Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Giving and Receiving

Hi Everyone,

We wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season and hope that you are enjoying time with family and friends. This is the season of giving, receiving and spending time with those we love and care about.

Thanks to your generosity we are able to focus on giving in many different ways here, to support kids and help them and their families to live better, healthier and more equitable lives. We always enjoy connecting with the many young people that K.I.D.S. supports. Our student sponsorship programs focus on education, vocational training and family support. We have over 100 young people taking English lessons, studying at tourism and hospitality schools and working while attending university.



They receive the tools that are needed to be successful and change their future from one of poverty to prosperity and break out of working as child labourers. It is truly heartwarming to see the difference everyone's support has made. One of the best gifts we receive is seeing these great young people doing so well.



One program K.I.D.S. sponsors and recently visited is Sohing's Farm School, where each night poor village students come to learn English under her house. Sohing and her family raise frogs and cows and grow fruit, vegetables and have a rice field. Each week K.I.D.S. provides these hard-working students with nutritious meals, English lessons and educational material. We went for a fun farm walk with some of them and had a great time.




Last post we talked about the teacher who used to teach at Sohing's school and how she sadly died after complications giving birth to her second child. We heard that the father and grandparents were having difficulty paying for formula so we visited them and brought the baby formula as the expense of purchasing it was beyond their means. The baby's father works and the elderly grandparents are caring for the baby and older child. The grandfather is blind and they had to borrow money and also sell all five of their cows to pay for treatment to try and save their daughter's life, this is the second daughter they have lost. As we sat and chatted about their daughter and played with the baby under their basic small, stilted wooden house we found out that even though they are very poor they give rice and sometimes a chicken and any support they possibly can to help poorer children in the village to eat or go to school. It was a truly moving and humbling experience to meet such strong, kind people....who in turn were incredibly grateful to receive support from others and yet still found it in their hearts to share some rice from their field or a chicken or two to help the less fortunate. K.I.D.S. will continue to provide formula and other needs for the baby.


This is one of many stories of resilience and compassion that we experience. We thank you for your kindness and support and are grateful for the incredible people we work with both here and at home.

We wish you and yours much happiness, good health and all the very best.

Until Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Thanks to the Smart Kids in the city for making K.I.D.S. this beautiful tree!!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Fixing the Lake Clinic

Hello Everyone,

We hope that your holiday plans are going well. Not long after we got to Siem Reap, we were asked to go down to the Stung Sen River to assist with refurbishing one of The Lake Clinics that K.I.D.S. partnered with Compassionate Eye Foundation to build 8 years ago. This life-saving program, founded by Jon Morgan, has two teams of dedicated doctors, midwives/nurses, dental hygenist, and support staff to provide healthcare and free medication. They travel in difficult conditions to get to the river and the lake, to serve the underserved. We went to assist a group of great people called "The Fixers". The Fixers is a reality TV show that travels the world assisting programs in developing countries with much needed buildings and infrastructure. This season they chose The Lake Clinic, and in one week, they totally renovated the older clinic, which had been through much intense weather and use. A group of Cambodian village workers, volunteers, and the four Fixer professionals came together to bring the clinic a new life.


Working as a team, we put on a new roof, new solar panels, new walls, a new kitchen and installed new medical equipment, which was totally paid for by "The Fixers"..how great is that!!! Between the actors, film and sound crew, volunteers Cambodian workers, and all the support staff, there were about 40 people swarming on and around the clinic.


We will send out a link for the program when it comes out later this year we might even be in the program, providing we make the cut ha ha. It was a very intense, very fun, and very meaningful experience. The clinical team was thrilled to have a fresh and almost new building and equipment to work with.


Each year K.I.D.S. assists The Lake Clinic in different ways, this year not only did we give support in rebuilding the K.I.D.S. clinic we also raised funds to provide at least one midwife/nurse salary and hopefully two. We see first hand the difference these incredible people make.

