Chanti's request to Leigh Ramsay that Rosa and Chita be allowed to accompany the family to Prey Veng this weekend

Leigh Ramsay

322 Wecker Road

Carindale

QLD 4152

1^st. March 2013

Dear Leigh

Tomorrow, Chanti, Chhork, Srey Ka, James, Kevin and baby Poppy will travel to Prey Veng to attend another family wedding and to commence renovations on their new home. Chanti has asked me, as her advocate (you have the documentary proof that I can act as her advocate) that Rosa and Chita be allowed to accompany the rest of the family to Prey Veng tomorrow. Your answer to this request will be to pretend that it has not been made – regardless of the fact that the request has been made in the most public of manners. As you know, this kind of behavior in Australia would have child welfare groups up in arms. But this is Cambodia and any and everyone with money and power (the two are analogous in this country) can do what they like with impunity – Cambodians and foreigners alike.

Yesterday, staff from the She Rescue Home offered to buy Chanti some powdered milk, baby formula. Cost: around $10. This is a pretty clear indication of the extent to which Citipointe intends to help Chanti and the rest of the family now. No doubt, at some point in the future, you will cite this as an example of your ‘helping’ Chanti. Viewers of CHANTIS WORLD will not be fooled! Oh, I forgot the mobile phone and the bicycle that Citipointe has promised to give the family once Rosa and Chita are released back into Chanti and Chhork’s care – yet another promise that Citipointe has no intention of keeping.

Once the family has their new renovated house in Srey Veng my filming for CHANTI’S WORLD will be over. The film will finish with the bulk of the family living happily in Prey Veng – except for the fact that Citipointe church still refuses to relinquish its hold on Rosa and Chita. The church will find some new reason why the girls can’t be released into the care of their family and, of course, claim that this decision has been made by the Ministry of Social Services – which we all know is nonsense. Whilst Citipointe may not have a cosy enough relationship with MOSAVY to have me arrested, jailed and banned from Cambodia, it does seem to have a cosy enough relationship with the Trafficking section of MOSAVY to be able to get away with stealing the children of poor Cambodian parents and living up to none of the promises the church makes on its website regarding helping families, reintegration and so on.

In the event that Citipointe’s relationship with the Trafficking section of MOSAVY is cosy enough to have me banned from coming to Cambodia again I have set up a bank account for Chanti and Chhork and can help the family out financially from Australia – thanks to the wonders of electronic banking.

When CHANTI’S WORLD is sold internationally I will be in a much better position to help the family and the community they will be living in – a generator for the entire village being priority #1. When CHANTI’S WORLD is sold internationally I trust that Chab Dai hangs its head in shame for having allowed Citipointe to operate for so long in contravention of Chab Dai’s own principles and in contravention of every precept of Christianity that relates to the helping of neighbours. It will be clear to viewers that anyone who wants to call themselves a Christian NGO can come to Cambodia, set up an NGO under the Chab Dai umbrella, con some poor parents into giving up their kids and then advertize them on the internet as orphans or victims of something or other. Chab Dai will then turn a blind eye to this blatant form of exploitation – even when these same girls, if advertised as victims of Human Trafficking, are used as tourist attractions to help the NGO make money – lined up in a row so that these ‘victims’ can have the rich and rewarding experience of having their hair washed in unison by cashed up ‘poverty tourists’.

I was going to write another letter to the Minister (hope springs eternal!) but got the surprise of my life when I found out yesterday that Chanti is in the process of doing so herself.  Citipointe has worked all along on the presumption that Chanti is just a stupid poor woman who can be pushed around to suit the church’s purposes. Chanti is not at all stupid. She is merely uneducated. But she is a determined young woman and she is determined to get her daughters back. And, for as long as it takes, I will help her. I don’t think it will take very long after CHANTI’S WORLD  comes out!

best wishes

James Ricketson's's