When Chan Somaly’s friend was shot to death in a gang fight, he went to police for help. But the police only looked at him with contempt, he said, for he and his friends were street children. They told him no one would investigate his case.
“I need the courts to give me justice,” said Chan Somaly, 18, who now stays at a center run by the NGO World Vision. “We are humans, not animals.”
About 50 current and former street children met Tuesday for a workshop to demand their rights from authorities. The children came from eight different centers, and five were straight off the street, said Ly Sophat, program manager at the NGO Mith Samlanh/Friends, which hosted the workshop. Many participated in a workshop earlier this month where the municipality discussed building its own center.
Sorn Sarath, 19, was forced from his home in Pursat province by a stepfather who beat him every day, he said. But he saw no point in complaining to police.
“They think it’s within the family” and none of their concern, Sorn Sarath said. “The local authorities could help rescue us.”
Sen Sorn, 15, said street children suffer verbal abuse and mistreatment at the hands of families and children with homes. “They look down on me, and don’t allow their children to be with us,” he said.
The workshop was a rare occasion for street children to share their own needs. “I never thought I’d have a chance to explain my needs, because I have suffered a lot of bad things and verbal abuse from people in society,” said Phan Sikha, 16, a street child.
Phan Sikha said help from the government, especially learning job skills, was key to a safe future. “If the government abandons us, we’ll be trafficked or become prostitutes,” she said.
The children agreed on a priority list of needs, Ly Sophat said, including centers for street children in the provinces—where many street children originate—and authorities that take their complaints seriously.
