Couple renewing their vows

Marriage in Cambodia is a troubled institution. It is not uncommon for women to be left with several children as Dad takes off with a new mate. Mom sometimes leaves these kids as she finds a new, “Mr. Right”. They wind up at our Church Homes. Often, we take in an abandoned wife with possibly a half dozen kids and no support. We put mom to work on staff, and the kids in the home, the family is in tact.

The failure to recognize the need of these people is part of the bloviating hypocrisy of UNICEF. They condemn us for not having only double orphans and claim that kids are better off with their “nuclear family” – a concept we fully support! But, what happens when the nuclear family gets nuked? They have no options for kids that are abandoned other than “foster care.” Talk about “Modern Day Slavery”! There is virtually no supervision of foster care, and the “Cinderella Syndrome” is practically universal in Cambodia.

UNICEF can’t seem to recognize that the reason we keep our homes small, local, well supervised, and totally accountable is to provide an extended family atmosphere. UNICEF seems lost in a, “La-la land of huge institutions” which they have failed to run effectively (go to the FCOPI website, click on the “Updates” tab and look at paragraph three of the November 2011 report). With help from the ‘Living Water Church,” we decided to go at the root of the problem, and put our young pastors through a weeklong intensive training on marriage. If we keep the families together we’ll soon have fewer kids to care for. That will make all of us happy, including UNICEF.