Founding and history
How did KKEV Cambodia come about and what has happened since it was founded?
Foundation of KKEV Cambodia
In the late 1990s, architect Michael Weiss and his wife Veronika Weiss began travelling to Cambodia.
Deeply moved by the difficult living conditions and the fates of the many orphans and street children in Phnom Penh's largest slum, they began donating food in cookshops. This led to their first relationships with children who were completely on their own. Their aim was to provide these children with protection, food, regular school attendance and a perspective on life.
In 2004, Michael Weiss founded the German association KKe.V. in Aachen and KKEV Cambodia, the local sister organisation in Cambodia. In December 2004, the children's village planned by Michael Weiss together with the children was inaugurated, offering protection, security and a home for up to 100 children.
KKEV Cambodia is recognised as an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) and runs our two facilities in Sen Sok, an administrative district of Phnom Penh with high levels of child poverty and unemployment: the children's village and, since 2013, the street children's programme.
Our family
The end of 2021 was an important decision point: Michael Weiss was looking for a successor for reasons of age and asked my husband (Stephan Dyckerhoff, who is a nephew of founder Michael Weiss) and me (Claudia Süssmuth Dyckerhoff) whether we could imagine continuing in his place. As a family, we had regularly visited KKEV Cambodia since 2006 and supported it through sponsorships, and were very emotionally attached to the entire organisation. It was a family decision - we included our five children in the decision - to declare our full commitment and take on the financial responsibility.
Interview with Michael Weiss
In a detailed interview conducted by Claudia Süssmuth Dyckerhoff with the founder of KKe.V. Aachen, Michael Weiss, you can find out more about the background and history of KKEV Cambodia, the children's village and the street children programme.
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Click here, to watch the interview on YouTube.