DT believes in working closely with a wide range of partners, including authorities, public services and other non-governmental organisations. DT (Goutte d’eau) is a member of the following networks:
Banteay Meanchey Quality of Education Support Team: a group regrouping 17 NGOs with main goal main to improve the quality of education in partnership with the provincial Department of Education Youth and Sports.
Border Issue Group on Children: a group containing NGOs working with Thai and Cambodian authorities for the protection of children at the border
Border Victims Support Team: a cross-border joint outreach team consisting of Cambodian and Thai NGO.
Cambodia’s Street Children Network
CYTI Alliance: an international network of NGOS, coordinated by Friends International, committed to protecting children.
COSECAM Coalition to Address (the sexual) Exploitation of Children in Cambodia: a network including 24 NGOS which aims to advocate for improvements and working to assist children in need.
Disability Action Council: a national coordination and advisory body on disability to the Royal Government of Cambodia. It provides recommendations for the rights of persons with disabilities in Cambodia.
Goutte d’eau – a child support network: A Swiss NGO supporting Cambodian NGOs working with vulnerable and a young adult with disabilities marginalized street children, as well as children and young adults with disabilities. The main objectives of GEcsn is to transfer knowledge to its partners and to give them technical and financial support.
NEP for non-government education: promotes active collaboration between NGOs working in education and advocates on behalf of its member organizations in policy meetings and discussions with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports.
Find us on field work
Learn more about how DT’s poipet work to assist vulnerable children
2017 Damnok Toek was awarded by Child 10 Organization in Switzerland
2018 Damnok Toek was awarded by Prix Caritas.
Read More about Prix Caritas
Prix Caritas goes to Cambodia
The Prix Caritas 2018 was presented in Lucerne to the Cambodian doctor Sovannarith Sam. Yves Serra, CEO and President of Georg Fischer, paid tribute to the award winner’s commitment. He has been actively engaged in promoting child protection and children’s rights in Cambodia for decades. At the core of his efforts are disadvantaged children who have become victims of enslavement, human trafficking and prostitution.
Yves Serra, CEO of Georg Fischer, Sovannarith Sam and Hugo Fasel, director of Caritas Switzerland. Photo: Priska Ketterer
Sovannarith Sam is the executive director of the child protection organisation ‘Damnok Toek’. It takes care of around 3,500 marginalised children each year in the cities of Phnom Penh, Poipet and Neak Loeung. In Poipet, on the border with Thailand, Sovannarith Sam runs various drop-in centres in which approximately 750 children, who live and work on the street, find refuge. They keep themselves and their families afloat – by carrying heavy loads, collecting waste, as beggars or, in the worst case, as child prostitutes. In the drop-in centres, the children can recover from the strains of their work. They are given a hot meal and can have a shower.
‘Damnok Toek’ also offers these children a basic education. Wherever possible, they are prepared for admission to a mainstream state school. In cooperation with public authorities and private business, the aid organisation also enables the boys and girls to gain a vocational qualification and helps them to get apprenticeships, work placements or jobs.
Yves Serra, CEO and President of Georg Fischer as well as President of the ‘Clean Water’ Foundation, praised the award winner’s commitment as pioneering: ‘Sovannarith Sam is always guided by a threefold perspective. By giving children and young people a roof over their head in the drop-in centres, he is providing life-saving protection. But he doesn’t stop at that. Through education and training, he endeavours to reintegrate the children into society and to give them a future. And lastly, by raising awareness, he wants to prevent children from being deprived of rights and protection.’
Human beings with an inviolable dignity
According to Yves Serra, the commitment of the Cambodian doctor is shaped by his conviction that first and foremost, children are human beings with an inviolable dignity and with fundamental rights. The award of the Prix Caritas 2018 is intended to encourage him to continue his commitment to child protection and children’s rights.
The Prix Caritas is awarded each year to persons who distinguish themselves by their great professional expertise and humanity, as well as their long-term and innovative engagement. The prize money of CHF 10,000 goes to one of the award winner’s projects.
Their smiling is our commitment in mission to assist them.
Network
DT believes in working closely with a wide range of partners, including authorities, public services and other non-governmental organisations. DT (Goutte d’eau) is a member of the following networks:
Find us on field work
Learn more about how DT’s poipet work to assist vulnerable children
2017 Damnok Toek was awarded by Child 10 Organization in Switzerland
2018 Damnok Toek was awarded by Prix Caritas.
Read More about Prix Caritas
Prix Caritas goes to Cambodia
The Prix Caritas 2018 was presented in Lucerne to the Cambodian doctor Sovannarith Sam. Yves Serra, CEO and President of Georg Fischer, paid tribute to the award winner’s commitment. He has been actively engaged in promoting child protection and children’s rights in Cambodia for decades. At the core of his efforts are disadvantaged children who have become victims of enslavement, human trafficking and prostitution.
Sovannarith Sam is the executive director of the child protection organisation ‘Damnok Toek’. It takes care of around 3,500 marginalised children each year in the cities of Phnom Penh, Poipet and Neak Loeung. In Poipet, on the border with Thailand, Sovannarith Sam runs various drop-in centres in which approximately 750 children, who live and work on the street, find refuge. They keep themselves and their families afloat – by carrying heavy loads, collecting waste, as beggars or, in the worst case, as child prostitutes. In the drop-in centres, the children can recover from the strains of their work. They are given a hot meal and can have a shower.
‘Damnok Toek’ also offers these children a basic education. Wherever possible, they are prepared for admission to a mainstream state school. In cooperation with public authorities and private business, the aid organisation also enables the boys and girls to gain a vocational qualification and helps them to get apprenticeships, work placements or jobs.
Yves Serra, CEO and President of Georg Fischer as well as President of the ‘Clean Water’ Foundation, praised the award winner’s commitment as pioneering: ‘Sovannarith Sam is always guided by a threefold perspective. By giving children and young people a roof over their head in the drop-in centres, he is providing life-saving protection. But he doesn’t stop at that. Through education and training, he endeavours to reintegrate the children into society and to give them a future. And lastly, by raising awareness, he wants to prevent children from being deprived of rights and protection.’
Human beings with an inviolable dignity
According to Yves Serra, the commitment of the Cambodian doctor is shaped by his conviction that first and foremost, children are human beings with an inviolable dignity and with fundamental rights. The award of the Prix Caritas 2018 is intended to encourage him to continue his commitment to child protection and children’s rights.
The Prix Caritas is awarded each year to persons who distinguish themselves by their great professional expertise and humanity, as well as their long-term and innovative engagement. The prize money of CHF 10,000 goes to one of the award winner’s projects.
Their smiling is our commitment in mission to assist them.
Beneficiaries speeches