It is almost sacred, this schooling day. Four months of volunteer work in a poor village, lost somewhere on the Cambodian countryside. The local authorities in Battambang are there; we have the Chief of the Battambang District, who have come unexpectedly, the Chief of the Municipality and his right hand, the responsible for the schools of the region. These visits are a great honour to us, because they have come to see the results of our work. Other NGOs have also come, as observers. It seems like our working methods interest a lot of people.

No less than 157 children have come to school for the big day. They come from 42 families, all living under the poverty line, and being directly supported by the NGO AVEC. It is a day of joy and hope, for us and for quite a few villagers. Thanks to our direct actions, 100% of the children who weren’t previously going to school, and whom we have managed to find, go to school today. (We don’t use money to motivate the families; our strength is the spoken word.) Of course, we are going to follow these children really closely, even though we already know that a few of them will drop out and others will only go there from time to time.
To see the photos from the big day click here, and for photos of individual AVEC children click here.


That is why we are going to return again and again to the villages to settle the affaire. For certain, it is most of all the view of future rice bags that sparkle in the sky, but in all cases, we will do the impossible for the children who live in difficult situations, to say the least.We have had several visiting Westeners during the day. German and Swiss contributors have come to support us and to see for themselves the work we undertake here. There were also a couple of French reporters, who have taken photos and made a small filmed documentary. They had a real heart throb for a little girl who is infected with HIV.




They followed us in our contacts with the families, but also while out volunteers prepared the rice bags and all the other stuff.We have obtained our goals in the field, and that is thanks to the contribution of our sponsors. We only have enough to keep going for the rest of the year, and that is without paying any salaries. But we stay optimistic, and continue to hope for future donations. It is a day of celebration for everybody today, and it is time for AVEC to do a sort of evaluation.







We get better and better in the field, and use our energy to deal with people in the most effective manner. We have learned to handle certain situations which previously seemed insurmountable. We have improved our distribution of information to the sponsors, and our information regarding the children. For that purpose, we have had to create new data bases and write and send our first newsletter to our sponsors. This way, everything seems to go well, and yet, we are very weak in our ability to communicate with big institutions such as UNICEF, the written media or TV.



Two days ago, we couldn’t do anything to stop a young girl from being sold just outside of the sector where we work. We would have had to pay $400 (one million riels) in order to save her. The family was insensitive to persuasion, wanting to exchange the 12-year old girl for “five years of salary”. We could have placed the girl with a grand mother, where she would have been well. But instead, we watched her walk towards the bus station with two women of her family. She came from a jungle village close to Seam Reap. We feel a bitter taste in our mouths – we need more means, such as a safe house, for these most difficult situations. It is like we work without safety net in a world that sometimes spins too fast, and where certain children are thrown about, as if this world wasn’t made for them.


If you know people, and if the cause of the Cambodian children touch you, please speak about us; we need your help. AVEC is a state of mind, of the volunteers who do what they can with what they have. We try to save children from falling into the traps that await them.Each and every sponsor receives information about the child that they sponsor, and not only at the end of the year, with a demand to pay, but regularly, throughout the year.

Photos: Aline HENRIONNET /France and Silvia/GermanyText corrected and translated by: Charlotta Friedner