Emergency Project

 Dear Friends,

We hope all is well with you and yours. As many of you know, one of our long-term programs is the Smart Kids. The program is in a poor rural area where many people have to work at brick factories for low wages. For many years now we have been running the Smart Kids Program that teaches 52 students English daily after their regular school day and all day Sundays. The kids love the program and we also assist the poorest children with bikes, uniforms and school books, housing and sanitation.

Recently,our program manager Hak contacted us with some bad news, one of the student’s family’s very simple small wooden house caught fire and burned to the ground. 

The Parents spent many years working in Thailand for poor wages in construction and were able to save enough to buy a small piece of land and build this simple wooden house.

The family have nothing left and are still very poor. We paid for new clothes and needed food and household supplies for the family and thanks to our donors we have enough funds to build them another house.

Upon hearing the news of the fire we contacted our builder and arranged to have a new house built, hired an excavator, cleared away the burnt ruins and foundation and started building the new house in less than twenty-four hours.

 

Needless to say the family is incredibly grateful and they should be in the new home in about eight weeks. The villagers are helping them out with accommodation until the house is finished.

Thank you for being able to support this family and build them a decent new home.

Wishing You and Yours all the very best,
Until Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick

Computers for Change

Dear Friends,

We hope all is well with you and yours. As you know, helping to improve the education of young people here in Cambodia is one of our main goals. Each year thanks to the kindness of K.I.D.S donors we visit high schools that are in need of computers, both in the city and in the rural areas. In this day and age learning computers is essential to be able to find work. Most high schools in rural areas cannot afford computers even though they do have teachers who can teach computer skills. Some of the school administration and staff often do not have computers either.

Thanks to our donors we are able to change this situation by providing computers for high school and university students and administration staff.

When we go to visit the schools the kids are very excited and so are the staff to be able to have computer classes as well as computers to help the teachers and admin staff with their work. Recently we travelled to a rural village where the high school had 700 students. We brought computers and set up a classroom for computer studies, the students were very excited and so were the teachers.

Over the years we have collectively been able to give thousands of young people the opportunity to learn computer skills. Many of them have gone on to university and post-secondary training. The graduates have found decent jobs in hotels, offices and companies. Instead of slaving in brick factories and other labour intensive jobs for poor wages; they are not only changing their futures, they are also helping their families to live better lives.

Until next time,
Adrianne and Rick

The Cycle of Life

 Dear Friends

We hope all is well with you and yours. For many of us in the world bikes are more for recreation than commuting. However here in Cambodia without a bike many children lose their ability to get to school, especially when you live in the countryside, where most people live and where the distance from home to school can be up to 10 kilometres. Much too far for a child without a bike to get to school and back home in any condition to study due to rough dusty roads in the dry season and rain and mud in the wet season and back. 

However, having access to a bike levels the playing field for them to access school in a timely manor on a day to day basis. The families also need bicycles to help them get to the market to get food. By providing bikes we all help break the cycle of poverty by making it easier for students and sometimes the only way possible for them to get to school.

One of K.I.D.S. goals is to help young people get to school by purchasing as many bicycles as we can each year. This year we have purchased more than 350 bikes, which adds up to a lot of kilometers daily getting kids to and from school.

We work with our K.I.D.S. program managers to purchase and deliver the bikes, which are very simple bicycles but last a long time. Needless to say the children and families are very happy to get bicycles and often two children can ride on one bike. A bike is only $50.00 and over the years K.I.D.S has been able to provide thousands of children with bikes.

The students thank us, and we THANK YOU for your support and for helping students continue their education and making their lives so much easier.

Until next time,
Adrianne and Rick
Co-founders