visit to the slums

We went to visit some children who live in a slum near the city. This is part of the outreach program of the Children Ministry in NLF. A couple of the staff will go visit the same slum each week to spend some time and do some activities with the children. These children also get transported to church on Thursday for Joy Club (an outreach program for street kids) and Sunday for Children's Church. There are more than 750 families living in these slums, with approximately 300 children. These families used to live in tiny houses near the hospital (just a stone's throw away from the slum) but all houses were burnt down in a fire 5 months ago. Many of them came to Phnom Penh from other provinces to find work. Now they live in huts made with practically anything they can find, with no proper sanitation. Many of the children do not attend school. Unsurprisingly, alcohol, violence and child abuse is prominent in slums. Although they are living in appalling conditions with limited money for food and/or no money to send their children to school, the males in the families seemed quote comfortable spending a lot of money on alcohol. The children are also fairly violent towards each other (witnessed by us several times during our short visit). What threw me off completely was when I saw a boy (7-9 years old?) publicly smoking in front of all the adults and the adults did not seem bothered by it.