Education for More Kids!

Dear Friends,

Hope this message finds you all well? A few days ago we went out to Wat Sela School to celebrate the completion of the second school that K.I.D.S. built this year. Wat Sela educates children from a very poor area, where many families work in the brick factories for poor wages. Wat Sela had the capacity to accommodate 550 students and had to turn away hundreds due to lack of space. Now the school can accommodate these kids and change their futures.

Thanks to our partnership with K.I.D.S. donors, Healthy Role Models, Nanaimo, The Ames Family Foundation, Vancouver and Lush Charity Pot Canada the funds donated were in place to build the school. The donations combined with the collaboration of Smart Kids program manager Mr. Sok Hak, the school principal Mr. Sokha, and Jiang (builder) Mr. Pov and his great team of 22 workers and one cement mixer the school was completed in three and a half months on time and on budget.

Not only did this project increase education for many more students it provided work for the community. The local workers were really happy to have employment and unlike many factories, that pay as little as a dollar a day, K.I.D.S. pays each worker a decent living wage. Most of the work is done by hand, hauling cement in buckets, laying bricks, plastering and painting the outside of the school. A few workers lived at the school to protect the building materials. A great dedicated team!!!



Thank you, as always, for making an amazing difference in the lives of so many children and families, the changes are immeasurable. We will let the children from Wat Sela take it from here.



Till Next Time,
Rick and Adrianne

World Water Day

Hello Everyone,


We hope all is well with you and yours. Today is U.N. World Water Day and this year's theme is "leaving no one behind". "The Sustainable Development Goal #6 is water for all by 2030. But today, billions of people are still living without safe water - their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive. Marginalized groups - women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others - are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need"

Today we are happy to celebrate the completion of 2 more K.I.D.S. clean drinking water projects bringing the total number of clean water systems at schools to 16, together these projects bring clean safe drinking water to over 12,000 students and teachers daily and many more thousands if you count the water children can take home to their families from school.

Here in Cambodia six million people, mostly from rural and poor areas, go without clean water, it is hard to imagine that 12,000 more with clean water makes a "difference in the world" but for the students, teachers and family members that benefit from our combined efforts it makes a "world of difference".

One of the water projects is at the new and first floating high-school at Moat Klar (Tigers Mouth) Village on the Tonle Sap Lake, that K.I.D.S. just finished building in partnerships with Loins Club, Norway.

Thanks to Compassionate Eye Foundation, Canada we have been able to supply the school with a solar-powered clean drinking water system, which is a first for a school on the lake to be able to provide clean water for their students.

What is not a first is the sustained and combined efforts of K.I.D.S. long term and new donors that provided support for this project through management, construction supervision, transportation and the many extras that are needed in a project of this size.

Thanks to K.I.D.S. donors we have also been able to fund another water project at Tier Bhan Koumrou elementary school that educates 1,400 children who up to now did not have any access to drinking water at the school.


As always the challenges, logistics and hard work involved in putting these projects together dissolve when you see kids with cups and bottles in hand quenching their thirst and knowing they will suffer less from dehydration and stomach illnesses.

So here is a toast to World Water Day and a more even playing field for kids!! 

THANK YOU

Till Next Time
Rick and Adrianne

Vanna

Hello Everyone,

Many of our projects involve providing infrastructure such as water systems and construction of schools as well as implementing education programs for larger numbers of students. During the course of our work, we cannot help but feel sadness and dismay at times about the extremely difficult situations that individuals face. On the other hand, we are inspired by the resilience and determination of so many who rise up to face their challenges, persevere and triumph.

Every year K.I.D.S. helps many individuals that we do not write about who personally need a bit of help to carry on. It could be that we support a small motorcycle taxi repair or a sewing machine to keep a family earning an income.

We have also assisted some landmine victims, of which sadly there are tens of thousands in Cambodia. One such individual is Vanna. As a young government soldier Vanna was training recruits and going to get some food and had to pass through some thick foliage. He bent down to move an object and it exploded. When Vanna woke up both of his hands were gone. He spent 9 months in the hospital and when he left he was embarrassed and did not want to be a burden to his family so he ended up begging on the streets of the capitol city. After many ups and downs and great difficulties Vanna opened his own business selling books about Cambodian history from a donated book cart.

We have known Vanna since 2002 when we stayed in a guesthouse next to where his book cart was stationed. We have always had great appreciation and respect for Vanna and his ability to stay positive and greet everyone with a smile. His ability to make change, bag books and even operate his smart phone with no hands is amazing.

Vanna and his wife have two daughters and K.I.D.S. has assisted them to periodically pay for the school tuition of the girls when they have faced difficult periods financially. We have to ask Vanna if they need support as they are very humble and do not come forward to ask for assistance when times are challenging.

