A Safe Return 

Last week, two students were missing.

When you step into the Learning Center, you see children doing what they are meant to do; just being kids.  Glancing into a classroom you see a group of children engaging with peers and teachers. Just around the corner, two young boys are playing Cambodian chess while two young girls are practicing their Khmer and English reading skills in the library. Peering outside you take in the wonderful sight of several excited children running around in the garden and swinging on the playground.

Without seeing these children in their home environments, it can be easy to forget where they come from and what dangers and risks they continue to face on a daily basis.

Last week, two sisters and long-term students at the Learning Center were missing from class. Irregular attendance of some students is a constant struggle. Our social workers do their best to follow up and find creative solutions to issues that are keeping them from attending school and the Learning Center. In this situation, however, they found what we fear most when a longer-term absence is reported. 

The two sisters, ages ten and fourteen, had been taken to Thailand by their parents. The family had been receiving support from Children's Future on a monthly basis for nearly four years, allowing their daughters to attend school rather than work. Children's Future had secured housing for their family and access to healthcare services for all of their children. We had regular interactions and meetings with their parents whom had supported the education of their daughters for four years. Until, one day, they left without a word.

As our staff followed up and tracked their route to the border, the relatives and villagers along the way conspired to tell lies about the whereabouts of the two girls. Only through intense determination, perseverance, and some luck was it possible to locate the younger daughter, who hadn't yet been sent across the border. We were able to facilitate her return to the Learning Center and to school.

Though relieved we were able to rescue the youngest daughter, we were determined to also locate her older sister and facilitate her safe return. It was not until weeks later that we discovered the eldest sister had already crossed the border into Thailand. Thankfully, we were able to bring her back to Cambodia and reunite her with her sister. Both of the girls have returned to school and are now staying in our residential center until we can find a long-term safe home for them. 

When parents or caretakers take such extreme actions after years of collaboration and thereby drastically endanger the lives of their own children, we do our very best to find out why. Often there is no satisfying explanation. No one major reason that could be tackled. Instead it is often a complex web of reasons; daily difficulties, a lifetime of hardships, and random occurrences that may push a family to decide overnight to take their kids and leave.

That's why we're dedicated to doing everything possible to ensure our children are safe, cared for, and receive the education they need to change this cycle.