Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia's Children

SMALL VOICES

The Khmer Rouge caught him and forced him to work.

He cut the grass to feed the cows.

At that Time he was just a small boy, he didn't know what to do.

After the regime was over he was recaptured again and was forced again

This time to be a soldier

and second grade was the last he ever attended school in his life.

I lived in the countryside. I didn't have... uh...

I left because I didn't have rice to eat.

Because rice field is death if it doesn't rain.

Every day I don't have enough food to eat.

The hardest thing is I'm poor and have no house to live in.

Not enough food to eat.

My mom had 10 kids, 6 died, only 4 left.

My mother passed away, my father has another wife.

This kid's my niece.

My family all died.

Her mom left her since she was small.

Yes, I take care of her until she grows up.

I'm worried that I can't make money for my mom.

That my family has no money for hospital if they get sick.

I'm worried each time I go out, people might catch me and sell me.

They catch us and take us to work in a prostitute place.

Afraid that they take us to sleep with them.

Sometimes I'm afraid to beg. Foreigners scream at me.

They feel sorry and they give us money.

Sometimes if they don't give money they would give something to eat.

Everyday, I fan tourists to make money to buy rice to eat.

So I beg for money.

I beg people for money to go to school.

I never steal, I'm a beggar.

Sometimes I can't make money, sometimes I can.

About $0.50, enough for school.

Teacher asks for money at school. I don't have any.

Teacher asks for money for extra class, I don't have any.

I fan people to get money to buy rice to eat.

If I go to school I wouldn't have money to buy rice.

I say, "Sir, I beg you for money."

Sometimes if I am lucky I get $2.50, sometimes nothing.

But sometimes when people give us money, police hit our hands.

If I see police I hide somewhere until he's gone then I can reappear.

I don't know where to hide.

When I get sick, I still beg as usual.

When I get sick I don't tell anyone.

Even if I tell, they're not going to care.

I hope and hope, but never get what I hope for.

Because, I'm destined to be poor, they're destined to be rich.

It's my destiny to be born poor.

If I can study, in the future I can do anything, I won't have to beg.

I want someone to help me go to school.

My name is Charam. I am 12.

I was born in Kampong Cham Province.

Nowadays I live right at the pagoda's fence.

My mom's name is Yorn.

When I was born, a foreigner tried to buy me.

She offered my mom $500 and a house to live in.

But my mom didn't sell me.

When I was begging in front of people's houses

and at the museum, my mom got pregnant

and a few months later my sister Linna was born.

I helped wash bloody cloth from labor.

When I was young, my mom took good care of me,

but as I grew older, she would blame me for doing wrong.

If I was really bad she would chase me and hit me.

If she caught me, she hit me with a tree branch.

She hit me till I bled.

If I didn't make money, she would blame me and hit me.

Everyday, she does nothing but stay at home.

My family was doing so bad, we didn't have food to eat.

So I decided to beg people.

The first time I started to beg I felt afraid.

It's hard to describe the feeling but I knew I was scared.

After a while I felt good and then it started to be alright.

We buy food and pay the debts with the money.

What is your name?

My name is Charam.

How old are you?

Twelve.

What do you do everyday?

At present, I'm a beggar.

Where do you live?

Behind the pagoda.

Which pagoda?

Prolom Pagoda

What is your mother's name?

My mother's name is Yorn.

What is her job?

She doesn't work.

How about your little sister?

I carry my little sister to beg money.

Who makes money in your family?

Me and my sister.

Your little sister?

Yes.

So do you make enough money to support the family?

Good enough.

Only for food, not for spending.

Are you happy at home or is there a lot of fighting?

If I eat too slow, my mother kicks my plate.

I swear at my mother and she hits me.

Do you like to live with a lot of people or by yourself?

I like living in a group.

Why do you like to live with a lot of people?

Because I have a lot of kids to play with.

If I live alone I don't have anybody to play with. That's boring.

What do you want to become when you grow up?

Me, if I can read I can be whatever I want except robbing or stealing.

I don't like those things.

Do you have a goal? What do you want to be when you grow up?

Whatever, I don't decide yet.

What are you going to do if you get to live here?

I'm happy, I want to live here. I can live at any school.

As long as I get to learn.

Will you study hard?

Yes, if the adults don't hurt me I want to study hard.

I've gone to school three times before

but I quit because the teachers beat me too much.

Okay, you can wait outside.

Yes.

My name is Chet Leakhena. I'm 13 years old.

My home town is Battambang Province.

It was hard living there, So poor.

Without money for food and study.

My mom is a farmer, my father is a taxi driver.

After my father left, my mother would hit us whenever we did wrong.

When my father left, I knew he wasn't coming back.

So my mother could no longer raise us and she left us

at the pagoda to live with my grandmother.

Then she went away, somewhere else, to get a new husband.

Long ago, when I still lived with my family, I had 10 children.

Farmers like us, we don't have our own rice fields,

so our lives depended on people's help.

I realized I didn't have enlightenment

from my previous life. That's why I was born so poor.

Then I had the bright idea of leaving my family for religion, let them

support themselves. So I left to live in the pagoda

when I was 46 years old.

One day my children left me with my five grandchildren.

Their families were falling apart.

I asked the monks to let them stay since they were already here.

I didn't ask them to come.

They came because they had nothing to eat.

The monk said, "Yes if they're drowning and we don't rescue them,"

"how can they survive, so let it be."

So they live with me since then, needing everything.

But we had to keep going.

And that is the end, I may conclude.

Sometimes, my brothers fought and cut each other with broken glass.

They would try to drown and choke each other.

They used to hit me too.

I thought if my family keeps fighting like that,

what will our future become.

I worried about my future and how I would be able to study.

Even if they hit me, I wasn't mad because I thought -

we have one family and we depend on each other.

If we don't love each other, who will?

When I lived here I helped grandmother

prepare meals for the monks.

The people there respect the monks like gods.

They bring food to the monks for good karma because

they were born poor. They try to do good to

be born rich in the next life.

Dish up the rice for your brother.

The kids in the pagoda, if they don't learn to read and write

in the future they will wind up on the streets sniffing glue.

I have a lot of close friends at the pagoda.

I never had friends who had parents.

When I first started school I thought that it could give me good future

and I will be able to make money to support myself.

In the future... I want to become a teacher.

Preparing to go.

Why don't you say goodbye first?

Leakhena, you have to say goodbye, pay your respect to me.

Hear me Leakhena?

Yes.

Never forget people that do favors for you.

Whatever their advice is, obey them.

Make it easy for them to train you.

And don't ever steal anything, that's bad karma, if the thing is not given

to you by the person, don't take it.

Understand, Leakhena?

If you obey religious rules, you can live long,

and in peace until the future comes.

See, you weren't born rich, you were born a poor orphan

with no parents to support you.

Yes.

Because you didn't do good in previous life, that's why

you were born with bad karma.

Understand? Remember my words.

Play with me.

Stop playing, I'm leaving right now.

Go, go.

Where is all her stuff?

I'm going too.

Don't forget.

Leakhena is gone.

My name is Mengly. I'm 15 years old, and I'm from Kandal Province.

My parents live at the farm. They grow corn.

When I was growing up, I thought my life would be difficult.

Because I didn't study and I couldn't read and write.