His daughters, now in their mid-teens, are thriving and doing really well in English and Khmer school.

Thank you to everyone who supports K.I.D.S. and in turn the many inspiring individuals we meet along the way.

Till Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Women's Day

Dear Friends,

Today is International Women's Day. This day is a reminder of how far women's rights have come and how, in many countries, much work is yet to be done. K.I.D.S. supports women's human rights in many ways: by educating girls, providing literacy and training programs for women, supporting daycare, protecting girls from dangerous and abusive situations as well as providing simple bathrooms so girls and women do not have to walk far distances from school and their homes to seek privacy.

We would like to highlight a couple of programs K.I.D.S. supports. As many of you know we help fund The Lake Clinic (TLC), Cambodia, which serves communities living in very isolated areas on the Tonle Sap Lake and along the Stung Sen River. These areas have little or no access to health care. Teams of health care professionals travel long distances, by van then boat, to spend days out on floating clinics so they can serve the underserved.

In the past K.I.D.S. built the first of five floating clinics and has provided support in various ways to assist this incredible program. One of the very important areas that TLC works in is pre and post-natal care; as well as focusing on women's nutrition and healthcare. This year we are pleased to be able to support three midwives/nurses to continue to do their great work. We have witnessed their supportive, knowledgeable and skillful work and are in awe of their dedication... and believe us just traveling to these places takes a lot of stamina. A special thanks go to Healthy Role Models, Canada and CWAsia Fund, Canada and all K.I.D.S. donors for your generosity in helping K.I.D.S. support this life-saving and life-changing program.

In southern Nepal, many women do not have a chance to be educated and are illiterate. WELNepal is changing these women's lives one by one and group by group. Meeting these women and seeing how learning to read has changed their lives inspired us to raise funds so more women could become literate and give them libraries that they can access. K.I.D.S. also continues to support sewing programs for women so they can learn needed skills as well as work together to start small businesses to make school uniforms and traditional clothing worn by women. At the end of the sewing program pairs of women are given the sewing machines so they can collaborate in making clothes for their families and earn an income. We admire the good work of WELNepal and are pleased to partner with them.

Last year in Nepal we met a young woman who had faced some very traumatic experiences; she was desperate and struggling to find a way for a new life. After spending time with her and a relative, who was also trying to help her, we decided to assist her with university and a living stipend. We are pleased to say that this young woman is now in second-year university, she continues to heal and is living her life with dignity, strength and purpose. One woman's story of resilience!

On this day we celebrate all these women, those that overcame their own challenges and now share their skills to help improve the lives of other women and those that find the strength to improve their own lives, the lives of their children and their communities. We see the difference that we are all making in each woman who strives to pull herself out of poverty and difficult situations and we thank you all for your support and generosity.

The Lake Clinic Midwives/Nurses

Till Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Feeding Dreams

Hello Everyone,

Hope all is well? We have been involved with a great organization here in Siem Reap called Feeding Dreams Cambodia, (FDC) since they first opened their doors several years ago. FDC does incredible work in an area of Siem Reap that is home to children and families who face incredible challenges and hardship due to poverty and horrendous housing.

FDC combats the struggles that these families face by providing free education, lunch programs, computer classes, vocational training in tourism and family support services such as social worker and counseling. Since the beginning, we were always inspired and touched by the incredible difference FDC is making. K.I.D.S. has supported FDC by building a classroom, a clean drinking water system, bathrooms, providing computers and printers. We have also funded the computer teacher and social worker salaries at times over the years.
Years ago when we were working on the border in refugee camps in Myanmar we asked the camp chief what was the most pressing issue we could help with. His reply was food..." we cannot teach hungry children".

Two years ago K.I.D.S. built a new kitchen at FDC and since then fhave funded the salary of Srey Mao, the cook and kitchen supervisor, who takes on the daunting task of putting out 700 meals a day. Many kids come to school hungry as their families live so marginally they cannot afford proper nourishment for their children.

While on the topic of nutrition we met a couple of amazing little fellows at FDC a few weeks ago. Along with all the above-mentioned services FDC has developed an amazing soccer program which has taken kids to the top levels of regional and national competitions. The kids love it and play after school everyday.

Sokvan and Messi are two of their brightest young athletes. Unfortunately, due to their many years of malnourishment, they are under height and underweight yet their soccer skills are brilliant. K.I.D.S. will be providing them with daily protein supplements and hopefully, they can bulk up and grow a bit to add some weight and muscle to their arsenal of soccer skills.

 

Thank you to all K.I.D.S. supporters and donors, your assistance makes a difference beyond measure.

Until next Time

Rick and Adrianne