Thank You to all K.I.D.S. donors and the Compassionate Eye Foundation in Vancouver for your continued support. Together you not only build clinics, schools, and water projects we also put the people and the resources in them to cure, teach, nurture and improve the lives of vulnerable children and families.

https://www.lakeclinic.org

Until Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Happy International Rights Day from KIDS

Hello Everyone,

We hope all is well with you and yours. The flights here seem to feel a bit longer each year, but the trip went well and the rest in the hotel for a few days was heavenly. We are now back at it and in our little apartment where we have been busy setting up our office and meeting friends, programs and contacts.

Three houses, for brick factory families, got started before we left and are well underway. We have lined up the repairs for a couple of water projects and the drilling of a replacement well for another, in addition we are working on getting two new water projects at rural schools started so thousands of more people will have access to clean water, thanks to you!


It is always an emotional roller coaster coming back with lots of good things to lift the spirits and as always seeing the realities that people face can really make your heart ache. People you meet, students, waiters, vendors and our local friends all have a difficult story. We give them so much credit because behind those amazing smiles, their lives have not been easy, but their drive and resilience is awe inspiring.

Sadly just before we arrived, we lost a young woman who was a teacher at Sohing's Farm School, where 35 students come each day to her home to study English and get a nutritious meal. This excellent teacher was looking forward to the birth of her second child. The baby was born healthy, but sadly the she died a few days later from complications that would not have been complicated at all, had she won the birth lottery and been born in a developed country. K.I.D.S. helped to pay for her funeral, as the family spent and borrowed what they could trying to save her life. As is common here whenever a teacher passes away, their students honour them by attending their funeral.

We also recently visited a small, remote rural school in another province where K.I.D.S. previously installed a clean water drinking system, as the kids and community did not have access to clean water. This year we will provide more solar panels and new filters to the system. The teachers work very hard to educate these students as well as providing them with a nutritious meal each day to help them learn. We also brought new uniforms and school supplies to this remote school. The kids and teachers were all very happy.



Today is International Human Rights Day! We want to deeply thank everyone for caring and bringing essential human rights, such as: health, housing, education and clean water to children and families here.

Until Next Time,
All the best,
Adrianne and Rick

Sunday, November 24, 2019

On Our Way

Hello Everyone,


We hope all is well with you and yours. Well it is that time of year when we head back over to Cambodia. We are looking forward to once again seeing our friends, the kids and communities that K.I.D.S. works with and supports. We recently had our annual fundraiser and we "THANK EVERYONE" who attended and offered their support and generosity through music, donations for the silent auction, volunteering and for donating towards bathrooms, bikes, clean water and computers. We also thank Sumalee Martinflatt and Maya Harbo for their inspiring presentations.



We recently were able to buy more bikes for kids to get to school in rural Cambodia. Each year we try to buy as many as we can as it often means the difference between getting an education or working as a child labourer. So we are off to a good start!



Things are under way in Cambodia with the materials for three new homes ordered, and construction to begin within days. We have also been in contact with the water experts and they are making preparations for the construction of at least two more clean drinking water projects at rural schools. K.I.D.S. will also be building as many bathrooms as we can, putting in computer labs, assisting with healthcare, the girl's home, kindergartens and much more.



 We look forward to keeping you posted on the difference we are making together to improve the lives of children, families and communities. We wish you and yours the very best,

Until Next Time
Adrianne and Rick

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

WORLD TOILET DAY

Hello Everyone,

 

Today is world toilet day, 6.5 million people in Cambodia and 4.2 billion worldwide do not have access to proper sanitation.

Poor sanitation kills nearly 500,000 children under the age of five annually and costs an estimated $223 billion a year in the form of higher health costs and lost productivity and wages.

SOURCE: Reuters report, citing the information from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.




 We can never get used to seeing the families that we work with in Cambodia not having access to a toilet/bathroom. Daily people lack privacy and have to go outside at night, which is not safe for girls, not to mention the snakes they may encounter. They don't have any place to easily wash themselves or their clothes and have to bathe in filthy pond water, which carries water-borne diseases.


