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Ms. Osanai MIEKO, JHP President, is a founder of CCH, along with Mr. Mech Sokha, the current CCH Director. Ms. Mieko is also God Mother of Mech Sokha, and is a grandmother of Hope and Compassion to all CCH children. She has supported Sokha in the past to receive good quality English training and to sponsor him to study about Rural Social Leadership in the Philippines and to receive a degree in construction engineering in Phnom Penh.
Sokha is himself an orphan. He was the sole survivor in his family of the Khmer Rouge genocide of 1975 to 1979. The years of Khmer Rouge rule also prevented him from getting an education. After the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime, he worked various jobs and studied at night in order to educate himself. By the early ‘90s, he was working as a driver with a small Japanese non-governmental organization based in Phnom Penh. The organization received a visit from a Japanese woman, Ms.Osanai Mieko, who befriended Sokha, who drove her around during her stay. He told her of his plans and aspirations, and she eventually agreed to sponsor his education in the Philippines. He studied child development and management of non-governmental organizations, and then returned to Cambodia. In the meantime, his benefactor organized financial support in Japan for Sokha’s dream of starting an orphanage for children living and working as garbage pickers on the Steung Meanchey landfill. Finally, in October 2002, he was able to open Center for Children's Happiness.
Sokha’s vision is to provide a safe, stable and loving home for the children, as well as to teach them to be good, productive citizens and to give them an education and vocational or university training so that they can become independent.

He says, “These children have experienced powerlessness in its ultimate form. Their lives have been governed by fear—fear of violence, fear of not having enough food, fear of having no opportunity to improve their lives. The children are extremely vulnerable to various physical and mental illnesses, to drug addiction, to prostitution and other forms of exploitation at the hands of older children and adults.

“We want to give them a safe environment where they can develop as human beings. All kids living at CCH get love and hope. Together with live-in staff, they live together as a family and learn to support one another. They get food and clothes and other things like shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, and shoes to fulfill their basic material needs.

“The children learn to trust other people and have confidence in themselves. They are encouraged to participate in their own lives and make decisions for themselves. They can learn what they want to learn. They are so joyful to go to school in the school uniform. Teachers say they are polite and excellent students. In fact, often, CCH children score number at or near the top in their classes of more than 50 students.

“The children love to study foreign languages like English and Japanese. Some can speak and write English now. They also learn skills such as sewing, cooking, planting vegetables and using computers.

“The children learn as a group and share their knowledge and experiences with each other. They participate in all aspects of work at the center. They clean their rooms and the CCH grounds. They help to make the food and they wash their own dishes. They clean up after themselves.

“They are learning to become independent, responsible, self-reliant, skillful people. They are learning to become tomorrow’s adults, people who can contribute to society.”