HOW WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
One of the primary ways we build relationship with the kids in Phnom Penh is through our sports program. Head coach Sean Collier has a Master’s Degree in coaching and leads our team. The way Sean coaches is by approaching each child at his/her developmental level. It’s all about life skills, team building, problem solving, and critical thinking-it’s so much more than kicking balls and wrestling mats! Through this program, kids are learning invaluable skills they will carry with them a lifetime, and are finding a physical outlet for the pain they carry from their abuse.
English and computer skills are two life skills that can change the life of a child in Cambodia. Because higher-paid jobs can be found when a person has these skills, families are anxious for their children to participate in our programs. Once a child is in our program, the trusting relationships our staff members build with the child can set him on the path to freedom.
School of Worship
Our School of Worship is a haven for children who’ve lived in darkness their whole lives. They step into our SOW room and are taken from darkness to light as worship leader Alice Collier and HPC staff members lead them straight into the presence of God. Our children are learning that worship can be experienced in many forms through the creative arts and just spending time with their creator. They are also learning to play instruments they had never even touched before, and to lift their voices in joyous praise. Several of the School of Worship students are rising up as young leaders in our Center-it’s amazing to see their lives transformed!
From early morning until midnight every weekday, our staff are on the streets with kids in the sex tourist district of Phnom Penh. In Phnom Penh, if you are two or three years old, in your parents eyes you are old enough to work. Three-fourths of the kids we reach out to cannot stop “work” long enough to participate in the programs that take place inside our Center, so we go to them! Our staff conduct a mobile kids clubs in several different locations throughout the day, make social work calls, get to know families, and just spend time on the curbs of city streets with broken, exploited children.
Counseling/Play Therapy/Social Work
HPC Cambodia is about restoration. In Phnom Penh, we have two counselors who are trained to take the most hurting children through the long process of putting the pieces of their lives together for the first time. This happens through individual counseling, family counseling and our play therapy room which all create a safe environment in which the child can heal. Our Social Work team daily walks the streets and works cases with the children and the Cambodian government, setting kids free and doing all we can to put pedophiles behind bars. Our Social Workers oversee the entire process of healing from disclosure through the legal proceedings, where they then place the children in the loving care of our counselors.
Job Training Program
Our Job Training Program leads a growing group of kids in a program that sets the stage for a successful future. In this program the children are not only learning how to balance a budget, run a sustainable business and problem solve-they make crafts together that help provide steady income for their impoverished families. Because they are able to earn money each month through this program, their families refrain from selling their children for sex.