In 2008, Citipointe church, based in
Queensland, Australia, approached a number of poor and mostly homeless families
living alongside the Bassac in Phnom Penh and offered to help the parents care
for their daughters. The church handed out food parcels, conducted a prayer
meeting and convinced some families that their daughters would benefit from
being cared for, in the short term, in Citipointe church’s ‘She’ refuge. I
happened to be filming that day as the food parcels were being handed out
because two of the girls in the small crowd of children, whom I will call R and
SM, were the daughters of a young woman whose life I have been documenting on
videotape this past 16 years, whom I will refer to as C. C asked me, as her
friend, and as someone she thinks of as her Australian ‘Papa’, if I thought
that the offer being made by the church was a good one. Should she accept it? I
met with Leigh Ramsay and two other representatives of the church and on the
basis of what they said to me I thought that the church’s offer was very
generous indeed and could see only good coming from their offer to take care of
R and SM in the short term. The church would provide accommodation, food,
schooling, R and SM would be provided with free medical and dental care
and be safe from the many dangers young girls are subject to living on the
street in Phnom Penh. The mother, C, was to have regular access to her
daughters and they would be able to stay with her and the rest of her family
one day a week – either down by the river or, if C had a home at the time (as
she sometimes did), in the family home. The arrangement was to be an informal
one and, despite a few misgivings that I had regarding Citipointe’s religious
agenda, I wholeheartedly supported C in making the decision to accept what
seemed at the time to be a very generous offer. A few days later R and SM went
to stay in the ‘She’ refuge and I returned to Australia, maintaining email
contact with representatives of the church. What follows is a word for word
accurate record of the email exchanges that took place been myself and
Citipointe over the next few months.
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:13:42 +0000
Dear Members of Citipointe Church
I trust that readers of this email have the
capacity to think independently and a desire to know the truth about
activities being conducted by Citipointe Church.
Below is an edited version of correspondence
I have had with members of your church regarding Citipointe’s SHE program in
Cambodia. The email exchange has not been edited in such a way as to
alter the meaning of what has occurred – only to spare you the need to read
repetitions of points already made. If the powers that be at Citipointe tell
you that my edited emails misrepresent Citipointe in any way, ask to see my
original emails and Citipointe’s emails to me.
I do not want or expect you to believe anything
I say. I wish you merely to acquaint yourselves with the facts and make up your
own minds as to whether or not my assertion that Citipointe Church is engaged
in the ‘stealing’ of the children of impoverished Cambodian parents is worthy
of consideration or not.
An important point to bear in mind as you
read this is that Citipointe has, on many occasions now (in emails to me,
telephone conversations and in conversations with other Cambodian NGOs,
insisted that it has entered into a contract with the young mother to whom the
bulk of this correspondence refers. It was not until two days ago that I was
able to obtain a copy of this ‘contract’ and have it translated. You will note
that it has not been signed by Citipointe Church or by any representative of Citipointe’s
SHE program in Phnom Penh. Even by the rather shoddy standards of Cambodian law
this document is worthless. Moreover, the signatories to it, C and her mother,
neither read nor write Khmer (the language in which the ‘contract’ was written)
and believed that they were entering into a contract with one of Cambodia’s
leading human rights organizations – LICADHO.
KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA
Nation Religion King
name: YEM C, age 21, and name: CHAB V, age
52, job: morning glory seller, address: along the riverfront street, Central
market.
TO
Director of CT Point International Rescue and
Care Organization
Objective: request for my child or
grandchild, name: CHANTHY R, sex: female, age: 6 and name: CHANTHY C (SM), sex:
female, age:3 to stay in the center of CT Point International Rescue and Care
Organization.
As mentioned in the objective, we, both are
mother and grandmother of the above two children, would like to inform the
Director that: nowadays, we have no house, living along the street and have no
job and cannot provide enough food for feeding the two children. Moreover, we
would like the two children to have safe shelter and get enough food, as well
as education.
As mentioned, please the Director permits our
two children to live in the care center by favor.
Please the Director receives the great
respect from us.
Phnom Penh, Date: July 31, 2008
Mother's
thumbprint
Grandmother's thumbprint
With foreknowledge of the contents of this
‘contract’ please read the following carefully and ask of your Church whatever
questions you feel to be appropriate. If those who occupy the senior positions
of Citipointe Church do not, cannot or refuse to answer your questions I trust
that you will begin to wonder what else there may be about Citipointe that is
not quite as it appears to be – and certainly not as it is presented on the
Citipointe website.
Other information that may be of value as you
begin to read this is that I have known the mother (C) and her mother (V) for
fourteen years and the young girls in question (R and SM – also known as C)
pretty much all of their lives.
If any reader of this would like to know
more, please feel free to ask any question you like. You are now part of an
open forum relating to Citipointe’s activities in Cambodia and your feedback is
welcome.
best wishes
James Ricketson
23rd. October 2008
Dear Bec (Rebecca Brewer)
Now that SHE (Citipointe) does, it seems,
have legal custody of R and SM I imagine that there must be some protocols
regarding taking them out for a day with C and her baby. It is something of a
tradition that I take C and the kids to the water park, roller-skating and or
to the fun fair during the Water Festival and would like to do so again this
year.
cheers
James
24th. October 2008
Hello James,
Regarding taking R and (SM) out for a
day with their mother, unfortunately we are unable to accommodate this request.
Our policies require that the children in our care remain in the custody of our
staff members at all times. I’m sure you understand the need for us to maintain
strict guidelines and policies to ensure the safety of all of the children in
our care.
Regarding continued support to C, we are
unable to assist with distributing this sort of aid. Our focus is to assist the
children in our care as needed and the work we do with the parents is limited.
If we were to be seen giving handouts to one individual parent it could prove
very disruptive to the rest of the community.
Kind regards,
Bec Brewer
...to be
continued...
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