The Takeo Orphanage Story

Ron Abney and Kim Kemlang in gardens planted by the children at the orphanage

After two decades of internal political unrest and violence, Cambodia began the difficult climb back toward peace and economic stability. Unfortunately, the years of turmoil had orphaned thousands of children who now had to find ways to survive on their own as the government was in no position financially to come to their aid.

After the United Nations sponsored elections in 1993, Cambodia began opening its doors to outsiders. In 1994, while working in Cambodia for the International Republican Institute, an American pro-democracy group, Ron Abney encountered the orphanage in Takeo Province, about three hours from the capital city of Phnom Penh. The orphanage founder and director was a young woman named Kim Kemlang, who had started the center in a run-down building with very limited support from the community and local government. The orphanage then housed about fifty kids, and the director’s main focus was providing food and basic care for the children as the national government dug itself out after years of war and isolation.

Kim showed Ron and his group how the orphanage was surviving with extremely limited funds. Although heartbreaking, her tour showed what a few people with a little hope and a lot of hard work could accomplish. Kemlang then asked Ron if he might help provide funds for clothes, school supplies and such things as materials for sewing. Ron promised that when he returned to the United States, he would ask his friends for help.

After Ron got home, he talked to his family and some of his close friends about the orphans and quickly raised enough money to buy and ship to Cambodia everything on Kemlang’s shopping list. Not knowing if he would ever return to Cambodia, Ron assumed that this was a one-time effort and he probably would never hear again from Takeo. However, he had underestimated Kemlang’s resolve.

A short time later, Ron got a call from Mr. Soda, the in-country director of the IRI and Ron’s good friend. He told Ron that he had recently visited the orphanage in Takeo and that Kemlang had asked if he would contact Ron to give him “this year’s list.” And that is how the Takeo Orphanage Program really took flight.

Ron ultimately returned to Cambodia to serve as the IRI country director, and what started as a small program to provide basic supplies grew and grew. Soon, the funds raised were being used to provide everything from beds, school tables and electronic equipment to some basic infrastructure work. As word of the success of the Takeo Orphanage grew, Kemlang reached out to ASPECA, an international French NGO that provides beneficial programs for children throughout Southeast Asia. In addition, the Cambodian government stepped up to provide more to cover the orphans’ daily needs.

In 1999, some of Ron’s friends from Atlanta, GA, visited the orphanage. There they fell under the “Kemlang spell.” Upon returning to the States,  his friends called and said they had a great idea. Why not start a fund to pay for college scholarships for all Takeo students who passed their high school tests and wanted to study further at the universities now open in Phnom Penh? His friends said they would help raise the money needed for this effort so as not to interfere with the established orphanage funding program. They soon enlisted friends from England, who began raising money immediately. The emphasis now was on helping the orphans get a higher education so they could find good jobs in Cambodia and help others in their own country.

Since 2013, the Ron Abney Educational Fund has provided a college education for 43 children (17 girls and 26 boys) from the Takeo Orphanage. All students successfully completed their degrees and now hold professional jobs in Cambodia. Graduates include two doctors, a veterinarian, three nurses and many other professionals in law, IT, tourism, finance, management, English, accounting, French, economics, marketing, and electrical science. Approximately twenty students graduated prior to 2013.

We hope these images from Takeo will become your image of hope for these children of Cambodia. Please HELP. The kids are counting on you.

(Click here to read Ron’s story as reported by Ed Grisamore in The Telegraph of Macon, Georgia)