Phnom Penh – Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) is a child’s rights non-governmental organization operating in Cambodia since 2003 that works to reduce all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation through prevention, protection and promotion of prosecution. For August 2015, our office realized some key achievements as follows:
Legal Support Program
The legal department developed a questionnaire to interview the victims and their families to understand their knowledge and feelings while participating in the court process and hear their feedback. It is expected that with this questionnaire, the department will be able to improve and find the best way to provide support to our clients in the future.
Our lawyer and First Step provided counselling to a boy victim at PSE. After LC, we found that he was concerned of being sued by the offender if he loses at court, leading him to hesitate to attend the trial.
Sihanouk provincial court used the privacy screen donated by APLE during the trial. We noticed that the girl victim reduced her fear of seeing the perpetrator’s face when using this privacy screen. This is a good experience of using the screen as a child-friendly procedure.
In conclusion, the legal department provided legal counseling and support to 27 victims and family members and 1 witness and represented 9 victims and families at the courts.
Social Support Program
The social work department followed up with Sreymao, 16 years old and one of seven girls and she agreed to go through with the marriage for her family. Then, the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit rescued her and the other six girls when they were about to fly to China. Sreymao was referred to a rehabilitation shelter where she received counselling, health care, education, and life skills training. She attended a seven-month vocational training to learn to be a tailor.
Meeting to discuss the intervention letter of revictimazation and vulnerable children in Siem Reap province. The Department of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation will seek support from the provincial hall to set up a meeting with all NGOs and relevant institutions to find solution to the issues of revictimazation and vulnerable children in the province.
Joining a meeting with First Step Cambodia, Mith Samlanh, Friend International and World Vision Cambodia to discuss high risks for girl victims and look for possible intervention from relevant institutions, including the government’s ones.
Meeting with IJM, CCPCR, Hard Place Community, PSE and Hagar to discuss possible support to victims after their re-integration.
Social worker continued her 7th training session on “The Boy First” with other 18 NGO partners. The session focused on good practice sharing, describing a client’s need, strategies for dealing with young people’s behavior, and problems identification.
In conclusion, the department met with 146 clients (F: 82, M: 64), 2 victims got the medical examination.
Investigation Program
Our investigation department is vigilant online because with the growth of mobile phone usage, sexting has also come to Cambodian society. Sexting refers to sending sexually explicit materials via mobile devices, most often to a significant other. To educate teens and children about the dangers of sexting, APLE is reaching out to them via training on online safety and technology use. In addition, APLE runs an internet hotline where anyone can anonymously report online sexual crimes against children.
Meeting with anti-human trafficking police and some officials in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk and discussed on some specific cases and the follow-up actions.
Meeting with Sihanouk Provincial Committee of Consultation on Women and Children Affairs and NGOs partners to update each other about our work and discuss solutions to some challenges. Moreover, we met our NGO partner M’lop Tapang Organization to work on information collection in some cases.
In conclusion, the investigation department conducted 14 meetings with relevant stakeholders to work on child protection, received 27 cases through hotline, email and staff.
Awareness and Training Program
The awareness and training department conducted three trainings for 80 participants from different groups in Phnom Penh and Preah Sihanouk province. They include taxi drivers, hotel staff, cooks, tour guides, students, villagers, NGO personnel, local authorities and university students. The trainings focused on child sexual abuse and exploitation, grooming techniques by offenders and how to report the incidents to relevant authorities.
For further information on the organization and its work, please visit:
www.aplecambodia.org or www.facebook.com/aplecambodia.org
