A View of the Center for Children’s Happiness

By Elia Van Tuyl

A Short History 

The Center for Children’s Happiness (”CCH”) is a remarkable orphanage. It is a place with a vibrant spirit of hope. CCH cares for about 140 children, ranging in age from 5 to 17. Some are orphans and others have parents who are unable to care for them. All would be living lives mired in poverty except for the intervention of CCH.

CCH was founded in 2002 by Mr. Mech Sokha (in Cambodia, family names come first, and given names come second). Sokha is in his mid-forties, and lived through the Khmer Rouge period as a teenager. His entire family, mother, father, and siblings, were killed by the Khmer Rouge during that period. He himself barely survived, having to fend off starvation and bouts of malaria. In 1979, after the Khmer Rouge was deposed by invading Vietnamese troops, Sokha lived for some time in a government orphanage.

In succeeding years, Sokha worked at many jobs, learned to speak English, and continued his interrupted education. By 1995, his personal situation was financially secure enough to marry his wife, Pen Dany. Sokha and Dany have two sons.

Noticing the very difficult plight of orphans working at the nearby (and infamous) Steung Meanchey waste disposal dump, Sokha conceived the dream of founding an orphanage to help these children escape their lives of poverty through good nutrition, moral training, a loving environment, good education, and encouragement to set goals for the future. While working for a Japanese non-governmental organization called Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Sokha became very close to Mrs. Osanai Mieko, President of the Japan Team for Young Human Power (JHP). Through JHP, Sokha was able to receive initial funding for the Center for Children’s Happiness orphanage, starting with fewer than 20 children in October, 2002.

CCH has attracted increasing financial support from donors in Europe and the United States. The initial facility, known as “CCH I”, grew to house about 35 boys and girls by mid-2006. In 2005, through the efforts of Sokha and the Cambodian Dump Children Committee in the United Kingdom, and second facility was opened in Phnom Penh a few kilometers distant from CCH I. This facility is known as “CCH/CDCC” or simply “CDCC” for short. CDCC has quickly grown since its inception, and as of February, 2007, housed just over 80 children. In the meantime, additional funding was secured through JHP to build a dormitory and vocational training facility within walking distance of CCH I. This new facility is called “CCH II”, and was completed in August, 2006. It now houses just over 20 of the older boys formerly living at CCH I. CCH I and II together now provide a home for about 45 children.

Where Do the Children Come From?

Over the years since its founding, most of the children CCH has accepted have been from the nearby Steung Meanchey municipal garbage dump. This dump receives refuse from all of Phnom Penh and surrounding areas. At any one time, there are approximately 2000 people who depend for their livelihood on scavenging at the dump, and of this number, several hundred are children. This scavenging amounts to a huge recycling enterprise. Garbage pickers are in search of glass, aluminum, plastic, and all the other normal recyclable materials.

Working conditions are difficult for everyone. There is a constant smoky haze due to methane fires burning underground. People who work for sustained periods at Steung Meanchey dump often develop serious respiratory ailments. General conditions are unsanitary and working hours tend to be long. Pay from middlemen for recyclable materials is low. An average adult income for 10 to 12 hours of labor is about $1.50.

Conditions are especially hazardous for children. In addition to the general hazards just mentioned, the opportunity cost of not being enrolled in school is incalculable, drug gangs exist at the dump that are always looking to coerce new recruits through physical threats or drug addiction, and child trafficking is always a threat in poverty situations. In addition, the constant presence of heavy machinery such as dump trucks and tractors sometimes leads to serious and even fatal accidents involving children. Dump children are often determined and courageous, but at the same time, they are lonely, dirty, hungry, fearful, and desperate.

The Children

The contrast between children at the dump and those at CCH never fails to impress visitors. Children at CCH have formed bonds of affection among themselves and with staff, and live lives quite consciously aimed toward hope and service to society. All CCH children are enrolled in Cambodian public schools, and receive supplementary education from staff, volunteers, and through courses taken at private schools outside the orphanage.

Not all children at CCH are orphans. Some come from abusive family situations, or from parents who are not able, due to poverty, to adequately care for them. What all children at CCH share in common is the experience of poverty in their lives before CCH. This fact is sometimes difficult to remember as one sees these children in the present at CCH.

The Staff

There are many orphanages in Cambodia. Most barely manage to survive. Center for Children’s Happiness stands as a notable exception to this general rule. The reasons for this are many, but at the top of the list must be the dedicated Cambodian staff members, who work long hours, at low pay, to create a safe and loving environment, and who very competently keep the children housed, fed, clothed, loved, instructed and guided, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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The most amazing cook and CCH youth.