24-25 Years of Involvement with Helping Disadvantaged Children
Today I am so happy to be able to join with all of you once again on this occasion of transferring the management of the Kruosar Thmey Foundation Helping Disadvantaged Children (with blindness, mute and/or deaf) to the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport […] I wish to take this opportune moment to express my sincere thanks to Mr. (Benoît Duchâteau) Arminjon as well as other generous people who are present here and teachers in the Kruorsar Thmey Foundation (KTF) for making their efforts to assist and train our children with disadvantages until this transferring time. It is so true that some countries, as is mentioned by Mr. Arminjon, such transference of management means the end of a procedure and there would never be participation of any leader. On the contrary, I have involved with KTF since 1995, after my wife accompanied Samdech Me the Queen-Mother to an inauguration at the Sangkat Chhba Ampeo. Life of disadvantaged children either losing their vision, hearing or speech, has stayed vividly in my feeling. I started to start my interest and my assistance has gone on for 24 years already […]
Mr. Arminjon Can Review Once Every Two Years
I agree and appreciate what Mr. Arminjon has said about how much responsibility everyone has in KTF and commitments made by every teachers. I think that we must go forward. Mr. Arminjon said, if required, he would help with monitoring review once every two years. I agree with his suggestion. This should help reflecting progress made by KTF after the management is transferred to under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. I advise Minister Hang Chuon Naron of Education, Youth and Sports to work with Mr. Arminjon to figure out the different steps of monitoring. I am happy with this point. This should help alleviate concerns on those who have helped KTF, for which one dollar per person has financed the assistance for the disadvantaged children and they are able to move from stage to another […]
Time for Cambodia to Take Over
I have said to members of the Royal Government to get themselves ready. We must be prepared to take over as orphanages may no longer receive assistance from outside or in case of withdrawal of economic programs. We can take interest rate as an example. Once our country is making more progress and becoming more developed, interest rates (charged by financial institutions and/or partners) are getting higher too. As Cambodia has now passed its state of low income country status to become lower-middle income, and on its way to higher-middle income, I have made it my request to our friends such as China, South Korea, Japan, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, European Bank, and France also included, to peg their interest rates for Cambodia. It is now time for us take ownership […] we must increase our share of contributions to be able to take over completely at some point. We must not allow our program to crumble […] after the late Dr. Richner, we have continued to offer what the Kuntha Bopha has been doing when he was alive […] despites interruption of financial assistances, we refilled the gap with our money and continue to do the job of demining. We do not backtrack. The World Food Program (WFP) has continued to provide assistance to the Cambodian children by purchasing from Cambodia […]
Forty Years Ago and Forty Years Later
Mr. Arminjon has just claimed he has been one the live witnesses of the fact that the Cambodians are benefiting from the country’s development since 1991. I wish he could join me in our flight (to Switzerland) as I will deliver a speech on 4 July at the UN Human Rights Headquarters to showcase progress of human rights in Cambodia. Human rights are not met under bombardments, war, and everyday killing. If we were to see whether any progresses have been made, please look back to forty years ago or what has been done forty years later? We must be clear on this issue […] one should not judge the whole forest just by looking at one tree. They may find it interesting to look at what happened in countries claimed to have made progress on human rights and democracy forty years ago? Some have made their steps back taking issues of refugees for instance into consideration in Europe […]
Forty years ago, Cambodians died every day. War continued. Men died. We had made our revival real. We have seen with our own eyes that rights to life has not come from writing newspaper. If the person is no longer breathing, how he demanded rights on paper. It is with this fact that Cambodia would not bow its head to anyone preaching about it. There are places in this world where human lives taken by bombs, shelling, air gunship, etc. Have anyone talked about human rights there? We have ascertained a national rebirth from roughly five millions to about 16 million population now […] I have twenty grandchildren but I have more. These children here are Hun Sen’s grandchildren too […] I am calling on TV companies to offer sign languages for children and/or men with hearing impairment […] disadvantaged children have been doing great as some of them have achieved education and received jobs in state institutions […]
Everything Will Continue
I thank Samdech Krola Haom Sar Kheng for taking care of the KTF in Battambang. Samdech Pichey Sena Tia Banh has done his part with the KTF at Siem Reap and HE Khieu Kanharith has taken up responsibility for KTF at Kompong Cham. Let me affirm to the children here that after the transference of management, everything will continue as usual […] children will continue to take trips twice a year. In Phnom Penh Thmey, the foundation will continue to receive one ton of rice and three million Riels from my wife and I, and another 20 million Riel per year from the Cambodian Red Cross […] children must not have worry that after the transference from Mr. Arminjon to Hang Chuon Naron, everything would not be in place anymore. That will not happen. In addition to this, responding to concern expressed by HE Hang Chuon Naron about a location for the National Institute for Special Education […] the mayor of Phnom Penh Khuong Sreng told me he has found the land on that side and we may go up four floors […] there is no such thing as withdrawal […]
Ensuring Education for Orphans from Fatal Incident at Preah Sihanouk Province
Days ago we had had a fatal incident (of building collapse) in the province of Preah Sihanouk. The civil case of the incident will be a legal matter to proceed. As for the Royal Government, we have stayed ahead in resolving the issues involved. A family of one death receives over 100,000 USD. It is not what a life costs or possible to buy back a life. However, we have provided means for the families and they will not be poor if they know how to make use of it […] what has been the most difficult case is when both father and mother died leaving their kids […] who, if s/he is eligible, would receive up to 180,000 USD or even closer to 200,000 USD […] there has been a case in the province of Kompong Chhnang province and another in Battambang province where both parents died leaving their small children. We must follow the matter through. We must make sure they have access to education. The authorities must also keep their eyes on them. They may not be conscious on how to use their money yet. There has been comments in my FB Page that perhaps it is a too big amount […] some suggested we use the money for people who worked to remove debris and saved lives. I replied to their comments these are money contributed for people who died and injured. For those who have taken parts in the search and rescue missions, we have offered 200 USD to every male rescue worker and 300 USD to every female rescued workers […] I will present them with gold medals […]
Cambodia Teaches No One, and No One Should Teach Cambodia
I do not wish to be a teacher to anyone and I do not wish anyone to teach us on our independence and sovereignty too. I have no idea if there will be a demonstration against me (when I will be in Switzerland). Even if it will be a volcano, I will still travel to Geneva. At 4pm I will have a meeting with over 400 Cambodian citizens since it is difficult to find a meeting place. It will be a work day too. I will meet about 700 students and some Cambodians living in Europe […] normally, people who came to welcome me were in bigger number. There had been cases that some threw eggs on those who came to receive me […] well, that is freedom. I have sent news in like three weeks ago that I will be in Geneva on 2 July. I think it is enough time for them to organize demonstration. The more they cause trouble, the better it could be perhaps. I do not mean to gibe at anyone […]./.
