Friends-International

Cambodia

Friends-International (FI) was founded in 1994 to address the needs of vulnerable communities, particularly marginalized urban children and their families in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Today, the organization serves 1,800 street children, providing hygiene and health care, vocational training, primary education, counseling, food, emotional support, and cultural activities. FI also reaches out to 20,000 children living and working on Phnom Penh’s streets. The organization’s social enterprises provide an opportunity for a marginalized urban community to earn a fair wage in addition to receiving medical coverage, health insurance, social services, ongoing training, literacy, and capacity building. FI also run advocacy and awareness campaigns on street children.

The organization’s approach values street children as active and productive members of society, providing them with comprehensive, creative, and flexible services. The children themselves are involved in the design and implementation of the programs from which they benefit. Upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Friends-International strives to protect children from all forms of abuse; to support children in becoming actively involved in the development of their communities; to prevent them from engaging in dangerous behavior; and to advocate for supportive social environments. Friends-International’s approach has served as a model for organizations around the world and was awarded the Skoll Foundation’s award for social entrepreneurship in 2007.

Street Children in Phnom Penh

Friends-International works with Phnom Penh’s street children. While there is currently no precise count of the number of street children in Cambodia, it is estimated that approximately 600-1,000 children have completely cut off ties with their families to live on the street while 10,000 children work on the street while continuing to return home to their families (from time to time or at the end of a day). Most of these children come from the Tonie Bassac area of Phnom Penh, a squatter community home to over 50,000 people including 30,000 children. These children are at high risk of violence, trafficking, and prostitution.

The UN estimates that there are over 150 million street children worldwide between the ages of three and 18. Forty percent (40%) of these children are homeless while the other 60 percent (60%) work on the streets to support their families. It is estimated that this number will increase to 800 million by 2020. Without intervention, these children do not have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to contribute to the development of their communities or to raise healthy families. They are at high risk of infectious disease and HIV and AIDS.

Creative Recycling

Friends-International products are all made by the parents of former street children and/or children at risk. The program allows parents to earn an income so that their children are able to go to school rather than work on the streets. Products made by Friends-International are hand crafted from local, recyclable materials that can be easily sourced by the producers. With an environmental consciousness, Friends-International favors production processes that minimize their environmental footprint, including the use of found and recycled materials, making each product unique. Recycled materials include newspapers, comics, magazines, packaging, rice bags, tin, and sarong fabric. The bags available for purchases from the GGP website are made from colorful newspaper comics collected from the French embassy in Cambodia. Seventy percent (70%) of Friends-International’s sales price is paid directly to the producers while thirty percent (30%) of the sales price is reinvested in a social fund for families to promote the long-term sustainability of the project.