"The Green Gecko Project is where I volunteered for much of my previous stay in Cambodia in 2005-2006. The founders, Tania and Rem, created a safe place for Siem Reap's street kids to come and learn and play and get away from the negative begging environment. I just glossed over a whole lot of issues there in the interest of space, but trust me when I say the kids were in a bad place. All the kids are now in Khmer and English school (and earning top marks and awards), some of the parents have been given jobs at the center, and on this visit I have seen a HUGE difference in the kids' behaviour. I keep saying, my god, they're just not the same kids. I mean, they are, their personalities are as strong and beautiful as ever, but their behaviour is so much healthier than when they were begging. It's an incredible transformation.  What strikes me the most is how much they act like a cohesive family. They look out for each other, they share (!), and they encourage each other.  I think their street life was so unstable and unpredictable that they never really invested in each other, and certainly not in themselves. Now, that sense of identity and self-worth that we worked so hard to instill in the beginning has really taken root.  Not only are they invested in themselves, they're investing in their own FUTURE.

We went to an end of term party at the kids' Khmer school, where they cranked up the speakers and had dancing and singing contests and raffle prizes. The school is an "International School", meaning it's a private Khmer school with high educational standards, and there are 50+ Gecko kids enrolled there. During one dancing contest, 3 of the 4 kids competing were Gecko kids. They got the music going and our kids started flailing their arms and gettin' down with their bad selves. They were a huge crowd pleaser, with everybody screaming and laughing. Tania turned to me and said, tongue in cheek and smirk on face, "You know, we really must teach these kids some self-confidence". Needless to say they won first and second place by popular vote.At a party for some donors who were visiting, the Geckos had a quick assembly to say hello and thank you.  We all sat inside an open-air concrete and thatch roof structure- the new school building and sleeping quarters before its walls have been installed. In the beginning of the assembly, Tania sat with the kids while they meditated silently for five minutes. And I mean the children were completely silent.  I felt myself getting very emotional, tears welling up. I looked over each of these children and thought of how many times I had seen each of them in the streets at 2 am, or worse, at 8am after having been in the streets all night; how their eyes had looked so old, their hair ratted, their clothes filthy, their faces unreal and plastic as they learned what emotional expression would bring in the most money; the home life where their parents encouraged them to take part in a lifestyle filled with disease, heartache, and hopelessness rather than one with opportunity and achievement.  And now these kids, they were about to sit down at real desks, in real classrooms, in their classrooms and with their own books, and you know what- I think for the first time ever these children have the sense that they DESERVE it.

It's been a huge pleasure to come back and see the program so successful, as evidenced by these amazing children and their ability to make something so productive and inspiring out of something so dark".