KIDS is committed to changing this situation and each year we provide as many sanitary sustainable bathrooms for impoverished families as we can. Giving families a bathroom where they can bathe, have dignity and privacy changes lives and the families are incredibly appreciative.


We visit schools where often thousands of students and teachers only have two outdoor bathrooms. KIDS also works towards providing decent hygienic bathrooms at schools.


A family bathroom is only 450.00 dollars but the results are priceless.

Thanks for being a part of changing the world one bathroom at a time. 

Until Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Back to School

Hello, Everyone,

We hope all is well with you and yours. All over the world kids are now back in school, ready to learn and improve their minds. In Cambodia, the school year has also started.

K.I.D.S. supports hundreds of very poor children by giving them the opportunity to get an education. Each year we provide a number of programs to assist children and young people to move towards their dreams of a better life. We all know that education is the key to stopping child labour, decreasing poverty and getting better jobs. Over the years we have seen how education not only changes children's lives, it changes their families lives for the better.

After grade 12 some or the students have moved to the city to live with the K.I.D.S. "Smart Kids" program manager and his family and are now attending a very good tourism and hospitality school. It is a big change from the countryside and they will all work very hard to reach their dreams of having a good job.



Other students in rural areas are supported to attend local schools and receive daily English lessons. All education fees, books and uniforms are provided by K.I.D.S., most would have been labouring in the brick factories instead of learning.



Rural kids attend English classes daily and receiving a hot meal twice a week as food security id difficult for their families. All their Cambodian school fees are paid and each evening they come to study under the teacher's house in the countryside to learn.

Every day small children from local villages attend our early childhood/kindergarten education program to learn, play and eat nutritious meals and snacks while their mothers work weaving silk. The kids are number one in their classes when they go to the government schools thanks to this head-start.



We also have kids studying computers and some going to University and we make sure they can get their by giving them bicycles!...their lives will forever be changed thanks to your support. Instead of making bricks they are building better futures.






The students are all very grateful and send their sincere appreciation along to YOU!!!

Until next time,
Adrianne and Rick

Monday, September 23, 2019

Sewing and Saving The Date

Hello Everyone,

Hope all is well with you and yours, as Labour Day and the end of summer draws near. We would like inform you about the start of a new sewing program for 20 more women sponsored by K.I.D.S. in the Chitwan area in southern Nepal.


But rather than talk about the details and hopeful outcomes of this current program we will defer to an excerpt from WELNepal's newsletter about the outcomes of the previous sewing class sponsored by K.I.D.S.

"And since word of mouth gets around faster than internet in the lowlands of Nepal, women are well aware that KIDS first group who trained for 10 months are now, not only saving money by making their own clothes and school uniforms for their children, but some, with an entrepreneurial spirit, are earning money. Instead of neighbouring villagers going to tailoring shops, they are using the WELNepal's graduates for their sewing needs. Some graduates have even been hired by tailoring shops."


"Twenty or more women in a group can make a lot of clothes over ten months of practice. K.I.D.S. 2018 sewing group, generously donated most of the "classroom" clothes to poor families in a struggling village far from theirs. As the photo shows, there are a lot of families who benefited from their sisters' thoughtfulness."We sincerely hope that this generosity sets a precedent for future groups"
 
Proof once again that your generosity which supports education and vocational training programs achieve results as a roadmap to a better life.

KIDS ANNUAL WINE AND WRAP

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE

NOVEMBER 1ST, 2019


People have been asking about our 2019 fundraiser. For those of you in B.C., we will once again be hosting our K.I.D.S. annual Wine and Wrap fundraiser (the 11th one to be exact,) at the Vancouver Island Conference Center (VICC). We will send out another notice when we get our tickets from the printers and are ready to start booking and distributing them in a few weeks from now.

For you in B.C. - We really hope to see you at the VICC 


Thank you as always to everyone for your support that creates opportunity and changes lives.
All the Best
Rick and Adrianne