View of SOS Children's Village Siem Riep under construction - Photo: P. Lizop
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Prime Minister Hun Sen, SOS Children's Village President Helmut Kutin, representatives of the sponsoring associations and many of the country's luminaries are expected to attend the inauguration of the SOS Children's Village in Siem Riep. It took two years to build the complex which includes 15 family houses - an SOS Kindergarten, SOS Hermann Gmeiner School and SOS Social Centre will complete the facilities offered to the Siem Riep catchment area in the north west of the country.
The SOS Children's Village Association in Cambodia is the newest member of the umbrella organisation. A succession of colonial and civil wars, the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge and decades of instability caused by guerrilla activity have all meant that the South-East Asian country has only recently and gradually been able to enter a phase of peace. After years of developmental stalemate, many parts of the country are in dire need of social infrastructure.
It was just three years ago in the capital city, Phnom Penh, that the foundation stone was laid for the first SOS Children's Village and SOS Kindergarten. Now, a year after Phnom Penh was opened, comes the official opening in Siem Riep, right next to the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat, one time capital of the Khmer Rouge regime. A further SOS Children's Village is being planned in Battambang, as well a social centre and school in Phnom Penh.