The Global Child

One of the more worthwhile charity organizations operating in Cambodia is The Global Child (TGC), a non-profit, non-political, non-partisan group founded to build and operate specialty schools and safe-houses for gifted street-children. At TGC Schools, selected disadvantaged children - hungry for food, education and health care - are nurtured and empowered for a proactive role in the future betterment of their own lives and for the communities in which they live. In 2003 Alan Scott-Moncrieff, with a lifelong empathy for the plight of children, travelled to Cambodia and decided he had to do something. So TGC carefully selected 26 remarkable, charismatic street-kids (who were either homeless, or who had been sent out to beg or work by parents or guardians) and proceeded to tailor-design a curriculum that would evolve with them as they grew and progressed. In what was a landmark initiative at the time, each attending child was (and still is) compensated a dollar a day thus allaying their necessity to work or beg. They receive a high level of education, three square meals, health & dental care, safe-housing, and the initiative and tools to ‘give back’ to their people. Effectively, TGC are training Cambodia’s first dedicated local humanitarians.
TGC’s school in Phnom Penh is located in a three-storey building on the city’s riverfront street, Sisowath Quay. It has been divided into an eatery, Café 151, and a small shop selling TGC merchandise on the ground floor, two classrooms and a rooftop garden retreat. They have also opened up a coffee shop in Siem Reap called Joe-To-Go, where all profits are channelled back into providing the right style of education for TGC’s street-kids. And in 2008 they are planning to open a school on a new plot of land just five kilometres from the Angkor temples in Siem Reap. On the downside, everytime I access their website, my pc holds up for ages!