How we got where we are.

Friends,
The last month in Phnom Penh, Cambodia has been amazing. All the children are in school, and thanks to one very special private donor, they are all receiving complete dental work and vaccinations. Every Sunday they have painting and drawing class followed by traditional khmer dance class. The kids’ spirits have been high with so many fun and educational activities going on daily. The kids know that they are not being forgotten, and this bit of encouragement will make all the difference for their futures and the future of Cambodia. We completed a month of jewellery skills training with 17 girls and 2 boys at the Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (CCPCR). it has been an amazing experience for everyone in the shelter and we are expanding to become Khmer Creations, a holistic model of jewellery skills training and life skills training aimed at helping rescued young women living in shelters have greater opportunities for their futures. Please read on to find out more about the project and how exactly Khmer Creations came into being.

WHO EXACTLY ARE THESE CHILDREN?
The roughly 17 girls and 2 boys are all between the ages of 11 – 18 years old and at some point were trafficked into Phnom Penh to work in brothels. Extreme poverty, loss of a parent, domestic violence, alcoholism, gambling, and presence of pornography in a village are the main factors that pave the way to the abuse and sale of a young girl into prostitution. The girls in the shelter have been lucky enough to be discovered and rescued by police, child protection services, or sometimes by a compassionate client.

THE JEWELLERY PROGRAM
Making jewellery with these kids has been a huge success. I am a jewellery designer in California and while traveling through Asia I got the idea to start jewellery-making workshops as a form of art therapy with Cambodian girls living in shelters. Antonia was already working with the girls at CCPCR organizing art, dance and English classes, so it was a natural match. We decided to work together to organize and implement the jewellery program. I purchased a bulk supply of beads, stones, string, wire, pliers and cutters and organized two structured classes per day, three days per week. In our month long program, we taught the kids weaving, knotting, wire wrapping, and stamping techniques and allowed them to keep all of the jewellery they crafted. They could not have been happier to learn a new skill and proudly display their artwork around their wrists or neck. I can say without doubt that this has been an extremely positive experience for all of the kids. We listen to music, sit in a small circle, and even through our language barrier, we are able to express much praise and encouragement to the kids, and they openly show their enthusiasm. It is a time during the day when we can all forget any worries and cares in this struggling part of the world and they can be budding young artist instead of young abuse victims stuck in a shelter.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO JEWELLERY WORKSHOPS
As Antonia and I shared news of our workshop, interest grew among the expat NGO community. Everyone wanted us to conduct jewellery workshops in other shelters around Phnom Penh, and they also wanted to purchase the jewellery the kids at CCPCR were making. With this spark of interest, Antonia and I did some market research and realized that there is virtually no mid-priced jewellery in Phnom Penh. Only very cheap plastic jewellery from china that is sold in the markets, and a small population of goldsmiths setting locally mined rubies and sapphires into rings. We immediately saw the potential of selling to expats, NGO workers, tourists, and upper class Cambodian families, university students, and internationally through fair trade shops

THE NEXT STEP: “KHMER CREATIONS”
Many organisations are committed to reversing the damage of abusers, yet, in a country still overwhelmed by recent civil war, real opportunities for those living in shelters remains limited. There are few jobs available in Phnom Penh. Youth living in shelters usually find themselves working in a sweatshop or in a home as a domestic servant earning $40 per month. We are creating a new option for these young women, Khmer Creations.
Through vocational skills training in jewellery making and a holistic model of life-skills training; Khmer Creations is opening up young women and girls to new choices that can change their lives. We empower rescued women living in shelters by providing them with all the necessary skills and materials to create quality products and an established network within which to sell them at a fair price.

Please help us to expand and develop this vital service and help young women to help themselves.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
CONTACT us if you have serious interest in coming to Cambodia to work on this project,
DONATE if you can afford to donate a little money to this cause,
EMAIL if you have any connections to marketing and sales of fair trade jewellery, or if you have any feedback or information you would like to share with us.
annieaukeman@yahoo.com
antoniamarison@yahoo.co.uk
and please, pass this along to all those who might be interested.

Ou kun! (Thank You)

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING LATELY

THE GIRLS ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE JEWELRY SKILLS WORKSHOP. MOST OF THEM HAVE NO POSESSIONS AND NO MONEY, SO THEY ARE THRILLED TO RECIEVE SOME SUPPLIES AND LEARN HOW TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR THEMSELVES. IN THE PHOTO ABOVE I AM HANDING OUT TOOLS TO TEACH WIRE WRAPPING TECHNIQUES WHILE ANTONIA HELPS PREPARE MATERIALS. OTHER TECHNIQUES WE HAVE BEEN TEACHING THE GIRLS ARE WEAVING, KNOTTING, METAL CUTTING AND METAL STAMPING, HAMMERING, AND DRILLING. I CAN SEE THE EXCITEMENT IN THEIR FACES WHEN THEY FIGURE OUT A NEW TECHNIQUE AND ARE ABLE TO COMPLETE A NEW PIECE.


