Our Story

The story of the children of the Takeo Orphanage in Cambodia is one filled with miracles and hope. Due to years of violence, poverty and inadequate health care, orphan children of this war torn country in Southeast Asia have for the most part been left to survive on their own.

Only in the past 15 years or so has the orphan situation even been addressed by the government, community leaders and the non-governmental organizations. After the United Nations sponsored elections in 1993, Cambodia began opening its doors to outsiders who discovered that children without families had been abandoned and left to fend for themselves. It seemed that years of war, poverty and illness had taken their toll on the ones least able to protect themselves.

In 1994, while working for an American pro-democracy group in Cambodia, Ron Abney came upon the orphanage in Takeo Province, about three hours from the capital city of Phnom Penh. The orphanage founder and director was a young woman who had started the center in a run down building with very limited support from the community and local government. There were about 50 kids and the main focus was the feeding and basic care of the children as the national government was digging itself out after years of war and isolation.

(Click here to read Ron's story as reported by Ed Grisamore in The Telegraph of Macon, Georgia).

Young Kim Kemlang showed Ron and his group how the orphanage was surviving with extremely limited funds. Although heartbreaking, it showed what a little hope and a lot of hard work by a few people could accomplish. Kemlang asked Ron if he might help provide funds for clothes, school supplies and such things as materials for sewing. Ron said that when he returned home he would ask his friends in the United States for help.

When Ron did get home he talked to his family and other close friends and quickly raised enough money to buy and ship back to Cambodia everything on Kemlang’s shopping list. Not knowing if he would ever return to Cambodia, Ron assumed this was a one-time effort and probably would never hear again from Takeo. He underestimated Kemlang.

Ron soon got a call from the in-country director of the pro-democracy group he had worked for who told of a visit he had made to Takeo. He said Kemlang had asked if he would contact Ron and give him “this year’s list.”

This is how the Takeo Orphanage program really took flight. Ron soon moved back to Cambodia as country director for his American group. Each year since, what started as a small program to provide basic supplies grew and grew and soon the funds raised were going to provide everything from supplies such as beds, school tables and electronic equipment to some basic infrastructure work.

Ron Abney and Kim Kemlang in gardens planted by the children

As the legend of the Takeo Orphanage grew, Kemlang was able to get more and more support from other NGO’s and the government. Also in 1999 Ron’s Atlanta friends visited the orphanage center. There they fell under the Kemlang spell.

Upon returning, Ron’s friends called and said they had a great idea. Why not start a funding program to pay for college scholarships for all Takeo students who passed their high school tests and wanted to study further at the colleges now available in Phnom Penh? His friends said they would help raise the money needed so the regular orphanage funding program could continue at the same time. They enlisted friends from England who began raising money immediately. The emphasis now was on helping kids to stay in Cambodia so they could help others in their own country instead of starting adoption programs which are designed to get the kids out of the country.

This was a phenomenal step. Very soon Takeo kids were studying night and day to become eligible for the college program. As of this date, 22 kids have taken advantage of the college program with 17 now enrolled—and five have graduated and are now working in professional careers in Phnom Penh. One is studying medicine and plans to offer his services free to the Takeo kids.

By this time the orphanage had grown and the grounds which were hard dirt and rock were now filled with beautiful gardens planted and cared for by the kids. Kemlang had also reached out to ESPECA, an international French non-government organization that has tremendous programs for children throughout Southeast Asia. In addition the Cambodian government has stepped up to provide more of the daily needs.

During this period however, another dark chapter in Cambodia’s history was being written. And as usual the children were the ones most affected. Due to the influx of people coming to Cambodia, children as young as 5 were being taken from the poor families—sold and even stolen—to notorious sex traders. All of a sudden the streets of the major cities were flooded with brothel owners who offered young girls to any tourist for as little as five U.S. dollars.

International and local NGO’s saw the need and began offering limited programs to deal with this national problem. But the floodgates were open and flowing. Only in the last few years have the children been offered any kind of hope. Ron had witnessed firsthand what a little hope and encouragement had done with the Takeo orphans.

In a sense the success story of the Takeo Orphanage was being played out against the backdrop of the dark sex trafficking epidemic that was taking place throughout Cambodia. Soon it became obvious that children—the same age as those taken for the brothels—could flourish and grow and have a life filled with love and caring. They could also have the opportunity to get an education. The Takeo Orphanage became one of the only centers offering these programs and it was being pushed to the limits due to its growth and expanded programs.

Realizing this new and expanded role of the Takeo Orphanage, Ron enlisted the help of Voices for Global Change in Alexandria, Virginia (VFGC.org) whose main goal is to provide a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. In Northern Uganda, for instance. Voices is the guiding force behind a major undertaking to help poor women in that war-torn area with the very successful program ”Paper to Pearls.”

In 2007 the VFGC board, of which Ron is a member, decided to help. Now the Takeo Orphanage is part of VFGC which offers tax-exempt status.

The Takeo program which started with 50 kids had now grown to 155 on-site and over twenty in colleges in Phnom Penh. The needs are now outgrowing the means needed to meet them. That’s why new funding is desperately needed. The program is still funded by monies raised from individuals. This is a turning point for the orphanage. In order to continue offering a help line to kids who have very little hope, additional funding is needed.

The Takeo Orphanage program uses funds raised for the college scholarships, while still helping the smaller kids at the center.

Because the program has grown so dramatically over the years the funding base is not able to finance all that is needed.

This is why donations are so needed today for the program to continue. Over 95% of all funds raised go directly to the Takeo program in Cambodia. A U.S. dollar in Cambodia goes so far where the average income per family is roughly $15 a month.

Our college kids (see photo at right) are housed by a facility run by ESPECA in Phnom Penh. Who runs the program? Kim Kemlang, who after doing such a great job in Takeo, was hired by the Cambodian Government and ESPECA in Phnom Penh, to help orphanages all over the country.

If you would like to help provide hope and a miracle for a child in Cambodia in the Takeo project, make an online donation or send a check to Voices for Global Change, 505 Wythe Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314. Your donation is tax deductible.

Now let the image of the kids from Takeo be your image of hope and miracles for the children of Cambodia. Please HELP. The kids are counting on you.