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Sokayn at work
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In Sept 2011 I had no reason to disbelieve Scott Neeson’s assertion that CCF had...
“provided the parents with a new life back in their homeland.”
I believed this to be true and thought that this was a terrific initiative on the part of CCF.
However, I still wanted to make contact with the family and fulfill MY promise to it to help it. And I wanted to be able to include in my documentary an up to date and accurate statement relating to what had become of the family since I had filmed them in the dump a few years earlier.
This is standard operating procedure for a documentary filmmaker. Okay, there had been some confusion to date arising from my arriving unannounced to give photos to Sokayn but this minor hiccup could still be sorted out without the need for a lengthy email exchange. Or so I thought!
25th Sept. 2011
EMAIL TO SCOTT NEESON
Scott
Some questions/observations:
A man gives some photos of herself, her sister and her parents to an 11 year old girl in the crowded courtyard of the CCF. Please explain to me what the risk to her safety is inherent in this scenario?
Fair enough that you have a duty of care to Sokheng but CCF could have availed itself of the opportunity to ask her parents if a visit from me would be appropriate or not.
I was told that Patrick was in Bangkok so, given that I was not going to Bangkok, the 'selfless' option of giving them to him was not available. And why, as a friend of the family, should I give the photos to Patrick when I could give them to the family? This family is not your personal plaything. The days of colonialism are well and truly over - except when it comes to some NGOs in third world countries who adopt paternalistic positions of the kind adopted here.
You write "You are welcome to contact her parents and we took no action to prevent you doing this." but this was not Patrick's position at all. And, in any event, I don't know where they live now. As it is not possible to go into the new dump I can't contact them there (if, indeed they live there) and I have no idea where they live. I am sure, with the photos and a bit of leg work I will be able to track them down if they still live in or close to the dump. However, good manners and common decency could have been applied by CCF to assist me in this in contacting the rest of the family. These have been sadly lacking from the outset in my communication with both Patrick and yourself.
You write,"Having Sokheng remain on the garbage dump with her family may have fulfilled your vision of a life-lesson on the human condition." Scott, there is a lack of logic in this sentence, indeed in the whole paragraph of which it is a part, that I find puzzling. You have clearly not read what I wrote carefully or you have projected onto it what you wish to project for your own reasons. The suggestion/implication that I would want the family to continue to live in the rubbish tip is nonsense and not worthy of further comment. I spent enough time in the dump, in the family 'home' NOT to be blissfully unaware as you suggest. And, as someone who has been supporting an entire very poor family for 16 years to the best of my ability (along with helping many others) I have a pretty good idea of what extreme poverty and all that goes with it looks like and how it is experienced - insofar as this is possible for privileged people such as ourselves who can go back to our hotel rooms after a day at the dump, have a hot shower and then go out and eat a decent meal in a restaurant.
If you have given the parents of Sokayn and Sokourn (my phonetic spelling) the wherewithal to stop working in the dump and to be self-supporting in their province, CCF is to be congratulated on having done this for them and, presumably, for the parents of other children being taken care of by CCF. If they are no longer working at the dump and are back in their province then there is virtually no way of my finding them. As it happens, my present for them was intended to help them get out of the dump and to help them establish their lives on a more secure footing back in their province but, since CCF seems to have achieved that goal, there is no shortage of other extremely poor people who are in need of financial assistance.
As for my being a 'voyuer', Scott, on what do you base this judgment? What do you know of me or my films? What do you know of the approach I have taken to my filming in Cambodia? What do you know of the people I have helped whilst in Cambodia over the past 16 years? Nothing. And yet, on the basis of nothing but your own preconceptions, you pass judgment!
As for the coda I referred to earlier (and I admit to my own naivete here) I had presumed that it would be to sing the praises of CCF and the work that it does in helping families such as Sokayn's make new lives for themselves. At this point I have no real idea what CCF actually does. Yes, I have looked at your website and it all looks terrific in theory - but then so too do the websites of all NGOs - some of whom do not do as well in practice as their theory suggests. As you will be aware, some NGOs keen to rescue kids have no desire to rescue their parents; some NGOs keen to rescue kids have a religious agenda; some NGOs that rescue kids keep them till they are 17 and then return them to the lives they were rescued from without the skills necessary for them to survive in the 'real' world of Cambodia.
