Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, undergraduate student Annie Dale interviewed Srey Mom, Director of the Arrupe Carina Center in Battambang, Cambodia, in summer 2013. In this interview (conducted via a translator) Mom discusses the center's work, the state of education for the disabled in Cambodia, and her goals for the center's future.

Can you tell me what your position is?

I am the director of the Arrupe Center.

Can you tell me what you do every day?

I work with all the kids, trying to motivate them and giving them an opportunity to learn.

So are you a teacher?

No, I’m like a mother.

So you take care of the kids, okay…

I do everything.

So why did you choose to start working here?

I don’t know why I started working here, but since I started I’ve stayed because I like working here and love the kids here and working for the kids.

Did you have experience with handicapped children beforehand?

No, none.

Were you a teacher before that?

It’s my first time. After I graduated, I started working here with the kids with disabilities.

What’s the greatest challenge you face every day working with these kids?

This is the first time that I have worked with kids, especially kids with disabilities, and I was not sure that I could handle it. I am now trying so I can do it all, so I keep trying and trying and now can work with the kids here, and that’s what can make me feel like I’m doing a good job.

So without this program, where would the kids be? What would they be doing if they didn’t have this center?

If there was no center for the disabled people, for sure they would stay at home or they would go to the border of Thailand, and the only thing they could do is beg. When people see that they have disabilities, they can’t do anything, so all they can do is beg. And this does not just happen on the border or in Thailand; they also have to beg in the center, in the capitol city. They go where the tourists are. If they don’t have a center for them, they would just do that.

So there would be no other accessibility to schools?

No.

Are there other centers like this in other parts of Cambodia? Is there a lot of help available for people with disabilities?

There are many centers that accept disabled people, but you’ll find that other centers are helping with school or work or something like that, but they don’t allow them to live in the center like we do. We accept them to live here and then give them an education.

In rural areas, would these kids be able to go to school?

Some families, some of the kids, they can go to school. But the conflict is that the schools only go through primary school and they don’t have anything after primary schools. Some kids go and then don’t have school because the school doesn’t have a teacher.

The students have to pay to get the rest of the lesson?

Yeah, and I think that’s why the kids feel like it is difficult to go because they have to pay more. Sometimes they have to study for only one or two hours, and then the teacher tells them to leave. Even if the students finish their primary school, they still may not be able to pay, so that’s why we go down there.

So does this lack of accessibility, and the hardships that they have to face, affect their motivation and their desire to go to school?

Yes, it affects them a lot. For the kids here, sometimes even the weather or something can affect them.

And so, through programs like these, are there any other ways you can make schools more accessible? Maybe through programs like these or any other changes to the school system in Cambodia?

Yes, that’s why we have the Education Team. That program is used to go and help…because here we accept the kids that have disabilities, so they come here.

And how do you choose which kids get to come and stay here?

At first our center only accepted kids with disabilities from landmines, but then we started to go from village to village and saw other kids with polio or who are blind. We decided to accept them and let them study. We then decided that we would take kids with disabilities who have the ability to go to school close to their home, and we can find schools for the blind. If the living condition of their family is very bad, we keep them at the school. But some families can help their children go to school, so we only provide them with wheelchairs or rice; we don’t usually bring that kind of family here.

So the only kids that come here just don’t have any ability at all to attend school?

Yes.

And how many students are living here in Arrupe Center?

Fourteen.

And they are all ages?

Yes, they are all ages. Because some of them leave and some just give up their studies, we used to have 16, but now there are only 14.

But you said if they give up their studies, they can’t stay here, right?

Yes, because they choose. They’ve been living here for many years, so it’s like their friends all live here. And then if they choose to go away rather than stay, we cannot do anything about it because we’ve been providing their education, we provide to the family, but then they decide to go—it’s their choice. We don’t want to force them to stay. Some kids appreciate what we do, but some kids just find their own way. But we always say that we are here and open. We open the door for them whenever they need us. We are here for them, but sometimes they don’t want this.

And how important is the Church and Catholicism in all of these operations? Is it very important, or is it just that this institution happens to be founded by a Catholic organization?

So you know that Kike [Father Enrique Figaredo, S.J.] is the priest here, and after he became the bishop, he started to think of the Arrupe Center. And this center exists because of the church. But he wants to put everybody together here and not separate people. Everybody lives here. For instance, some of them come from Catholic families but most of them from Buddhist families, and they all come here. If you want to be the Catholic, you can join, but if not, you can still stay. So it is their choice to do that. Many people in Cambodia don’t want disabled people. When they see people with disabilities, they think that the only thing they can do is beg. And that’s it. But we want to put them here to let people outside see that disabled people can go to school.

And what do the kids do after they leave the Arrupe Center? Are they able to go to college and get jobs?

Yes, after the kids finish high school, we send them back. But, like I said to you, if they want to go to university, they can come back and then we still continue helping them, either at home or…through the skills training. If they say, “Ok, after I finish grade 12, I want to go to college,” then they tell us what they want to do. We support them because before we told them, “After you graduate from high school, you will go to college.” So many people wanted to study different skills or do this or do that, so we decided that they can after grade 12. And we help them do all of that. But obviously they now go to college and also come back to train or to help for one or two years here.

So moving forward into the future, is there anything about this program that you want to expand upon, or make better? Or that you want to widen? What are your goals for the program?

It’s not a goal, but we want to see that after students leave the center, they have the ability to help themselves, their community, and their family or village, or we want to see that they can go to work like normal people and not just stay home and do nothing. And this is what we want to see when they get out of this center.

And when did the Arrupe Center start?

2000. That is when Kike became the bishop, and then he started the Outreach Team to find students with disabilities. The first students come in 2001.

And what’s your favorite part of your job?

I love to go after the kids. Then I love to go talk to the teachers at the kids’ school to find out how are they doing.

And you plan on staying here to work?

Yes, because I live very close by. And now I have two little girls, and my husband is also working in the Paloma, in a factory.

So you’re here.

And I feel pity on the new kids. It’s like you’ve been living here and then it’s your home, so you can’t think of going away. These are the photos of all the kids. Now that they are growing up, we have separated them into Arrupe 1 and Arrupe 2. The boys live in Arrupe 2. Before they were all living together, but here we keep the little girl that arrived just this year, so we want to keep her under our control. After they go to secondary school, we let them go.

And do you take in new kids every year?

Yes, every year we go to find new kids. We have to follow up to see the family, how they are doing, if this kid really needs to go to the center. We follow them, and after they have been helping in the village for one or six months, then we bring them here.

So they know the family well?

Yes, we know the families and their situation very well, and then we select students.

And do the kids ever see their families? Do they come here?

Yes, some parents come to visit. Every year in Cambodia there is holiday that you have two weeks, and they all go home for the holidays. There is the Khmer New Year and the other holiday in October.

So they go home to their families.

Yes, and we want them to learn what they have here and what they have back home with their families to see what they want. Sometimes, if the families live close by, they come and visit them.

And from how far out are they from?

It depends. Some are from very close, but some are from very, very far away. The farthest is close to the border with Thailand.