Dear Friends,
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| K.I.D.S. supports 11 young people with their education |
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We
have just returned from eight days on the road and visited a number of projects
and people that K.I.D.S supports. Our first stop was Takhmau, just outside Phnom Penh, where
K.I.D.S. supports 11 young people with their education; 4 are in high school
and 7 in university. They are a really delightful bunch who have been vetted by
Sinat (the wonderful man who oversees the program) by a criteria of ambition,
commitment and sadly poverty. This year we purchased two laptops to add to the
PC purchased the year before last as all the older students need access to
computers for school. We also met with Sen, who was the first K.I.D.S. graduate
from university. After graduating Sen was an English teacher, is now happily
married and runs her own business in the form of a dance school for both
foreigners and Khmers. There are several others who have moved on and are now
working and or married and helping their families. So far this program has been
very successful thanks to Sinat's supervision and encouragement. For those of
you who have been here you know that sometimes the heat, dust, bumpy rutted
roads and sad sights can be a bit of a struggle at times. However there are the
profound rewards that make it all worthwhile. As we were leaving our meeting
with the students, a young woman named Veasna, who is studying accounting,
linked arms with us looked into our eyes and said "thank you for my
future". These are the moments that lift the spirit, erase the bug bites,
food poisoning and long hours tending to K.I.D.S. and make it worthwhile. Our
work together with you, without a doubt, has changed futures of many children
and young adults this year and in the past.
Our
next stop was Stung Treng, where we connected with the Stung Treng Women's Weaving Development Center.
This project is one of our favourites, it is so well run, very progressive and
heads above other programs in terms of worker benefits. They provide maternity
and bereavement leave, employee incentives, stat holidays, on site daycare and
lunch program for both the children and the women weavers. This year they just
implemented workers' compensation complete with death benefits so they continue
to maintain and move forward; being miles ahead of the private sector and light
years ahead of any government jobs. It is one of the largest employers of women
in the province.
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| New mother's and children centre |
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This
year the Weaving Centre, in partnership with a UK NGO, finished building a new
mother's and children centre. Destitute and victimized mothers and children can
come and live in a safe environment where the mothers learn new skills to get
their lives back on track while their children attend school, many for the
first time. We were able to bring lots of educational supplies, toys, and
training equipment for the new centre. We are implementing an agricultural
training program where the women will create and maintain a community garden
for the centre. K.I.D.S will also fund stipends for the mothers to learn to
weave. The concept of keeping mothers and their children together is one we
fully support, as many times in this country families are torn about by poverty
as often mothers cannot afford to feed their children. We are pleased to be
involved in this innovative new program.
K.I.D.S. continues
to fully support the Srey
Po Village
free school by providing: salaries for the Weaving Cooperative kindergarten
teachers, support a lunch program for weavers and children as well as school
supplies and clothing for a clothing bank. K.I.D.S. is also supporting about 65
poor community children to attend government elementary and high schools.
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| Weaving Centre - on site kindergarten |
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We
met with the teachers from both the weaving centre on site kindergarten and the
Srey Po free school. The five teachers are a really terrific group of women who
are committed to teaching and caring for the children. There are older children
who attend the school, however, the program is now focusing mostly on the
preschool and kindergarten levels to get the children off to a good start.
Chan, the Director of the Women's Weaving Training and
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| Young boy who recently lost both his parents | |
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Development program, and
the teachers were telling us that once the children leave Srey Po School to go
to the mainstream government school they are doing much better than the other
children as they have had good nutrition and are well on the way to reading and
writing. The children are ahead of their peers and are often the top one to
five in their classes due to their head start. The children at Srey Po were
very happy and full of life except for one little five year old boy who stood
against the wall, very sad looking. When we asked about him the teacher told us
that both his parents died in the past three months, his aunt took him in however
she breaks rock in a quarry somewhere in the forest and has to haul him along,
this makes it very difficult for the boy and heartbreaking to see his traumatized
little face, thank goodness he at least has the school to support and feed him.
The staff are looking to find a solution to his situation.
On our last day we
decided to go on a boat trip down the Mekong
with the teachers and Chan; as we often don't get to do much but meet with the
teachers, kids, parents and sign contracts. We travelled by boat for hours and
saw the rare Irrawaddy dolphins and visited a
beautiful waterfall. We had lunch by the side of the river and all took in the
beauty of life along this amazing waterway. Although the boat seats were wooden
and hard and the hike up to the waterfalls rather gruelling in the heat of the
day the teaches were smiling ear to ear. In all their time living next to the Mekong they had never had the opportunity to have such an
experience. We watched the sun set and then had a great dinner at the Weaving
Centre together. The teachers and the director toasted K.I.D.S. and all our
supporters and we celebrated this great partnership.
All the best to you and yours,
Adrianne and Rick
