FACTS & FIGURES
From July-September, 2012
• On August 9, Action Pour Les Enfants was elected by the 15 NGO partner organizations cooperating in the Sihanoukville NGO Advocacy Network (SNAN) to chair the Children Sub-committee for two years. APLE will lead other NGOs in protecting children, drafting and proposing policies and advocacy activities.
• On August 13, Country Director Mr. Seila Samleang met with a group of 4 local NGOs and UNODC to look into a reported child sexual abuse incident by sex tourists along the Cambodian-Thai border Poipet checkpoint. APLE will lead the effort, with support from UNODC.
• On August 28, Mr. Seila Samleang signed a funding agreement with My Son Project of World Vision Cambodia to initially start a short-term capacity building program for local community networks in Battambang province.
• On August 31, Ms. Stella McCracken represented APLE to speak in a Service Fair event organized in Hong Kong by Renaissance College Hong Kong (RCHK) to allow members of the college community to learn about involvement of youth in the fight against human trafficking.
• On September 26, Sihanoukville Branch Project Officer Mr. Yi Moden participated in a conference themed “Fighting Human Trafficking – Liaison Officers Regional Cooperation in South East Asia”, organized by the Austrian Ministry of Interior in Bangkok. Among the speakers were the Department for International Affairs of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior, UNODC – Regional Center for East Asian and the Pacific, ICPO Interpol, APLE, the Australian Embassy, ECPAT International, IOM, U.S ICE, and several Thai Law Enforcement Agencies. The participants showed great interest in APLE’s cooperation with the Cambodian National Police and they praised APLE for its work and commitment in general and for the way it cooperates at national and international arenas.
• On September 26, A letter of intervention was sent to His Excellency Ang Vongvathana, Minister of Justice, to request the Minister to intervene in a certain criminal case by Siem Reap Provincial Court that acquitted all charges of committing Indecent Act against 5 Minors under Fifteen Years. The intervention letter initiated by APLE was co-signed by 12 local and international NGOs.
• On September 27, Project Officer Mr. Yi Moden representing APLE signed a funding agreement with the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok, who will support the ‘Combating Child Sexual Abuse’ project starting from October 2012 onwards, initially for the period of one year. We proudly thank the Swiss government for their kind fund assistance.