Note: this is unfinished work. You can always comment to improve my writing. Food for The Poor Phnom Penh 17/12/2014/ Ky Veasna What do I mean by Food for The Poor? I have been inspired by a video in a Charity Event that was made a group of teenagers in other countries to bring an old homeless man to many nice store buying him wonderful food and cool clothes and shoes. I was so emotional to see how happy that old man was. Not long ago, I happened to view a random video from Oknha Mong Rithy who brought a group of poor people to Lucky Burger, which was a very popular talk at that moment. Everyone was inspired. However, there is no surprise to see a well-off businessman like him to start doing this little thing. People tend to think that being rich is to be being. In the contrary, I found it confusing when people didn’t realize that they could do all of these things though they were not an Excellency. Food for the poor to me can be two things: one is buying 100 packages of rice for 100 people or another is bringing several people to experience eating at a nice place. Having this initiative is nothing if you don’t take action. I posted on my Facebook finding people for shared interest. I get several people in help both in money form and human power form. Doing alone was impossible, but it doesn’t mean doing it in team was easy. Food for the poor was in discussion whether to buy 100 package of rice to 100 kids or to treat a few kids to a sophisticated food shop. Majority supported for giving a never-before forgettable experience for disadvantaged kids to Master Suki Soup in order to inspire other people to forget if not ignore those wonderful kids out there when they have more than enough to eat. After the purpose was clearly defined and decided, money and human resources were needed. We agreed not to publicly raise money. Instead, we only donated our money pocket money and money from a few close friends in favor to this social work. Since social media is the best effective and out-of-charge channel for communicating our message to other millions of Khmers, having a video of our activity would be a best option. Piseth was a mate who I used to work with for an event management freelance agreed to help shoot the event. Here came Human Right’s Day, but everyone was saying they were not available. Along with Sivhor, I decided to delay though the money givers would not expect that. Sunday 15/12/2014 would be a better option as everyone tended to say yes and no at the same time. “See you at UC at 4pm” as I would finish my class too. Everyone was there at 4pm except Cheata. She had been waiting at UP as she had assumed at UP if not failed to get my word. Rubbish dump a well-known place near Steng Mean Chey was our target. It has been shifted to Chamkar Dong Rubbish dump in development plan of the government, which meant we had to go there to get the kids back to Master Suki Soup next to Bak Tuk High School. Undoubtedly, we wouldn’t manage to get them as the Sun was ready to disappear. There was another option. It was to come back to my home (Orussey area) where can collectors gather at the dawn after completing their work around busy business Orussey Market. However, we decided to travel around Steng Mean Chey Bridge first in the hope of finding some poor kids on the street. As we approached there, I sensed the wrong decision as I just realized the big development here (a high sky bridge with smooth roads). There were no kids for us to pick up. Sivhor complained to no one, “It is unexpectedly hard to offer poor kids to eat a nice place”. Logically, doing charity which means you donate your time and money should be easy. Giving money to people for charity is a lot easier than getting the money to do the charity. However, doing charity with our own heart and hand is worth trying and being tired. At the moment, our one last hope of that day was to come back to Orussey in expectation of seeing some kids in our target. In front of my house (St. 128), there were 2 carts which can collectors use for transporting their goods. Hope got bigger. Waiting for the kids to come made us frustrated again. I decided to a man who usually sat there when the kids usually came. The answer was around 6pm. Seeing a middle-age can collector sleeping on the floor of the sidewalk, we decided to ask where the kids were. He directed to the Market, the left wing of the market. However, he also emphasized that kids would be free after 6 or 7pm. Piseth didn’t manage to stay with us since he got a mission to go for Preah Vihear the following morning, so he left us. There were only me, Sivhor and Reasey. Driving around the area, we sensed their presence, yet we had to wait until the Sun completely disappeared. Time moved on and we started to come out of the market. Among the kids, there was a woman who could be in her late 20s. I walked to her and asked where the kids were as I told her our purpose of bring kids to Master Suki Soup. She said it was okay to bring them but we needed to ask their mother first. She also told us that the number of kids were around 10 to 13. Having only 70$ dollars, we’d originally planned to bring 5 or 6 kids to Master Suki Soup so that they could eat as much as they wanted. At that moment, controversy existed whether we could manage to pay for 10 or just bring 6. However, it was obviously clear that it would be very uncomfortable to bring only 5 or 6 and leave the other kids. Also 2 women who seemed to the mother or relative of the kids also wanted to go, but they were reluctant. I counted the kids and thought of the money. Thinking about my own money, I realized that I had another 30$ money of my own money and an ATM card for Prasak where was just in front of Master Suki Soup. Okay, let them all go! The final number was 11 in combination of 9 kids and 2 women. However, when we told the women who were included, they became very afraid and said they didn’t have a good look but very dirty clothes. One young woman suggested her husband going instead of her. See, it is not easy. We reassured that we would pay “As long as we have money, no worry, just go and eat”. Happily, they agreed not to be afraid. Besides, 11 people didn’t fit a Tuk-Tuk. Thus, two kids would go with my moped. “From Orrusey Market to Master Suki Soup, how much do you charge?”, I asked a tuk-tuk driver. He replied 8000 riels. I explained that we were just trying to bring these kids to Master Suki Soup and bargained to 4000 riels. He was very mean to ask for 5000 riels for 5 minutes driving these kids and stick to 5000 riels. I wasn’t very happy. I went to bargain another man far away from this mean driver. Bargaining was successful. Kids were very excited, they got on a tuk-tuk before I told them to and they were on the wrong tuk-tuk. I commanded “Oun Oun, you listen to me, okay? If you don’t listen to me, who would listen to me?”. They cheerfully agreed and ran for the right Tuk-tuk. Tuk tuk arrived on the other side of the road of Master Suki Soup, and kids were at their most exciting moment. We told them to be organized and watch out with the traffic. Yeah, we went in. There were two Sinta Clus balloons at the entrance doors, so kids couldn’t bear this mind and touch and hit those balloons. What we didn’t want to see happened. A waiter at the front door decided to ask the kids in those not clean t-shirts whether they booked the place. I rushed to tell her that we booked and we would pay. (my dad makes me not happy and i cannot write more now) There are 3 important lessons I would like to share with you from this event. 1. I would like to prove that I can do it even if I am young, skinny, poor, and unpopular. You don’t have to be rich, powerful, or famous to start doing all of these little things. You don’t have to be Oknha Mong Rithy, Hun Many, Sam Rainsy, Ouk Sokunkanha to start doing all of these little things. You just have to be you because you are much richer in your heart than those who drive Luxus 570 ignorantly or those who use their I-phone 6 to selfie. I did all of these things, not because I am an educated university student, not because I am a teacher, and not because I am a NGO staff. I am just who I am. And I can do it. 2. I am here to witness the the best ever moment, feeling and happiness I get from these social work. I would like to provide an opportunity to the disadvantaged kids so that they can at least experience what other kids have. Their pure smile and laughter was more than satisfactory for us. It bought us more than full-stomach of Mster Suki Soup. 3. People are discriminatory by the appearance and by the status attached. Every individual should be equally valued even though there is an excuse that it is social and economical pressure.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 16:03:38 +0000
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