Photographer: Save the Children
About COLT
COLT empowers disadvantaged families through sustainable aid. In our community centre in Dangkor, in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, we provide children ánd their families day care, education, medical and social care. Apart from that we organize healthy ways to relax through sports and games. Unfortunately, sometimes children are no longer safe at home and in these cases, COLT can provide temporary or long-term shelter. COLT always strives to restore the family situation, and employs qualified social workers that work continously with the family in order to enable a safe and responsible reintegration of the child(ren).
Founded in 2005 as a small shelter in Phnom Penh, COLT provided temporary and long-term care for children that could no longer live at home. Within three years, COLT opened a school and started providing community children English and computer classes. In 2015, COLT opened the gates of its community centre. Realizing this centre enabled us to broaden our services. We are able to support families on several levels, improving the opportunities for underprivileged children significantly and providing them a real chance on a better future,
Our mission
COLT pursues the goal to to empower parents and families to such an extent that they ultimately are able to provide their child a safe and stimulating environment, allowing their child to really bé a child. This will permit children to develop their confidence, independence and their opportunities in the future.
Let a child be a child!
About Cambodia
Situated in Southeast Asia, Cambodia is often called the ‘land of the laugh and the tear’. The ever smiling population is friendly and helpful, but the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s has left deep marks. Two million people died, the infrastructure was completely destroyed and families were torn apart. The consequences of this period are still very visible in Cambodia’s daily life. A lack of education, health care and social facilities pushes a large part of the population under the poverty line. The trauma that affected families during or short after the Khmer Rouge often hasn’t been processed and has been carried over through generations, still causing many problems within families. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse, but also psychological issues are often left untreated, either due to taboos or a lack of adequate facilities. Based on this complex background, our core idea originated to support families in Cambodia in maintaining those basic needs that are essential in the development of a person.