​​​​Bond Article

​​Words | Ellen Scobie​

7th June 2012
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VULNERABLE CHILDREN’S ASSISTANCE ORGANISATION
BONNIE WHITEHEAD & CAMBODIA

After completing year 12 Bonnie Whitehead left Australia to work with a small local organisation in Cambodia, the ‘Vulnerable Children’s Assistance Organisation’. Her work with the organisation involved teaching English and Khmer, providing first aid and showing care, supervision and love to kids at risk of sex slavery and who would otherwise spend their time working in a rubbish dump.

“When I arrived I thought I was worldly and then suddenly I had 150 children depending on me. I was suddenly a mother figure to really vulnerable children”, says Bonnie as she describes the initial impact of her experience. “Some moments were so confronting and still are. In an English class one day I gave a pencil to an eight year old boy. He looked at the pencil and didn’t know what it was. I thought who am I to teach this boy? I felt so accountable for what happens next. Their futures were so dependent on what they were taught at the centre.”

Amongst the many challenges that Bonnie had to come to terms with was the reluctance of families to allow their children to go to the centre. Children are paid $1 a day to fill up bags of rubbish to support their families, instead of going to school. “I had to keep reminding myself that I don’t know what hard things put parents in that position.” In Cambodia a child’s virginity is sold for US$500, but that money does not go towards a fancy TV or even petrol. Desperate parents use it to feed their 6 other kids. “You have to remind yourself that you don’t know. It is too hard getting worked up about judging.”

Talking about an experience like this is not easy. “Every day you see things that really aren’t ok and it is hard for people here to understand.” However, it has changed the direction of Bonnie’s life. She has experienced an unexpected love and connection with Cambodia that is guiding her future. “Now that I have the knowledge of what is going on, what I do with it, defines me.”

Bonnie returned to Cambodia on a semester break last year, however, for the present time she has decided to forego spending money on flights to Cambodia and instead (at the request of the centre’s director) channel her energy into raising funds for a new building for the centre. She intends to have enough money for the construction of the building by the time she graduates and then commit a year or so to writing an education syllabus for the kids.

Bonnie’s vision for the area is a place where education is sustainable and where volunteers like her are no longer needed.​

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