On
7th Feb I discovered that an Australian Non Government Organization by
the name of the Global Development Group (GDG) provides funding to
Citipointe’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’. The next day I wrote the following letter to
GDG:
Directors of the Global Development Group Board
Unit
6
734
Underwood Road
Rochedale,
QLD 4123
8th
Feb 2014
Dear
David James Pearson
Geoffrey Winston Armstrong
Ofelia (fe) Luscombe
Alan Benson
David Robertson
I am a filmmaker and journalist,
in the final stages of producing a feature length documentary by the name of
CHANTI’S WORLD – set in Cambodia. I am also writing a book by the same name.
Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ features in both my documentary and book.
The ‘SHE Rescue Home’ is also the recipient of funds from the DFAT approved Global
Development Group. It is imperative that both my documentary and book be
factually accurate. Hence this letter.
The
Global Development Group is described online as a:
“charity organization carrying
out humanitarian projects with approved partners and providing aid to relieve
poverty in a tangible way. We provide long term solutions through the provision
of quality aid development projects in approved countries.”
It would appear, from what is
written here, that Citipointe Church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ is an ‘approved
partner’ of GDG? Is this so?
On
your website GDG goes on to declare:
“Regular visits with our project
partners – whether In-Country or Australian – are an important aspect of
on-going two way communication with our project partners.”
Would it be fair to extrapolate
from this that GDG has visited Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ many
times.
Your website also declares that
GDG places an:
“Emphasis on Project monitoring
and evaluation making long term difference to nations.”
Has the ‘SHE Rescue Home’ been
monitored and its programs assessed for their effectiveness? When did the most
recent monitoring occur? Was the ‘SHE Rescue Home’ found to be effective in meeting
the goals of the GDG?
GDG is a member of the Australian
Council for International Development (ACFID) an organization that commits its
members to:
“high standards of integrity and
accountability.”
Given that the ‘SHE Rescue Home’
is a recipient of GDG funds, are you, as members of the GDG board, satisfied
that Citipointe church administers the She Rescue Home in accordance with “high
standards of integrity and accountability.”
The GDG website declares that GDG
is:
“a signatory to the ACFID Code of
Conduct, which provides standards on management, communication with the public
and most importantly how funds are spent.”
Are you, as board members, satisfied
that Citipointe abides by the ACFID Code of Conduct and with the way in which
Citipointe spends the funds provided to the church by the GDG to administer the
‘SHE Rescue Home’?
How much money does the Global
Development Group provide on an annual basis?
The GDG website describes the
‘SHE Rescue Home’ as:
“a holistic development project
and after care shelter catering to the specific needs girls aged 5 – 16 who
have been raped, prostituted, trafficked or at risk…SHE staff are committed to
working holistically with the girls and their families to bring overall change
to them, their community and the national of Cambodia by empowerment of the
whole family unit. SHE works towards this through education and the alleviation
of poverty with a family assistance program and micro-enterprise endeavours.
The project’s goal, where possible, is the safe reintegration of the girls to
their families and Khmer culture.”
Is the GDG board satisfied, based
on its own monitoring and assessment processes, that this is a truthful and
accurate description of the program undertaken by Citipointe church in
Cambodia?
If the GDG board were to be
provided with cogent evidence that Citipointe church is in breach of both the
GDG code of conduct and that of the Australian Council for International
Development, would GDG continue to provide funds to Citipointe church?
Let me be more specific: If the
GDG board were to be provided with evidence that Citipointe church had
illegally removed two young Cambodian girls from their family in 2008 and has
been detaining them against the express wishes of their parents for the past
five and a half years, what action would you take? Would you seek from
Citipointe a response to the allegations?
Allegations are, of course, easy
to make. Allegations that are not backed up with evidence are just that –
allegations.
For evidence pertaining to Citipointe
church’s illegal removal of two girls from their family please visit the
following blog:
You need not, indeed ought not,
presume that anything I write in the blog is true, though a little research, a
few questions and an interview with the parents of the kidnapped children will
reveal that is it.
In order to form your own
independent assessment of the truth or otherwise of my allegations you could
start with one question to put to Citipointe church:
“Please provide the Global
Development Group with copies of any agreements Citipointe has entered into
with any Cambodian authorities that give the church a legal right to detain Yem
Chanthy and Both Chhork’s daughters – Rosa and Chita – against the express
wishes of their parents?”
This is a question that Chanti
and Chhork have been asking for five years. This is a question I have been
asking for five years, in my capacity as Chanti and Chhork’s legally appointed
advocate. This is a question that has been asked by Cambodia’s leading human
rights organization, LICADHO.
Citipointe refuses to answer this
question. The church refuses to provide any documented proof that its actions
in removing Rosa and Chita from the family in 2008 was legal. The church
likewise refuses to provide any evidence that its actions in holding Rosa and
Chita in Feb 2014 is legal.
My concern here is two-fold:
(1) If you discover, as I am sure
you will if you do your homework, that Citipointe has no legal right to detain
Rosa and Chita, there is clearly a problem with your assessment and monitoring
processes.
(2) If the Global Development
Group’s monitoring and assessment processes have failed to reveal that
Citipointe church is, in effect, kidnapping children from impoverished Cambodian families and
presenting them to potential donors and sponsors as ‘victims of human
trafficking’, can GDG rest assured that similar scams are not being perpetrated
by other NGO recipients of GDG funds? Or, to put it another way, are generous
donors to the Global Development Group (with a DFAT imprimatur providing it
with legitimacy) inadvertently supporting NGOs that violate the human rights of
the very people they are supposed to be helping?
Given Citipointe’s declaration
that the church is committed to “ the alleviation of poverty with a family
assistance program and micro-enterprise endeavours” you might like to
ask what assistance the church has provided to the family this past five and a
half years? What ‘micro-enterprise endeavours’ the church has engaged in to
help this family? The answer is not $1 in assistance in five years. Don’t take
my word for it. Ask Citipointe. Ask Chanti and her husband. Ask the community
in which Chanti and her family live.
In relation to Citipointe’s
declaration that “The project’s goal, where possible, is the safe reintegration of the
girls to their families and Khmer culture,” ask the church to provide
GDG with copies of any re-integration programs undertaken by the ‘SHE Rescue
Home’ this past five years. You will find that there are none. And you will
find also that Citipointe, whilst indoctrinating Rosa and Chita in the church’s
own particular brand of the Christian faith, refuses to allow the girls to
engage in any Khmer festivities or celebrations with their family or community.
The current cut of CHANTI’S WORLD
ends with Rosa and Chita still detained by Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue
Home’ – an NGO that receives funding from the DFAT approved Global Development
Group. At present I am working on the
presumption that the Global Development Group is unaware of the human rights
abuses being perpetrated by Citipointe church.
If the Global Development Group is not satisfied that Citipointe has a legal
right to detain Rosa and Chita contrary to the wishes of their parents, I trust
that it will publicly distance itself from Citipointe’s illegal activities in
Cambodia and so not be tainted by its association with the church when CHANTI’S
WORLD is completed and screened worldwide.
By the time you receive this
letter I will be in Cambodia putting the finishing touches to my documentary,
CHANTI’S WORLD. I can be contacted by email, however, at:
jamesricketson@gmail.com
I look forward to receiving
answers to the questions I have asked above.
best
wishes
James
Ricketson
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