Cambodia’s conflicts during the last 50 years have been extreme and brutal. Despite attempts to keep neutral, the country became heavily involved in the Vietnam war, its people first being hit by both sides before eventually succumbing to one of the most genocidal regimes of human history, that of the Khmer Rouge during the 1970’s. During this period, approximately 2 million people were slaughtered, tortured, starved, or worked to death. Women were forcibly married to strangers, made to watch as their children were taken away or their babies bayoneted in their feed. 

The injury and illness resulting from conflict falls in three categories.  Primary: injury that is mostly associated with wars; bullet wounds, blast injuries, etc. Secondary: victimization, which is the disease or untreated trauma caused by the conflict and the induced breakdown of infrastructure. Tertiary: perhaps the most pernicious and the most long-term, it is injury to the mind where the control of others is linked with violence, fear, rape, and terror. 

Since then, Cambodia retains the scars of war with a weak infrastructure; the Khmer Rouge killed anyone progressive in Cambodian society which causing a shortage of highly trained professional in the country, a threadbare economy, and high poverty rates. As a result, thousands of homeless Cambodian children are forced to scavenge, beg, polish shoes, and perform other income-generating activities. Tragically, some fall into the sex trade just to survive.  They are at the mercy of abusive families, HIV carriers, poverty, and lack of education. They live on the streets or in garbage landfills and search through piles of filth for food. Day in and day out they live with hunger, severe malnutrition, disease and complete abandonment. They have no hope for the future...  

The scars of war are also emotional; the Cambodian population is familiar with using extreme violence as a way to resolve disputes affected by violence, rape, sex abuse, and sex trafficking. As in a growing number of countries nowadays, children in Cambodia grow up in a semi-permanent state of civil war and armed conflict. The scare of war leaves an emotional indirect threat, caused by the fact that the generation that should be parenting these children has lost all necessary skills during and following the Khmer Rough’s regime. Family ties were broken down, children and parents separated, the educational system destroyed, and teachers and other skilled people annihilated. The result is a heavily traumatized generation (ranging in age of 15-30) who is not only transferring their trauma to new generations, but also raising this new generation almost without structure or direction. Children form an important category in the war-affected population. Their experiences are aggravated by their lack of control and understanding. But there is hope - they are in a natural phase of growing up that permits them to adjust and to heal organically if given the opportunity to deal with their experiences and emotions through your kindness and support.