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Children - 5.1 What makes children vulnerable in Cambodia?
   Last updated: 23.08.01
 
Appraisal participants agreed that all children living in poverty are potentially vulnerable since basic needs such as food, shelter, protection, social integration, emotional development and access to health care and education may not always be met. Since over 40% of Cambodians live ‘under the poverty line’, these general criteria apply to a great number of children. Participants also agreed that this vulnerability can be compounded by a number of factors.

There were numerous examples of these factors which can increase vulnerability including:

  • Poor families with many children who have to stretch few resources further.

  • Poor families with no relatives or who have migrated away from relatives have fewer opportunities to borrow food or money in crisis situations.

  • Parents lacking in skills or education are less likely to be able to find employment on a regular basis.

  • Parents who are less able to build up savings or assets which could provide a safety net in times of need.

  • Families without land or property who have difficulty in accessing credit with which to start small businesses.

  • Families without land can’t access basic community development initiatives like rural extension and sanitation projects - which are intended for the most vulnerable.

  • Families were stress has resulted in neglect, violence, alcoholism or sexual abuse.

  • Families living in areas where there may be conflict or in insecure accommodation such as in squatter areas or on the street.

  • Families in which children are required to work either inside or outside the home to ensure survival.


Children in such families were seen to be further disadvantaged where one parent is absent, chronically sick or dead. The exception being where the absent parent was violent or abusive or had squandered family resources for their own ends.
Children without mothers were seen to be more vulnerable than those without fathers, since mothers are considered to be generally more concerned about the welfare of their children. Even so, it was clear that participants felt that women were less able to provide for their children on their own because they lack education, skills, power and status.

Participants also talked about the vulnerability of stepchildren where the step-parent sees the step-child as a threat to their own children’s welfare.

Girls were seen to be more vulnerable generally than boys since they are more likely to be trafficked, raped, or sold to brothels. Girls were seen to have less freedom than boys, have less education and generally less control over their lives. They were also seen to be culturally more passive and therefore less likely to be able to stand up for themselves.

The most vulnerable children overall, however, were seen to be those from poor families who had lost both parents.

Facts
Children's vulnerability is greater when parents are forced to generate income in a way that makes them subject to stigma, police harassment, imprisonment or the payment of fines or bribes. Children of sex workers were reported to be especially vulnerable.

One group of participants quoted a Khmer proverb about it being better for children to lose their father rather than their mother. It loosely translates as “it's better the boat capsizes than the house burn”.

The most vulnerable age group was seen as 7 to 12 years for both boys and girls. This age group was considered to no longer attract the protection afforded to babies and infants, to be old enough to work, but to lack life skills and the physical strength to protect themselves. They were also seen as the age group most likely to suffer from malnutrition and associated ill-health.

 
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