Apart from thanking Ka and Chourn for allowing me to film them, apart from giving them my thank-you gift, I also wanted to hear from them how their lives and those of their children had been transformed by CCF. You have blocked off this possibility so all that I am left with is that my contact with the family has been blocked by CCF.
If you wish to clarify precisely what CCF has done for the family I will include this information in my film - whilst making it clear at the same time that CCF would not allow me to glean this information from the family itself but only, as it were, from the CCF publicity department. The audience can make what it will of the factual information at its disposal.
best wishes
James
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It is hard to imagine a more inhospitable environment for a child to work in
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I received no response to this email, or to any other similar email I sent over the following 10 months. It would take me this long to track down Ka, Chuan, Sokayn and Sokourn and to visit them in the ‘home’ that they were living on close to the dump. Ka and Chuan told me, in an interview, a story that is quite different from the one Scott told me and made other observations that made me wonder which statements of Scott’s cold be relied on to be true and how much of what was written on the internet about CCF was accurate and how much of it was written in such a way as to maximize donations and sponsorships. At the time, 2011, donations to CCF amounted to $4 million per annum.
28th Nov 2011
Dear Scott, Patrick and others at CCF
The broadcaster that wishes to acquire my Cambodian film has shown a particular interest in the story about Sokayn and her family and it will now feature more prominently than I had foreseen. This is, in large, part because my producer is interested (as she believes the audience will be) not only in what has become of the family but why it is that the Cambodian Children's Fund is going to the lengths it is to prevent me from having any further contact with the family; why it is that CCF will answer no questions relating to the family at all.
I will be coming to Cambodia next week to put some serious effort into finding Sokayn's family - my quest now a part of the story. I am also extending, here, an invitation to a representative of CCF to speak to camera about the role that CCF has been and is playing in assisting poor Phnom Penh dump families and, especially, the children who work (or used to work) in them.
I will be in Phnom Penh from 7th to 20th Dec.
best wishes
James Ricketson
I received no response to this email.
4th Dec 2011
EMAIL TO SCOTT NEESON
Dear Scott, Patrick and others at CCF
I will be in Phnom Penh in two days - my top priority being to find Sokayn's family to give them the money I promised and to show them the footage I have shot. If anyone at CCF were to view the footage I think you would realize how inappropriate CCF's response to me has been and how foolish (at the very least) CCF will appear when my film is completed and, in all likelihood, seen by millions of viewers all around the world.
cheers
James
I did not receive a response to this email. Seven months later I wrote to Scott Neeson again.
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Sokayn relaxes at the end of a days work
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28th July 2012
EMAIL TO SCOTT NEESON
Dear Scott
Today I visited Srey Ka and Chuan, the parents of Sokayn and Sokourn - currently residing with and being taken care of by the Cambodian Children's Fund. Sokourn was at home also, but not Sokayn. Chuan told me that he had rented a motor-cycle to take him to the house where Sokayn is staying and was told that she was not allowed to come to the family home for a visit. Given that Chuan had spent the equivalent of two days wages travelling to and from the CCF centre it is not surprising that he was upset at not being able to bring his daughter home with him for the weekend.
As you know, I have been documenting the life of Chuan and Srey Ka's family for some years now and am curious to know why it is that Sokayn could not accompany her father to the family home today? I am curious also to know why it is that Sokayn and Sokourn, two sisters who love each other, should be staying in separate residences? What logic informs the separation of these two sisters? Chuan and Srey Ka told me today it is their understanding that Sokayn and Sokourn must stay with CCF until they are 18 years old - even if they want their daughters to accompany them when (or if) they return to live in their province. Is this correct or are they mistaken? If it is true that the Cambodian Children’s Fund will retain custody of the girls until they reach 18, what is the nature of the agreement that Chuan and Srey Ka have entered into with CCF that contains such a clause? I am working on the presumption that there is some kind of written agreement signed by CCF, Chuan and Srey Ka relating to CCF retaining custody of Sokayn and Sokourn regardless of their parents' wishes? I am presuming also that such a ‘contract’ must have been ratified by the relevant Cambodian ministry.
Chuan and Srey Ka have informed me that they wish to be reunited with their daughters in the not too distant future and I have promised to help them do so. In order to be true to my promise I need to find out from CCF just what formal procedures need to be gone through for CCF to release Sokayn and Sokourn back into the care of their parents.
I will be in Phnom Penh for a few more days and in a position to discuss this with CCF in person if you feel that this would be helpful.
best wishes
James Ricketson
…to be continued
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