| Country / Region: | Cambodia |
|---|---|
| Project Summary: | Jumpah is a program that works to transform life for orphans, widows, terminally ill and the poor people in Cambodia, by training, encouraging and equipping them through economic development. |
Partner Overview
Cambodia has changed drastically since emerging from three decades of war, genocide, fear and destruction. Basic peace and security have replaced anarchy, and law and order have started to find a home. Millions and millions of dollars from foreign governments and aid organizations have poured in and been spent on 'development' activities. Garment factories produce clothes for Gap and American Eagle Outfitters and provide $50-per-month jobs to thousands of young women. Tourists visit the killing fields and the ruins of Angkor Wat. Cement has easily replaced wood as the building material of choice. Traffic jams, along with newer and bigger motorcycles, provide some evidence of ‘economic development’.
But a few kilometers outside Phnom Penh ‘development’ seems to come to halt. Electric wires end, access to good schools diminishes, clinics are rare, jobs are non-existent, markets offer fewer goods, and life pretty much remains day-to-day survival. Cambodia ranks at or near the bottom of Asian countries in most economic and quality of life indicators, many living on less then $.50 a day. Eleven million people live in Cambodia, a small country about the size of the American state of Missouri. Education, technical training and skills development are crucial to rebuild the capacity of people to improve their lives and to help the country develop.
Once caught in poverty, Cambodian families soon give up all hope that their life can or will ever change for the better. The odds are simply stacked too strongly against them. Finding food and firewood becomes a daily struggle. Jobs and cash are virtually non-existent. Children rarely attend school, at least not beyond grades one or two. Many families are in debt, having sold their land, cows or other possessions in times of emergency. Occasionally, poverty is so severe, children are abandoned or sold. The females left behind often find themselves victims of the sex trade. Women, either mother or grandmother, head about half of the families living in poverty. Left alone, these families lack the experience, education, power, money and other resources necessary to break the never-ending cycle of poverty.
Jumpah is a program that works to transform life for orphans, widows, terminally ill and the poor people living in Cambodia. Jumpah is a program of Christian Care for Cambodia, a group committed to training, encouraging and equipping Cambodians to make a positive and holistic impact on marginalized people in Cambodia. They are able to do this in several ways:
Place of Peace was created so that desperate families with HIV-AIDS are able to have homes, support and love in the midst of living with the disease. Here, adults receive compassionate care for their illnesses, and children learn to read and write and then enroll in government schools. Everyone learns about a God who loves them, cares for them, and wants to have an eternal relationship with them. In the process, parents learn about options for long-term care for their surviving children, and are invited to make the CCFC orphanage (Garden of Joy) the legal guardian of their children.
