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February 12, 2007
Street Children of Cambodia
We have been in Siem Reap for about two weeks now. When we first arrived in town there where hundreds of children trying to sell bootleg Lonley Planet books, post cards and bracelets. At first it was realy annoying. Every time you set foot into the town you would be surrounded by children trying to sell things to you.
Now that we've have been here for a while we have had the chance to find out more about the children and why they sell on the streets.
Most of the sellers are between 6 and 14 years of age and are a mixture of boys and girls. Some go to school for about one hour a day (early in the morning), then head out to the street to sell for the day. Others work up to 15 hours a day. The money they receive from the books and post cards isn't their pocket money it goes for food for there families and towards school fees. Once we got chatting to them and started teaching them we found that they're the same as all children. Some days there in a really good mood and happy and other days they're really grumpy.
We had the opportunity to talk some children in more detail.
ANNA
Anna is abouy 14 years old but she does not know when here birthday is, She moved from Vietnam with her grandmother when she was about ten. Her Mum and Dad had abandoned her. She is pretty amazing. At the age of 14 she speaks fluent English, Kamer (Cambodian), Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese. She spends every day selling books to look after herself and her grandmother. Some days she will work up to 15 hours and only sells one book for about $2 (one Pound). She says that one day she would like to travel and use all her skills.
JANTY
Janty is about 15 years old and has spent all his life living in Siem Reap. He works on a food stall on the side of he road and his job is to bring the customers off the street to eat at the stall. Most people are quite nice to him but some do give him loads of hassel.
We have eaten from his stall loads of times. The food is typical Kamer food, rice, noodles and loads of meat and veg.
Posted by admins at February 12, 2007 9:22 AM