Orphanage

Wat Preah Yesu Children’s  home is caring for orphaned and severely disadvantaged children in Cambodia. The Home is located in Siem Reap Province at the rural centre known as Wat Preah Yesu. In May, 2008, the home was caring for 137 children between 6 months and 19 years of age. The children mostly come from the poorer rural class of people, many of them having received very little or no schooling. Many of our children have been orphaned by the silent killer HIV/AIDS.

Adoor and Seir (late) both HIV PositiveWhen a child arrives at the Wat Preah Yesu Children’s Home, they are immediately placed into a new family where they can receive the love and nurture that every child needs. The new family includes a husband and wife team as the new parents, the natural children of the parents and other orphans already integrated into the family. Up to 16 orphaned or disadvantaged children are placed into a family. The goal is to create a new lifetime family, with the orphaned children considering their new parents as parents for life. To this end the family operates as much as possible like any normal Christian family. Wat Preah Yesu Children’s Home operates with minimal management, based on the belief that every family should manage itself. Tim and Wendy Maddocks, the founders and co-directors of the Home, provide management assistance  and counseling when required.

We presently have nine families. The families are housed in duplex buildings. Each family has a large family room, One large boys and one large girls bedroom with double bunk beds, a bedroom for the parents, an outside attached kitchen, a large open dining area, and wash room. Toilets are detached from the house. The wide veranda around the house, the high sloping ceilings and louvered windows in the gable of the roof create a comfortable environment for tropical weather conditions. Families are encouraged to grow vegetables, giving the children opportunity to interact with the natural things that God has created for man’s pleasure.

Each family operates under Christian principals and the children are encouraged to develop their own relationship with God. The children are educated at the Cambodia Adventist School-Kantrok, which is also located on the Wat Preah Yesu property.

At the Wat Preah Yesu Home, there is no stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. Our twenty five children who are HIV+ are treated just like the other children, with the exception that they receive specialized medical care and anti-retroviral medications provided by the Angkor hospital for Children.

Eligible children are identified through the network of Seventh-day Adventist congregations throughout Cambodia, by the Angkor Hospital for Children (located in Siem Reap), or by the government children’s welfare department. These children are assessed and if eligible accepted into the Home. We currently have children originating from 10 provinces.

The orphanage is operated on the same principals of faith that George Mueller operated his famous Bristol orphanages. While we do not solicit funds, they are needed and welcome. All staff are volunteers, receiving USD 27.5 per month + food and accommodation. The cost of supporting a child for living costs and education is approximately USD45 per month. The duplex house design used at the home will accommodate 32 children in two families. The Home master plan includes 8 duplexes buildings which will accommodate up to 250 children. The cost of construction and equipping of a duplex house is approximately USD 45,000. We do not do individual sponsoring of children thus avoiding favortism and giving children without sponsors a sense of being umloved. Most financial supporters make unspecified donations to be used as needed or have funded part or the full cost of a duplex construction or another project of their choice. Please visit our Story site and read some of the heart wrenching stories of the children, or the Children’s Photo Album. If you are ever in Siem Reap, plan to visit with the children and maybe add to their growing English vocabulary by teaching them a few new words.

 

© 2008--SALT Ministries, Wat Preah Yesu
SALT Ministries P.O. Box 93007, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Tel. (855) 12 804017, (855) 12 734102
E-mail:
info@saltmin.org