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Los Angeles, November 29, 2007 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a significant donation to "Safe Water & Essential Nutrition for Cambodian Children," a program run by the nonprofit Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF).
The grant will bring food and water to more than 300 children in three centers for children of very poor families on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
Scott Neeson, CCF Founder and Executive Director, expressed, "The CCF is extremely appreciative of this grant … to provide consistent nutrition and clean water for one of Cambodia's poorest communities…. TPRF’s undertaking is simultaneously simple and ambitious: To provide nutrition and water to those in need. Without these basics of human life, no other mission can succeed."
CCF offers 24-hour care in shelters for children 7-17 years of age, and aims to break the cycle of poverty and abuse and create positive change.
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"When I first arrived," says a child named Charam, who now lives at a CCF shelter, "I felt like I was born again. Before I came here, I was like a flower that nobody cared to water and never saw the sun. Nobody cared or paid any attention. But now this same flower is taken to a new place where it can get water and care every day. I can feel the breeze and see the sun." (From Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children, a documentary film by Heather Connell).
Without intervention by CCF, area children are largely denied schooling and suffer from health problems resulting from dangerous, highly impoverished living and working conditions. A community-needs assessment undertaken earlier this year found that most families in this area are war refugees and consist of five to seven family members, all of whom survive on no more than $3 a day. Both children and adults pick through a garbage dump day and night in search of recyclable items they can sell. They subsist on a diet consisting principally of rice. As a result, malnutrition and hunger are commonplace.
Lack of access to safe drinking water further compounds the plight of these people. Only 5% of the families have access to water mains; the remaining residents rely on local well water known to be unsafe for human consumption. Many of the children are orphaned or abandoned, left to fend for themselves and younger siblings, and are likely victims of a wide range of maladies and infections.
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Photographs are the property of Cambodian Children's Fund
The Prem Rawat Foundation was founded by Prem Rawat, known worldwide as Maharaji, whose aim is to improve the quality of life for people in need by providing food, water, medical care, and disaster relief.
Discover more about Prem Rawat, his message of hope and peace, and the humanitarian activities of The Prem Rawat Foundation
