World Wide Children Farms

What is a children farm?

A children farm such as Samrong is home to children ‘from the street' and the garbage dumps. They sleep, play and learn on the farm. The children take care of animals and cattle, feed them and assist in the vegetable garden and the farm's orchard. They learn (and make) music en dancing, go to an ordinary school during the day and basically do everything what children do. For these orphans, the Children Farm is their ‘home' in all respects.

What does WWCF want to achieve?

The goal of a Children's Farm is to create a safe living environment for orphans and vagabonds in developing countries where children can grow up ‘normally' and pleasantly. A Children's Farm is not only fun but also inspiring, healing and educational. Slowly but surely we see neglected children grow up, flourish, get and develop talents and prepare themselves for a future. On the farm they learn self-respect, respect for the others, their culture and for the nature around them.

WWCF is looking for cooperation with others to develop this concept further in other countries. In Cambodia we started in 2002 – together with our Cambodian partner organization Cambodian Children Support Foundation (CCSF) – with a pilotproject. The Children's Farm Samrong, near the city of Phnom Penh , currently is home to about 50 orphans and vagabonds in the age-range from 6 to 18 years old. When they turn 18, we help them with their further education or find them a job.

Children's Orphanage Samrong

This 2.5 ha farm is located just outside the city of Phnom Penh and consists of a sleephouse (capacity 80 children) with library and computerroom, a simple guesthouse, a multifunctional shed of 400 m2 with an adjacent canteen and kitchen. On top of that there is a large biological vegetable garden, a fishpond, stables for the cattle (a.o. 13 cows, 40 pigs) and many other animals such as chicken, ducks, geese etc. The care for and feeding of these animals is an integral part of the learning and education process on the farm (in addition to the children's regular school education). The manure of the cattle is being used for the biogasplant which drives the small generator part of the time. The produce from the vegetable garden is being used in the kitchen and the surplus is being sold on the local market. This applies also to the fish from the fishpond and the cattle. The orphanage is trying to become independent from donations and charity but this takes time and effort. In-between the buildings there is room for play and sports and some simple facilities were set up. The children use bikes to go to school and a small pick up truck is being used for the supplies, and to bring the crop to the market. Last year, for the first time, we were permitted to freely use a piece of land for planting rice and in the meantime this rice is harvested and Samrong has become yet a bit more independent!

Who's in charge?

The orphanage is under daily management of the Cambodian pediatrician Dr Sam Sok Vyrak who is being supported by a team of staffmembers in the various keypositions such as the garden, the kitchen, the stables etc. In addition we use volunteers for e.g. English lessons, music or other creative things. They are a valuable and indispensable addition to our permanent staff.