Child protection
Child protection, education, and safe migration
To protect the most vulnerable children and their families, GEcsn has been developing and supporting programs in the fields of prevention, protection, education, and safe migration mainly in Poipet, a border town with Thailand where many Cambodians try to migrate in search of better opportunities.
For many of them, the journey ends in Poipet while others make it to Thailand where their illegal status often leads to arrests, trafficking, and deportation back to Cambodia.
The following projects support vulnerable children and their families in Poipet:
Child Migrant Office: The project provides support to children and young adults victims of unsafe migration including identification, social support, and case management for family reintegration or referral to Damnok Toek’s or other NGO’s programs. It is run through the Poipet transit center in collaboration with Friends International and Krousar Thmey.
Alternative Care: The project provides immediate care, shelter, education, and resources to children as Damnok Toek assesses the possibilities for family reintegration. There are three facilities: the Reception center (short-term), the Transitional care facility (long term), and the Group homes (for youths 16 years old and over).
Drop-In Center: The project plays an important role in the identification of at-risk children. It provides them with a safe space where they can come to take a break, get a meal, participate in activities, and get psycho-social support and protection services. The teams also organise other activities such as outreach activities in the communities to meet the children and families, a Mobile Library for awareness raising, Peer educator groups, and a network of Child Safe Agents.
Non-Formal Education: Through Damnok Toek’s outreach activities, children are either directly referred and enrolled in public schools or invited to join Damnok Toek’s Non-formal Education program which offers courses to help children (re)integrate into public school as soon as they have reached a sufficient level.
Future’s Office: It plays an important role in preventing at-risk migration and reinforces the success of all Damnok Toek projects in Poipet. It provides youths and young adults with soft skills (how to write a CV, how to prepare an interview, etc), vocational training (in Poi Pet or other cities in collaboration with other organizations), and training/small loans to start an income-generating business.
