Foster Children Program in Kratie

Written By: WFWP Cambodia

On December 23, 2023, WFWP Cambodia visited their foster children in Kratie province, which is a five-and-a-half hour drive from the capital Phnom Penh. A total of 47 children participated. 

At the end of the year, WFWP has them reflect on their achievements of the year and think specifically about how they can grow next year. WFWP often has writing programs to improve children's writing skills, and this time in particular, the children were encouraged to seriously reflect on themselves and the past year in order to figure out what they should do next. It would be great if they can express their thoughts well in words and sentences, but during this yearly reflection time, WFWP wanted to create an opportunity for the children to seriously face themselves, even if they can't put their ideas into well-constructed sentences. 

Next, children made Christmas cards. There is no Christmas culture in Cambodia, which is a Buddhist country. However, in recent years, it has gradually become known to people as an entertainment event.  

After introducing foreign cultures, WFWP let the children start making cards. There was a lot of work involved, such as measuring the length using a ruler, folding, cutting and gluing the paper.  It is very rare for children to do these kinds of activities or craft-making at home or at school, so WFWP tries to include such activities in our foster child program as much as possible. In particular, dyeing the cut paper was a new activity for them. WFWP also explained the concepts of primary and secondary colors, and children experienced how radially folded paper was dyed.

We believe this program was once again full of discoveries for children. There is a limit to the number of times we can visit our foster children in a year, so we want each visit, each program to be a valuable learning opportunity for each child.