My Life by Meshell

Phalla was one of the infamous “garbage dump children” when he was small. His whole family lived in a camp like this one near the city dump, and every day they picked through the garbage looking, again, for recyclables they could sell. In this pic a man is returning from his day’s work, and in the background you can see the fence that surrounds the dump. The government is determined to keep foreigners with cameras out these days, so the people who work inside must climb under the fence, wading through filthy water to do so.

Phalla and his family were offered assistance by a French NGO called Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE). They schooled him and his 7 brothers and sisters and then trained them in western hospitality skills, thus making them employable in the many hotels and restaurants in Phnom Penh. He took me there on the way to the garbage dump camp. Here he is outside the restaurant where the students practice their skills and visitors can get an excellent, cheap meal. The PSE also cares for orphaned and abandoned children including many who are mentally and physically disabled. They are dressed in smart uniforms and were sitting around tables in classrooms when we arrived, being fed fresh fruit by their carers. I should let you know that they were not forewarned we were coming, as I know there is a lot of distrust of these kinds of institutions in Cambodia as a small number have given them all a bad name.

Phalla attended the local state school sporadically before the PSE stepped in. He told me it was not very good, and often the students parents had to sell their notebooks and pencils to buy food. Then he took me to see his village which was built by the PSE. He said the families each worked in return for the houses but I’m not sure in what capacity. His beautiful mother was very welcoming, and the children were thrilled as we’d bought sweets for them. They came tumbling out of houses, often unashamedly naked to nab their share, but never asked for more than they were given.