leaves young people very vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
M’Lup Russey’s response
Over the years, M’Lup Russey has developed programmes to holistically work in the best interests of the child. This involves family strengthening, support for children in care settings and care leavers in preparation for life in the community, working with residential care institutions to move towards family-based care alternatives, educating the wider community about the needs of the child, and engaging with the government.
Chetra says that M’Lup Russey can’t control change, but they can influence it. To this end, they promote the full participation of the whole community, including churches, in helping them to develop their mission to keep children safely in their family and community.
To donors and supporters, Chetra has a final word:
There are better ways than supporting orphanages. Become a partner and promote the child in the family and community through improvement in education services, health services in the community or sporting activities that help the community to become a vibrant environment for the children that live in it.
Im Chetra will be the keynote speaker at a Tearfund Ireland event called Rethinking Care for Vulnerable Children, held in Maynooth Community Church on Saturday, 29th March, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. You can register your interest in attending HERE.