wfn.org | Church orphanage offers refuge to Cambodian children

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 19, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.  
  10-33-71BI{289} 

A UMNS Feature
By Nancye Willis*

Pani has spent half his life in a Cambodian orphanage, waiting for his
parents to return. Five years ago, they went to look for work in neighboring
Thailand, leaving him behind. 

Now 10 years old, Pani still waits in the community of Kbal Spean, Cambodia.
He's being cared for through a program of the United Methodist Church - one
that provides both physical and spiritual nourishment to children like him. 

Cambodia is one of the poorest nations. The orphan population in the
Southeast Asian country has been estimated at more than 200,000. Many of the
children were orphaned during the destructive reign of the Khmer Rouge, the
name given to native Cambodian communists. 

Many children live in crowded government orphanages that are poorly funded,
as well as Christian orphanages. Not all the residents of the orphanages are
parentless. Often, a child may have one or both parents, but is sent to an
orphanage because the parents can't afford to care for him or her. 

The orphanage provides food, love, spiritual guidance and a refuge from
despair to children like Pani, who still have hope that they will be reunited
with family. 

Others, like 12-year-old Ryna, are true orphans. "Her story is very sad,"
says Chanthy Yi, an interpreter. Ryna's father died in the war, and her
mother was killed by a land mine while she harvested rice. 

But, adds Chanthy, Ryna is "very happy to be here. She has a lot of hope to
have a long future."
The orphanage in Kbal Spean operates under the auspices of the Cambodian
Christian Methodist Association, a group of 200 churches in connection with
the United Methodist Church, the Swiss Mission Board of United Methodists,
the Korean Methodist Church, the Malaysian Methodist Church and the Singapore
Methodist Church.

The association is registered with the Cambodian government and serves as an
umbrella organization for all churches and organizations in the Methodist
connection.
Eleven United Methodist missionaries are stationed in Cambodia through the
denomination's Board of Global Ministries, headquartered in New York.

Pani's story and that of the United Methodist-related orphanage are featured
on a UMTV video available online at www.umtv.org.
# # #
*Willis is editor of the Public Information Team at United Methodist
Communications. UMTV is a unit of that team.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org