CAMBODIA - A DAYCARE CENTRE FOR CHILDREN OF IMPRISONED WOMEN

In the prison for women of Phnom Penh, many incarcerated women have no other choice than to keep their children with them, in their cell, when they can not turn to family or social services to take care of them for the time of their custody.
These young children will then spend their first years living in jail. They will not have the appropriate care they need, access to education nor leisure.
Sometimes even born in prison, the only environment they know about is their mothers' cell...

The main objective of this program is double:

• Provide the children with a different life frame for the daytime
• Fulfill their very specific needs

Thans to the personal commitment of Marie-Laurence COmberti, President of AMADE Cambodia, and thanks to the generosity showed on the occasion of the 2008 Victoires concert, the official opening of the structure took place on 1st July 2009. Since then, the center accomodates the childre every single day.

The center manages to take care of 35 to 40 children, thanks to the commitment of the staff (3 social workers and 1 team leader). The children - most of them are very young - are taken out of their mother's cell every morning and taken care of until the evening; they benefit basic hygiene as well as 2 healthy and balanced meals a day.

Each day's activities are very organised and include leisure, rest and meals. It is considered to add basic school sessions. At the end of the day, the children find their mother back in her cell. A nutritional complement is distributed to pregnant and breast-feeding incarcerated women.