From a Child's Eyes: The Paradox of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, grows rich through tourism and economic development and yet denies food and shelter to thousands of children living in squalor on its streets. The city's government and high society are uninterested in the problem or its solution, leaving these children to fend for themselves in a harsh and uncaring world.

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In From a Child's Eyes, author John A. Stancik recounts his experiences of traveling to Phnom Penh for a month. He provides not only firsthand accounts of the deprivation he witnessed among the children of the city but also striking photographs that demonstrate the widespread nature of the problem. As the thriving city struggles to balance its economic growth and tourism with an increasingly poor population, religious family values, and the shame of its shantytowns, few among well-off Cambodians recognize the problem at all. Until capital from tourism can be used to build social programs for everyone, the homeless population will continue to live in the city's landfills, and dirty and crippled children will roam the streets without hope or help.

In this personal narrative, one man recalls his time in Phnom Penh and reveals the depth of the problem facing thousands of homeless children in an otherwise prosperous city.