How Child Rescue began
Ken Armstrong, Founder
In 1969 I served as a medic in Vietnam near the Cambodian border. After one of the battles, I cared for an eight-year-old boy whose family had been killed. Besides several other wounds, his leg was amputated below the knee. As a result of caring for him for several weeks, we bonded. After a two-year adoption process with many obstacles, my parents brought him to our home in Denver, Colorado. He is now married with four children.
In 1972, I married Pat. We eventually had two sons of our own, adopted a boy from Cambodia, and raised several children from Southeast Asia. Then in March 2000, I was invited by a group of U.S. Army medical personnel to visit Vietnam to learn how that nation was faring thirty years after the war. I found it was doing much better than I had expected. Toward the end of the trip, I joined our adopted Cambodian son to visit his former country. It was immediately apparent that Cambodia was not doing nearly as well as its neighbor.
After I returned home, God did not allow me to forget the hopeless plight of the orphaned children I saw living on the streets. The heartbreaking images from my recent visit would not let me rest. So I decided to do something to help, and I began to look for land to purchase in Cambodia’s interior. After securing ten acres in Krang Lovea, I was able to build an orphanage large enough for ten orphans and several caregivers.
What started as a solitary endeavor has now grown into an international entity that seeks other people and organizations to help expand the ministry and provide loving care for more orphaned children. Through God’s provision, we are sending approximately $4600 per month to keep the orphanage supplied with life’s necessities for thirty orphans and staff. Child Rescue supports several widows and their grandchildren in a village east of Swey Reing as well.
Through our partnership with the Goodwill Community Foundation (GCF), we have established 22 English schools and 8 computer schools in the rural regions of Cambodia, and a Phnom Penh center. We reach over 2,000 youth and adults in Cambodia with hopes of increasing our impact to 2,200 in 2023 by promoting growth within our established schools, and training student teachers. With these valuable skills, the orphans’ future will be much brighter. However, there are many orphans that need help! With your charitable giving, we can reach more. The current property has room to build structures that can provide homes for additional children and their caregivers.