Who we are

CCPP is a continuation of an activity initiated by Roger Dixon, a professional artist, who came to Cambodia to paint on Sihanoukville’s beaches in the early 90’s. The local children were intrigued by this man and his paints and wanted to try it for themselves. So Roger brought the necessary materials with him the following season and the children started to paint. The activity proved so popular and successful that Roger made it into a regular feature during his annual visits to Sihanoukville, financing it from his limited personal means. Backed up by an enthusiastic group of local volunteers the activity grew in size and scope, and diversified.

In April 2006 the project was registered as an NGO to provide it with a legal status and to make it possible to sustain and expand its activities. Since its humble beginnings almost three years ago, over four hundred children have been a part of the initiative. We now provide so much more to the kids, including access to painting, craft and sports activities, two meals a day, access to medical and dental assistance and the most important thing, an opportunity to receive a proper education. We now run English classes in-house as well as computing, in addition to sponsoring all our kids to attend Khmer school full time. And our plans are to do much more!

In 2007 CCPP moved from its modest beach shack to a safer and more appropriate location off the beach for our children and their needs.

The new centre has a range of facilities including a large painting studio, clean bathrooms and a full kitchen, as well as an indoor gallery space, education classrooms and volunteer accommodation.

Most of our regularly attending children no longer sell their bracelets and wares along the beach, yet they continue to earn money to help support their families through the sale of their paintings from our gallery. Paintings are sold for $4. $2 goes to the child’s family, and $2 goes into CCPP’s communal education fund which we use to offer all our children a chance to attend Khmer school, paying school fees and providing uniforms, bags, books and pens and any ongoing costs such as one-on-one tutoring.

Our children now spend their spare time playing, painting and interacting with our great host of staff and volunteers at our centre.  In a sense, they have been given back their youth, with a chance to be kids again for a couple of hours a day, and are protected, out of harm’s way.