Computers for Better Futures

 Hello Everyone,

We are going to the airport to fly home from Cambodia tonight. We have more stories and projects to write about during our 11 weeks here and will send more updates when we get home. Thank you friends and donors for all of your support that makes the work that K.I.D.S. does possible.

Below is our latest post!!
Rick and Adrianne

Dear Friends,

We hope this finds you well. Supporting education is a pivotal part of K.I.D.S. and having access to technology is pivotal to education in this day and age. IT skills play an essential role in teaching, researching and learning.

In the past five years, we have visited high schools with as many as five to six thousand students and no computers; even though they have teachers trained to teach computer skills, the schools cannot afford them. Each year, with the support of KIDS donors, we purchase computers for schools and training programs. Now computer classes run daily, allowing hundreds of students to learn these essential skills.

During this trip, we have been able to purchase more computers for students at schools as well as computers for teachers so they can use them to prepare courses, do research, and keep attendance and marks. The teachers share the computers for different subject areas.

We also provide computer labs for after school training in more isolated rural and poor city slum areas.

It has been great to visit the schools and see everyone learning, and we know that these skills will help change their futures and give them more opportunities in their lives.

As always, we thank you for bringing technology to young people.
Wishing you and yours all the very best,

Adrianne and Rick

Tuk Sa-at (Beautiful water)

Hello Everyone,

We hope you and yours are doing well and that life is getting back to a sense of normal. Here in Cambodia things are slowly opening up, which is very much needed. We had the great pleasure of spending a couple of days visiting a number of clean drinking water projects KIDS has built over the past couple of years, in rural communities. This past year, thanks to K.I.D.S. donors’ support, we were able to bring three schools and villages the gift of clean drinking water.

As many of you know clean drinking water is a huge issue in Cambodia. Even in our small apartment we have to buy our drinking water and cannot just drink it out of the tap. Although for us this is not expensive to buy, for those living in poverty it becomes a huge expense and many families end up drinking contaminated water from hand-dug wells or ponds. Children miss school from illness and are more lethargic due to ongoing diarrhoea.

Each year we bring clean drinking water to schools and communities, so children and teachers have free access to the water and the community members can also bring containers to take clean water home for drinking.

As we visited the schools we were met by the school principals, commune leaders, and students who expressed their gratitude for helping their school and community.

While meeting with the school administrators it was a pleasure to watch the students freely filling their water bottles. We also ensure that the filtration systems are kept up and that anything that is not working is replaced or upgraded.

Over the years we have brought clean drinking water to thousands of students and their families and improved their health, thanks to your support and thanks to our friend and logistician Kim Thol and a great team of water technicians and builders. Thank you for your continued support in bringing this life-saving resource to children and families.

We will close with a Slovakian Proverb, that is so true:

"Pure water is the world's first and foremost medicine."

All the very best to you and yours,
Until Next time,
Adrianne and Rick