WHAT IS THE GOAL OF JEWELRY SKILLS WORKSHOP??

I see this as a fun, theraputic, and empowering activity for all of the girls, but for the older girls, i also see the workshops as a possible future. The future for these girls is very limited. For a poor cambodian girl who doesn't speak much english there are just a few options. She can sew leisure wear for the West in a sweat shop in Phnom Penh, break her back in the fields, clean houses, or cook food with the possiblity of making a maximum of $45 per month. There is great potential for turning the jewelry making skills into an actual vocation for some of the girls, and many shops are willing to carry jewelry made by these girls. This is a very exciting time as we develop the program through this pilot prograqm we are running. Any dontations to help us cover the cost of materials would be a HUGE help. Thank you!

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

The original goal was to have this as a Paypal button, but due to technical problems i'm not able to make it happen right now.

Please copy and paste the link below into a new window to make a donation using Paypal.

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https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=annieaukeman%40yahoo%2ecom&no_shipping=2&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8
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If you have any problems, please email me at annieaukeman@yahoo.com, and if anyone can tell me how to make the Paypal "donate now" button work, please let me know!

Thank you for your support,
Annie and Antonia

Jewellery Skills Workshop Update

Antonia and I have been unbelievably busy with this project. sourcing materials has been a huge huge huge challenge. there is no jewelery making industry in cambodia.... only some higher end gold and silversmiths who set locally mined rubies and saphires. of course, most of the local population is too poor to purchase this jewelry, rather they buy the super cheap stuff that's imported from china.... so it has been very hard to find supplies for the girls.. but i've managed to do it... today was actually a big day at the shelter. i finally got the kids to the point where they can start making some jewelry to sell. they all made necklaces and we paid them for their work! the kids were VERY excited. we've made plenty of jewelry with them that they've been able to keep, so they were more than happy to get the money rather than the necklaces this time! I think the kids are finally beginning to understand the potential of making jewellery. So much gets lost in translation, and i don't think they've been able to understand that we are trying to empower them and give them some money making skills and some options for the future.... but actions and sometimes money speaks louder than words, and we definitely got their attention today. When i return to the states, and Antonia returns to the UK for Christmas, we both plan on doing some slideshow presentations and selling the jewellery in order cover the costs of the project thus far.

It was a brainmelting day today. Unseasonably hot for this time of year. We started out the morning with a painting class but the volunteer supplying paper to the shelter was half an hour late, so we used the time to pick boquets of shrub flowers to use as still-life subjects. The kids are unbelievably patient, they amaze me. I got frustrated thinking about how they don't even have the ability to draw a picture when they feel like doing so. but half the population of cambodia is under the age of 16, all growing up among aftermath of the khmer rouge. I'm sure all of these children have grown up with very little. they are strong little souls, survivors.

The shelter itself is down a little dirt road about a half our drive out from the center of Phnom Penh. It is located so far out to keep the kids from being lured onto the streets, or back into brothels, in some cases to keep brothel owners from finding the kids. .. I just want to clarify, not all of the kids have been trafficked. Some are victims of domestic abuse, some have lost their mothers and suffered from total neglect, and some are economic orphans whose parents live in slums or on the streets and have no means of housing and feeding their children. Also, not all trafficking is for the purpose of sex, while the great majority is sex trafficking, there are many young children who have been sold and brough to Phnom Penh to a life off indentured servitude selling newspapers, flowers, or trinkets on the streets.
But regardless of where these kids are from or how they got here, they are still kids, still playing, laughing and craving attention, curious about the world, listening to khmer hip hop, painting their nails........
They have all fully accepted me into the shelter and they are most definitely tugging on my heart strings.

Cambodia Past and Today

Cambodia’s Past: Cambodia's descent into hell began in the 1970s when the Vietnam War spilled across the border. The United States bombed Cambodia relentlessly. Out of the chaos, a small, hardcore band of Maoists, the Khmer Rouge, took control of the country. They emptied the cities, marching people off to rural work camps and turned back the calendar to Year Zero. In an effort to create a primitive agrarian utopia, the Khmer Rouge purged the country of everything foreign or modern. They outlawed books, money and medicine. They began mass executions, and nearly 2 million died during this period.

In 1979, the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot and his army, but a civil war ensued in the rural regions of the country and continued until 1998.

Cambodia today: Cambodia is a fledging democracy struggling with poverty, crime and disease. The country holds great promise as the economy continues to grow, democratic elections are approaching international standards for being fair and free, and international aid groups allow for improvements such as affordable health care.
In spite of all the progress, the Cambodian economy continues to suffer from the legacy of decades of war and internal strife. The per capita income and education levels are lower than in most neighboring countries and its infrastructure remains inadequate.