How her ‘retirement’ became a full-time rescue occupation
At 82, Marie Ens continues mission to provide home for Cambodian orphans
At 65, most people are expected to retire. When Marie Ens turned 65, she was merely shifting to a higher gear.
Ens, who grew up in Rosthern, and her husband Norman spent 20 years as missionaries in Cambodia. Following Norman’s death, Marie went back to the Southeast Asian country alone and was active in women’s work, leadership training of women, and English-to-Cambodian translation projects. She also did visitation ministry at a local military hospital. That was where she met her first patient with AIDS.
“When I turned 65, I threw myself a birthday party, as the Cambodians do,” Ens says. “My plan was to stay in Cambodia and continue the work I was doing. I had no idea my assignment would be terminated the year I turned 66.”
But Ens refused to retire. She decided to stay in Cambodia and make that her permanent home.
She didn’t know exactly what she’d be doing, but a need immediately became evident. Ens recognized the severe social crisis that AIDS was wreaking on Cambodia. With no access to antiretroviral drugs, parents with AIDS could no longer work and support their families. They lived in abject poverty and when the parents died, they left orphaned children who were preyed upon by sexual predators, forced into slavery or left to beg or die.
Ens and a missionary couple there launched a project to build an orphanage and an AIDS hospice near Bek Chan. Ens had a Cambodian-style house built for herself on the grounds and incorporated a non-governmental organization known as Songkrua or Place of Rescue. Everything ballooned from there.
“We now have three Place of Rescue locations with 42 Orphan Houses,” Ens says. “Ten children live in each Orphan House with one housemother. The children are a mix of little kids and teens and they become a family. The mother loves and cares for them as if they were her own. We try very hard to keep the children with the same housemother until they’re grown. We have houses for girls and houses for boys. The houses are built in a square with a grassy play area in the middle.”
There are also 20 houses for families living with AIDS, plus two Granny Houses where destitute elderly women can live out their days in peace, surrounded by love. Ens says AIDS has robbed many elderly Cambodian women of the children who would have supported them in old age.
Not long after Place of Rescue was established, young girls pregnant as a result of seduction or rape and then abandoned began showing up. Ens and her Cambodian staff embraced them and kept them safe and well until their babies were born. That work continues.
“The girls can keep the baby if they choose,” Ens says, “but most leave their baby with us and go to start a new life. Place of Rescue has a Baby House with one caregiver for every two babies. We also have babies with AIDS and with physical handicaps. In the Cambodian culture, these babies would be abandoned. All our babies are greatly loved. They stay in the Baby House until they’re two, then become part of a loving family in an Orphan House.”
At present, there are 540 children at Place of Rescue. Forty of those are children of parents with AIDS.
“We are giving them all a happy childhood,” Ens says. “We have our own school with a library and learning centre. The children learn to read in English and Cambodian and learn to use computers. When they finish Grade 6, they can go to the local high school. Most Cambodian children drop out early, some after Grade 3.”
Older teens interested in going to university or learning a trade can stay in a Place of Rescue dormitory. There are two in the capital of Phnom Penh and one in another province.
Ens, who turned 82 last fall, makes regular trips back to Canada to do fundraising for Place of Rescue. She will be in Saskatchewan on Sunday, June 4, speaking at the morning service at Pleasant Hill Mennonite Church in Saskatoon.
On Friday evening, June 9, she will be at an event hosted by Westgate Alliance Church. The evening will feature Cambodian food, a Cambodian-style market and a Power Point and video presentation by Marie. Copies of the nine books she has written will be available for sale.
Ens will speak on Sunday, June 11, at Erindale Alliance Church’s morning service, and in Osler in the evening. On Monday, June 12, she will be at Humboldt Alliance Church, and at Bethany Manor in Saskatoon on June 13. On Thursday morning, June 15, Marie will do a presentation at Living Hope Alliance Church in Regina.
For more details, visit Place of Rescue website: www.songkrua.org
We now have three Places of Rescue locations with 42 Orphan Houses. Ten children live in each Orphan House with one housemother. The children are a mix of little kids and teens and they become a family. The mother loves and cares for them as if they were her own. Marie Ens