Children are not Tourist Attractions

As I seem to remember mentioning in a previous post, there are 289 (or thereabouts) orphanages in Phnom Penh. There are some which are great, however there are many that are not. There are lots of orphanages that are basically run to exploit the children by sending them out begging and selling stuff to tourists late at night. Most traveller guesthouses in Phnom Penh will also have posters up on the walls featuring smiling children encouraging tourists to come and visit. I hate these posters, especially as I know full well that these children, who are basically used to entertain tourists and get them to donate money, don’t actually get to see any of this profit. They are generally run by someone who takes everything and leaves the children with nothing- in a lot of the cases they don’t even have food. We have quite a few children under our care who have run away or been rescued from places like this. The problem is, in a corrupt country such as this, a lot of the time these organisations will have some sort of links in high places, so receive warning of spot inspections by groups like unicef and make themselves look presentable.  That is why I was so happy to see this poster featuring on walls around Phnom Penh. It is entitled ‘Children are not tourist attractions’ and I think it quite powerful and will hopefully make people think and consider the credentials of the organsiations that they are visiting more carefully. There is an accompanying website which makes for interesting reading about ‘orphanage tourism’ in Cambodia:  http://www.thinkchildsafe.org/thinkbeforevisiting/