RW Supply + Design’s mission is that we exist UNTIL EVERY CHILD IS HOME. Much of the work that we do has focused on Asia…and, often in Cambodia. Why Cambodia? First, we make product in Cambodia and we determined that, wherever we work internationally, we will try to develop missional partners. Asia has the highest number of orphans in the world and Cambodia is one of the ten poorest countries in Asia. Poverty is a driving force of child abandonment. Starting with a brutal civil war and genocide in the 1970s, Cambodia has now experienced over 30 years of political and civil unrest. While this has negatively affected the entire population, Cambodian children have been left particularly vulnerable. Cambodia has nearly 600,000 orphans and approximately 20,000 children living on the streets. Sadly, when children are vulnerable, and left without the consistent safety of a loving adult, they are preyed upon. Cambodian has a high rate of trafficking, with traffickers buying children from their families or kidnapping street children. These children are often forced to work in the labor industry or are sexually trafficked. Many girls are trafficked into Thailand or China through dangerous border crossings and ‘lost’ altogether. Abandoned children who are not trafficked, are left to fend for themselves on the streets…begging or working for meager amounts. Orphanages in Cambodia have a reputation for being mismanaged and corrupt – some have even been known to sell children to traffickers. Rarely do children who live on the streets or in an orphanage receive an education. Without an education, they remain vulnerable into adulthood. Sadly, generational poverty and trauma often repeats into future generations.

However, we have seen that when there is vulnerability and oppression, there is also great opportunity…(continued next week)