[important color=blue title=The Goal] of the “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” Project is to equip both children and key adults in vulnerable school communities with the skills and resources to protect children from abuse and exploitation and to better support vulnerable children to stay in school, by following a community development approach built around consultation, empowerment and capacity building.

According to the ECPAT Database Report on Trafficking and Rape in Cambodia, most of the people identified as a victim of sex trafficking or rape in Cambodia in 2009 had been school students before they were trafficked or abused [ECPAT Cambodia, 2010]. Child Wise believe that working with vulnerable school communities is the most effective way to build child protection networks to protect children from these horrible crimes.

The “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” Project is a unique undertaking that combines many of Child Wise’s previously successful projects to create communities of child protection agents to protect children from abuse and exploitation, and reduce their vulnerability to trafficking.

Child Wise Cambodia staff work with the Ministry of Education of the Royal Government of Cambodia to identify disadvantaged schools in provinces where there are high-levels of human trafficking. Child Wise then consults with local partners to identify children within that school area who are vulnerable to dropping out of school due to economic, social or geographical pressures. Child Wise develops each arm of the project through a series of consultations with key stakeholders at the village level to ensure that there is genuine participation throughout the project cycle.

Child Wise have a multi-pronged approach to helping the vulnerable school children and the broader community through:

• Providing school scholarships to students vulnerable to dropping out of school, according to their individual needs;

• Providing the school with textbooks for all of the children in the school;

• Providing personal safety training to 30-50 student representatives from the school to help them understand the risks faced by children and strategies to protect themselves;

• Providing training to key community leaders (school teachers, village leaders, police, community health leaders) to assist them to understand, identify and respond to child abuse;

• Providing t-shirts to all of the children and key community leaders which emphasises that “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” (in Cambodia, this phrase symbolises that children are the future and must be protected). The t-shirt also emphasises a phone number to call if they want to report any suspicions of child abuse and exploitation; and

• Playing games with the children and the community in a community event to ensure that the messaging of the project is memorable to the community.

The objectives of this project are to ensure that:

• Children at risk of dropping out of school due to their family’s economic status (and are thus more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse) regularly attend school;

• The school has sufficient learning resources for all students;

• A cadre of students have an improved understanding of the risks they face in terms of abuse and exploitation and can rely on personal safety strategies to mitigate those risks;

• All students (and by default most parents and some members of the broader community) are aware of and can rely on (a) a receptive and effective support from key community members and school staff if they feel unsafe or if they have suffered abuse or exploitation; and (b) a responsive and effective avenue to directly report cases of abuse and exploitation;

• All students (and by default most parents and some members of the broader community) are provided with clear and memorable message regarding the importance of school and children; the need to protect children; and how to report;

• Suspicions and/or cases of child abuse and exploitation are reported.

 In October 2010, the “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” Project was launched in a small school in Kompong Speu Province, Cambodia. Child Wise have continued to conduct the “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” Project in 7 schools across 5 key provinces in Cambodia, and is looking forward to expanding the project further.

 The “Children are the Bamboo Shoot” Project exemplifies Child Wise’s prevention based approach to child protection. Child Wise believes that by gaining the participation of the community as a whole, there is far greater potential to ensure that children are protected from abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Through consultation with key stakeholders at multiple levels, Child Wise empowers each community to reduce and prevent instances of child abuse and exploitation, and enables sustainable, long term change.