CAMBODIA – When “Pa Many” Is at the Service of Hungry Children…
By: Ky Chamna Cambodianess Wed, November 13, 2024
“When he is there… a father presence emerges.”
PHNOM PENH — Hungry, cold, lost, and sick. Sometimes, nights go by without a real meal and warmth for some children. They keep walking the streets and wastelands, scavenging for food, searching for the very basics, being from the poorest communities in and around Phnom Penh.
Hot food, clean clothes, and warm smiles: These are the invaluable elements that children come for at Les Restaurants Des Enfants, or Children’s Restaurants, an international humanitarian association in Phnom Penh, which aims to help the most disadvantaged children by offering them meals.
Established by Ngov Chhiv, a veteran humanitarian worker, through the support of donors, Children’s Restaurants have been providing food for children since January 2010, acting as a community that offers friendship while helping with hygiene as well as education.
With two meals per day for each child, Children’s Restaurants have been providing no less than half a million plates of food since its start.
“Their kids, my kids… They are all our kids”
“Pa Many,” which is a more casual way of saying “Father Many,” has been the respectful but casual nickname given by the youngsters who go to the Children’s Restaurants to the president of the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC) Hun Many, who is also a deputy prime minister and the minister of Civil Service.
Many started giving a helping hand to Children’s Restaurants in 2014, treating each child as his own son or daughter, addressing them in a friendly and caring way, and providing necessary supplies and the emotional connection they need.
For a decade, he has been on hand to serve as a mindful father for these children. Remembering his first year of doing so, “Pa Many” wonders how many of these young people have grown up healthy and with hope and ambition in life.
One of them is To Srey Keo, a young and enthusiastic woman who has been a member of this humanitarian initiative since 2016. She still remembers how uplifted she was when she discovered Children’s Restaurants in 2010.
Srey Keo also clearly remembers the first time she met Pa Many who has been providing and coordinating donations for Children’s Restaurants, she said.
Because in spite of his extremely busy schedule in government, she said, “more than just donations, Pa Many keeps on organizing gatherings twice a year for the children here, one being the International Children’s Day of June 1, and the other Christmas time.
“But this year has been different”, Srey Keo said, as he took the time to make a connection with each child more special for them.
“This year, on Nov. 8, Pa Many offered the opportunity to more than 600 children to take a photo of each child with him, one by one, making this a very memorable instant in time for the youngsters,” Srey Keo said. “Perhaps, the photo will be neatly hung on their wall long into their future.”
The needs go beyond donations
“[Hun Many] is a very humble and approachable person,” said Sreypich, a staff member of Children’s Restaurants since 2010.
“The first thing he gives is love,” she said. “With the children, he is like a father, he is like an uncle. That is the first thing that springs to mind when I think about him.”
After meeting Hun Many on a number of occasions, Lay Sreyleap, a high-school student from the Boeung Trabek area of Phnom Penh, said she was really happy to be photographed alone with him.
“Today, I have received a new white shirt, some school supplies and a delicious meal,” Sreyleap said, slightly shy but with a radiant smile on her face.
The Children’s Restaurants provide care that goes beyond food as it is about giving them the energy and opportunity to continue their studies, to be able to read and write, hoping the support they receive will help them stay away from drugs and unwanted activities.
In a post on his Facebook page, Hun Many made it understood that he will always be amongst the youngsters at Children’s Restaurants where he is always happy to return.
As people at Children’s Restaurants mentioned, Hun Many brings hope to these children who are the future of Cambodia.
SOURCE: Cambodianess, Cambodia Wed, November 13, 2024
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