At Saving Moses, we love involving people in our mission. Each year, we take a team of about 10-15 people to Cambodia to volunteer in our NightCare centers. While there, they clean or repair centers as needed, visit neighborhoods to invite new attendees, and participate in play time, showing genuine love to the babies and toddlers who attend NightCare. This year, Brittney Riley joined our Cambodia Team Trip, and we asked her to share a few words about her experience:
Saving Moses Leads by Example
Protecting the Innocent and Creating a New Lifestyle for Future Generations
By Brittney Riley
This July, I went to Cambodia with Saving Moses, a beautiful organization that saves babies and toddlers who are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by giving them a loving place to stay at night, when they are most at risk to danger.
While I was there, I met Chanlina. She is 28 years old and has three children under the age of five who attend NightCare. Her youngest, Akra, is three months old. These three children are so happy and healthy. Their mom gives credit to the center for their good nutrition. Chanlina works at night in the sex industry. She says that she is not paid well and having the money to buy food for her children is a challenge. She says that she feels happy that Saving Moses feeds her babies while she is working. Before Saving Moses, she would leave her babies home alone at night to care for themselves. And when there is not enough money for food, she gives them only water.
Chanlina’s story is not an uncommon one in this part of the world. Many women where the NightCare centers are located do not have the means to provide basic care for their babies and toddlers. They love their babies and do the best they can with what they have. Saving Moses gives these mothers a better option. Every child that is brought in to NightCare gets a warm bath, warm nutritious food, play time with toys, and loving nannies who lead them by example. The nannies are so happy and loving to these sweet babies and toddlers. They keep them clean, play with them, and sing songs that teach them about loving one another and the importance of hygiene. The nannies are amazing people who love these children so much.
The impact Saving Moses is making on the nannies, communities, babies, and toddlers is astounding. Mother’s like Chanlina say they see a big difference in their babies since going to Saving Moses. The babies and toddlers love coming to NightCare. Many come in laughing and happy to play with their favorite toy at the center. Walking through the neighborhoods allows you to quickly realize why they are so happy when coming to the center at night. The centers are like a palace when you compare them to the homes where the children live.
The flooring at the centers are clean tile and the air smells fresh. Many homes in the neighborhoods have dirt or concrete flooring surrounded by wooden plank walls. Toddlers run through neighborhoods barefoot, sometimes naked, and mostly unsupervised. The toddlers have little to no toys in their home, so they play with whatever they find laying around, which is usually trash. The neighborhood can be scary during the day with open, sewage-filled canals that would be easy to fall into.
Saving Moses is more than just protecting the innocent, they are teaching these communities a different lifestyle by simple exposure. Caring for babies and toddlers in this way is showing their mothers that there is a better life out there and giving them hope for the future.
Partnering with Saving Moses means that you are helping to save another baby or toddler from dangerous nights where they are exposed to threats and often abused. It also means you are helping raise a future generation that cares for each other and has a dream for a brighter future.
A little bit of care and compassion from us goes a long way.
