Caring for kids by way of their families

Cambodia's not big on institutionalized day care. While many moms have to work outside the home to support their families, childcare is nearly always family-based, whether that means an aunt, a grandma, or even the mom herself while she sells things. 

Photo credit: Bob Bridell
"Take-your-daughter-to-work day has gone international"

Probably also taken by Bob Bridell (years ago)
Don't be alarmed, this butcher's son is still alive!

That can be difficult. Many moms in Phnom Penh have to leave their babies with relatives in their home province until their kids are old enough for school. My close friend Sorphorn is one: she visits her baby girl every weekend at her in-laws' house, and can't wait to bring her home for good in a couple years, when she's ready for preschool. Some caregivers are too old and frail to do a good job; others are distracted or apathetic. 

Sorphorn and her daughter, Pich

On the other hand, I like the Cambodian value of extended families working together to care for their kids. Who loves a child better than his own family? While I haven't been a primary caregiver for my 3 nephews this year, I've certainly savored every minute I got to babysit them. And I was very blessed to have my mom stay home to take care of my 3 siblings and me until we were all in school. While not everyone knows how to raise children well, where possible, I'm a fan of empowering and equipping families versus institutionalizing child care.

Evan, Carson, and Cole make it easy for me to love aunting

So when I found out that Caring for Cambodia (the organization where I'm interning this summer) is emphasizing and expanding its preschool program, I had mixed feelings. But the more I've found out about their program, the more I like it. First of all, it's home-based, so it's still families raising their own kids. In fact, "preschool" is kind of a misnomer - much of the education is aimed at the grown-ups. (It reminds me a bit of Mothers of Preschoolers, a group that my sister and sister-in-law attend.) From what I've heard, each preschool group meets just twice a month. While the kids play with various educational toys, guest speakers conduct trainings for the moms and other caregivers. The trainings cover topics like health, hygiene, nutrition, and child development; participants can earn a certificate by attending 8 sessions and finishing 4 topics. CFC's home-based preschools have maybe 8 locations in the villages around Siem Reap city, each with its own assistant. 

Video footage of moms discussing what they learned in the trainings

I've been learning more about the preschools through one of my internship projects: translating videos of testimonials from some of the preschool moms, so CFC can share their stories with its donors. (I'm collaborating with CFC staff, but it's still great practice for my Khmer listening skills.) The stories are so encouraging! 

For example, one mom said that before, when her child was sick, she always took him to a sketchy uncertified private doctor, who gave him medicine that masked his symptoms for a couple days but didn't really make him better. There are tons of doctors like this in Cambodia (probably outnumbering the legit ones), and they love prescribing random medicine and IV's of saline solution when they're not really needed. Many Cambodians pay a lot of money thinking drugs or IV's are needed, when the sick person could get the same benefits from drinking more water and eating something salty. But when you're not educated and the sketchy doctors are persuasive, it's hard to discern the best course of treatment. After the training, this mom knew she could take her child to a nearby public clinic for a fraction of the price. While the clinic might not relieve symptoms as quickly, it would help her child truly recover. 

Mealea, left, is a preschool coordinator whom I've gotten to know a bit

Another mom said that she had always been impatient and grumpy with her kids when they interrupted her housework. She learned to speak more kindly and include them in hanging out laundry and other tasks instead of just hitting them or shooing them away. Her positive communication style transferred into her relationship with her husband as well, promoting more harmonious relationships in their whole family and breaking cycles of harsh interactions. Most of these moms were born in the years after the Khmer Rouge - a time when few families had the bandwidth or emotional energy to encourage their kids.

One of the moms telling Mealea what she learned

Many moms mentioned hygiene; the idea of washing hands before and after eating seemed to be a new concept for many of them. Apparently it's really caught on with both them and their children, along with properly cleaning vegetables to avoid food-borne illness and using plastic covers to keep flies off their food. These changes will benefit their families for years to come, and will help change norms in their villages.

Since houses are open-air, covers like this are useful to guard food from flies.

Since moms are eligible to attend from their children's infancy through their school enrollment, and most moms have multiple kids, some have been coming for years and are eager to learn new topics. In fact, though many of these moms never completed primary school, several now know more about these topics than the preschool assistants, who have been stumped by their recent questions. (The assistants have a high turnover rate and little formal training in child development.) That's another task that I'll be working on, along with my fellow intern Kelly: gathering FAQ's and making a fact sheet about child development to share with the preschool assistants. I'm looking forward to supporting this program more in the coming weeks. I'm also eager to see the final promotional video featuring these testimonials.