Rejected
It is said to be a country torn apart by decades of war; but the truth is country’s are not torn apart by war, people are. The Khmer people have been torn apart
I have been meeting with Bpaan on the street for over a year. She has 3 beautiful children, you may remember the story about taking her little girl to the hospital.
https://wordmadeflesh.org/prayer-letters/not-so-creative-writing/ After that horrible experience and her disappearance Bpaan came back. Her life over this year has been a roller coaster, multiple deportation and detentions. Multiple attempts to return and live in her village but; sickness, lack of food and support she always returns to Bangkok.
Bpaan helped us connect her small village to a local church-planting group, the village all Christians wanted to have a local pastor. During this trip Tim was able to see the 3 walled dirt floor hut that Bpaan and her 3 children called home, a couple weeks after this visit the owner of that hut said she could not live there anymore, so once again she came back.
Bpaan history is a long one of abandonment and neglect. Born in 1980 she started her life just as her country was finally free of the Khmer Rouge but still deep in conflict that would not end until 1996. From being raised by relatives who would not feed her to a year ago being kicked out by her husband who took another wife, Bpaan has not known much happiness. Bpaan has called a park and a city overpass home for the last year.
Last month we attempted to get her into a job-training program in her country. She would be able to live there, learn a skill, and her children would attend School. But this and many other programs are already over their capacity and she was rejected. Cambodia is the poorest country in South-East-Asia. There are so many women in Bpaan’s situation. It is said to be a country torn apart by decades of war; but the truth is, country’s are not torn apart by war, people are. The Khmer people have been torn apart and there is a current real need for people and organizations to create opportunities for the living survivors.
Every night that I hit the street to talk with women who beg I meet someone new. She is usually scared, shy, embarrassed but with no other option to feed herself and her children. I dream of the day I can say, “come with me; we will give you a room, food, job training and help you to return to your village with a sustainable skill.” I’m not sure how to translate ‘sustainable skill’!
The Bangkok Creation Community Center will operate in cooperation with several regional Foundations and Nonprofits government organizations (Night Light Ministries, Speak-up, Jaisamarn Church, DSDW, Cambodian Hope Organization and others) to bring freedom to men, women and children caught in exploitative situations; including prostitution, begging, slave wage employment. We will create a holistic community based program. We will include in our program job training, counseling, education and support network creation. Our goal will be to help individuals return to their country of origin with job skills and placement, a functioning adequate support network. During their time with us they will receive intense counseling, community based support and job skill training.
This is an excerpt for a vision statement I am writing as we begin the series of meetings that will bring this dream to life. Expanding our Home Care to include a day program for women and children from the street. I picture women developing something like an individualized life program (ILP), sort of like the IEP (Individualized Education Program) model in the U.S. We know that with help, a support network, a skill, and people who truly know and believe in them our friends on the street can return home and start a new life!
Thank you and please continue to join with us and support the bringing of this dream to life!
~amy hupe
*if you would like to follow more closer to our weekly street visits follow us on http://courage2create.tumblr.com/
** funds for future ministry center as well as current home care are much need please consider making a donation with the enclosed envelop or at www.wordmadeflesh.org/support/give