Sisters go to school instead of the dump
CNN | 6 June 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- U.S. couple were horrified to see kids picking through garbage at a dump in Cambodia
- The experience haunted Bill and Lauren Smith, and they decided to help two sisters
- They paid for girls' education so they wouldn't have to collect recyclables for money at dump
- The Smiths later started a nonprofit organization called A New Day Cambodia
(CNN) -- A Chicago couple never planned to turn
their trip to Cambodia into a mission to help educate girls. But that's
exactly what happened.
Bill and Lauren Smith had
traveled to the Southeast Asian country often. During a 2002 visit, a
taxi driver asked the Smiths if they wanted to see "the children." Not
really knowing what he meant, they agreed. The driver took them about 25
minutes outside the capital of Phnom Penh. On their arrival, they saw
hundreds of people on giant mountains of garbage.
"There were flies
everywhere," Bill said. "There were snakes and rats and the stench; you
were just gagging." His wife added, "I had to breathe through my mouth
not to smell it."
But they said they were
most shocked by all the young children going through the garbage. These
kids were scavenging for metal, plastic, glass and anything else they
could sell to a recycler to make money. Each child would make about $10 a
month at the dump to help out their families, Bill said.
A photographer for
Chicago sports teams including the Bears and Blackhawks, Bill started
snapping pictures of the dump. But the experience haunted him and his
wife. "We were just tourists," he said. "But we thought we could help
one person." They came back the next day and decided to focus on a child
to save from the dump.
One girl stuck out in
Lauren's mind, she said. "I remember seeing this little girl with the
red hat. And I don't know if it was the red hat or it was her eyes ...
these big eyes (that) ... just looked kind of hopeless."
Through their driver, who
spoke some English, they found out the girl's name was Sreyna. They
drove her home to talk to her mother about a way to get the 10-year-old
out of the dump and into school. When they arrived, they met her sister
Salim, 12, and decided they would help them both. They made a deal with
the girls' mother.
"We're going to pay you
whatever they would make at the dump," Bill recalled telling the mother.
"We're going to make sure you have food at the table, and in exchange
for this you have to promise us that you'll make sure they go to school
every day. You'll make sure they stay in school, and you'll make sure
they never go to the dump again."
The mother agreed, and
the Smiths gave their trusted driver money to fund the plan for the
girls for the next six months. The couple also found two other girls
they decided to sponsor during their trip.
Returning home to
Chicago, the Smiths showed their photos to friends and family and told
them what they were doing with the girls. Many decided they wanted to
help, too, and gave the Smiths money to fund more children. Bill also
started doing fund-raisers with a slide show called "From the Sports
World to the Third World." He would show his photos of the sports teams
he covered and then scenes of orphanages, landmine survivors and the
children at the dump in Cambodia. "By now, the whole room's in tears,"
Bill recalled.
A newspaper wrote an
article about what the Smiths were doing, and soon they were getting
donations from all over the country. They ended up starting a nonprofit
organization called A New Day Cambodia.
Today, the organization
has two centers where they house about 100 girls and boys. And the
concept is the same as it was from the start. The group pays the parents
what their children would make at the dump in exchange for the kids
going to school.
And these efforts are
paying off. Today, the sisters the Smiths initially helped are attending
Harold Washington College in Chicago. Sreyna is studying hospitality,
with hopes of working in the hotel and restaurant industry. Salim is
studying English and wants to become a teacher.
Over the years, they
became close to the Smiths, spending a lot of time together traveling.
Salim says she feels like they are her second family.
Without the Smiths and an education, it's hard to say where the two girls would be now.
"Education is really
important to me personally, because I see it as a bridge," Sreyna says,
adding, "Education to me is like a second life."
For ways to make an impact on education for girls around the world, check out CNN's Impact Your World resources or take action with 10x10.
• More about CNN Films' "Girl Rising" project.
• More from CNN's Impact Your World.
• More about A New Day Cambodia.
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