Target Group

Beneficiaries

The majority of the participants are among the most marginalized and discriminated against youth of Cambodian society due to their levels of poverty, social or family disadvantages, drug use and lack of education. Due to Cambodian cultural norms, children who live without two healthy parents employed in socially respectable occupations face numerous difficulties and struggle to find acceptance from peers and the community at large. Many of the children participating in the Tiny Toones activities come from single‐parent families, have family members as active drug users, or parents that are sex workers or draw a tenuous income from the non‐formal economy. Because of their humble economic status, many of these young children work on the streets in jobs such as begging, sorting through trash for cans, shining shoes, selling books, drug dealing, or under‐age labor on construction sites to pay for basic necessities. Consequently, these youth are particularly vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse, sexual and labour exploitation, domestic violence, gang involvement and HIV/AIDS. Most of these youth are transported to the main center by the Tiny Toones van and tuk‐ tuks and come from different urban impoverished communities across Phnom Penh.