Who Will is a local Non Government Organisation (NGO) registered in Cambodia dedicated to caring for orphans and disadvantaged children and poor Cambodian Communities. We have no religious affiliation and are completely devoted to the care of children regardless of race, religion or creed.
We are non-discriminatory and children with HIV or AIDS are considered equally, if not more so, deserving of care as children who are healthy.
Who Will is extremely proud to be one of the very few organisations who operate with ZERO overhead costs. This means that 100% of all money goes directly to where it is needed.
Two hectares of land were acquired for the building of a children’s village in Kampong Tralach, some 50km north-west of Phnom Penh on the N5 Battambang highway.
Having been involved with Cambodian orphans and distressed children for more than 10 years, Gerald reached the opinion that the current pattern of orphanages is outdated and children should, wherever possible, be raised in a proper family environment. Permanent residence in an orphanage should only be considered as a last resort.
Who Will is building a village that will ultimately comprise 10 family houses and ancillary accommodation to enable the project to function as any normal local village community. Each house will have three children’s bedrooms, a supervisor’s suite of bedroom and en-suite shower room and a kitchen/living room. Initially each of these will have a house mother with space for up to 12 children. The house mother will be responsible for bringing up her family as if their true mother. She will buy the food from the market, cook, clean and generally be their mother.
As the project evolves, the house mothers will be replaced by married couples with a maximum of two of their own children. They will be offered occupation rights to each house that will be conditional on them agreeing to “foster” up to eight disadvantaged or orphaned children. These couples will probably be from poor local families so should have good connections in the area. Hopefully they will have some form of family support although Who Will will retain a supervisory role with a local Village Manager living in the village to ensure that the standard of nutrition, health, education and discipline matches the strict rules/code of conduct that will be established
Ultimately this village will appear to be just another country village and it will be fully integrated into the community ensuring the children will not carry the unjustified stigma of “coming from an orphanage”
Who Will’s role in the future management will likely entail subsidising food and education costs in addition to its general supervisory position.
We have not come across such a project and it could well be the first of its kind. The pattern can be replicated in other areas both in Cambodia and other countries once the blueprint has been finalised and the concept tested.
Web design: Richard Čábelka, 2010