| CCF RESIDENTIAL CHILDREN
Kunthy, 7 Years old
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Kunthy, 7 years old
She was born in Prey Veng province. She is the youngest daughter in her family and she has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Her mother is a garbage picker at Steung Meanchey where the old dump is in Phnom Penh. Her father is a driver, but her parents divorced and her father has a new wife. Her family has been through a very rough time as there was only her mother who took on the responsibility of looking after six children.
Kunthy's family originates from Prey Veng province, east of Phnom Penh. There, her mother was a harvest worker for a neighbor's farm and her father worked as wood carver at a furniture shop. Unfortunately, Kunthy's mother spent a lot of money paying hospital fees when giving birth to Kunthy, and had to sell their land to pay the debts. Without a farm to work or a husband to support the family, Kunthy's mother took the children to Steung Meanchey to pick garbage. Kunthy was just 15 days old.
Kunthy has never been to school and usually stayed home or helped her mother to pick through garbage such as plastics, metal, bottles, and recyclable things. The family could earn from 50 to 75 cents per day and needed to spend it all on rice, food, and rent which was $12.50 month. Kunthy says that she disliked picking garbage as she was afraid of falling off the mountain of garbage as there were broken glasses below.
Today, Kunthy has a happy smile after she passed her interview as she wanted to study and live in CCF. She is training for a week in the library before she starts her primary English class with her new CCF friends and teacher. She has a dream to be an English teacher when she grows up. She will start her first grade in the state school in early October 2010 after the school vacation.
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