Winter Greeting Cards (1)

This winter, we made greeting cards with children in two regions.  In addition to Kratie, where we have been providing support, we have also decided to launch a new foster care program this fall in a rural area in another province.

This was the first time we had implemented a specific program in this new rural area.  The program included several activities such as folding, cutting, and drawing paper, but the children seemed unfamiliar with all of those.

As for writing, as they are not used to writing letters, we asked them to write about their most enjoyable memory of the year. However, it seemed they couldn't immediately think of an impressive memory.  Their days may be a repetition of the same routine.  Even so, New Year's and Pchum Ben are special occasions in Cambodia when families and relatives gather, so the teacher who accompanied us in the program suggested that children write about events that occurred during those holiday times, and they managed to write something.

As illustrations, we introduced some examples of Christmas cards and New Year's cards from overseas, such as Japan and the United States.  We thought that if they wanted to draw winter scenes, they could use these pictures as references.  But the children don't usually draw pictures or have never done so before, so we decided to have them start by drawing something familiar.  They didn't know how to draw even a house or a person, so they had to ask their teacher for help one by one.

In the program, it is usually forbidden to simply copy what someone else has written or drawn.  Meanwhile, in Japan, for example, children are surrounded by a variety of information from a young age, and they learn by looking at them and drawing them.  They may try to copy others' artwork in order to draw better.  On the contrary, these children here are missing that process, and so we have to take various things into consideration as we conduct programs.

Regarding how to fold paper, even when we demonstrated in front of them, they would fold it in a different direction.  We think they didn't have the opportunity or environment to develop spatial cognition in their everyday lives.  There are still many children like this out there, and we want to provide opportunities to as many children as possible.