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

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

Vanna and the Victoria Hand Project

Hello Everyone,

Hope that your summer is going well!

Ok for a minute lets forget about the constant barrage of negative information on climate change, homelessness, and/or, always Trump, its enough negative info to make one cry sad tears.

BUT...here is a story that brought happy tears to our eyes.

We wrote about Vanna back in March telling the story about him losing both of his hands to a landmine and how he works to provide for his family by selling books from a cart in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Over the years K.I.D.S. has provided additional support, with your donations, to help his family and help educate his children and change their lives and futures.

After sending the post about Vanna we were contacted by our good friend Dr. Ranald Donaldson from Victoria who put us in touch with the Victoria Hand Project at the University of Victoria. After our return home we went to Victoria to visit the students and instructors who use 3D printers, cutting edge technology and a ton of intelligence and inspiration to assist landmine victims in several developing countries. To make a long story short check out these links.

https://www.victoriahandproject.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=JjywmBQeeLc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWKeC5h9SLQ

Last week we received these photos from Cambodia, hope they make your day like they made ours.


Thank you Ranald, the professors and students at the Victoria Hand Project and the Siem Reap Rehabilitation Center for collaborating on this this international life changing gift to Vanna and his family.

Have to love those smiles.

Until Next time,
Rick and Adrianne

Kids Helping Kids

Dear Friends,

As the school year ends here in Canada we want to acknowledge some great kids that support K.I.D.S. We are fortunate to be able to visit local schools and meet teachers, child and youth care workers and young people who care about social justice both "Here and There". We are inspired to visit these classes and talk about social justice and global citizenship. We hear how young people are raising funds and awareness regarding issues such as poverty, climate change, education, recycling, clean drinking water, hygiene and much more.

They not only talk about their empathy for others, they turn it into action and activism. We meet young people who busk for children's health and well being and teacher's and kids who turn their birthdays into fundraisers for bathrooms and bicycles for poor children.


We meet inspiring staff and Vancouver Island University students who support, model and foster kids to be compassionate change-makers that help those less fortunate and our planet. A huge thank you goes out to the children and staff at both McGirr Elementary and Departure Bay Elementary for choosing to fund-raise and support K.I.D.S.

Thanks to these compassionate, caring and generous students and educators for being humanitarians and improving the lives of others and making the world a better place.

Until Next time,
Adrianne and Rick

International World Bicycle Day

Dear Friends,

Today is International World Bicycle Day. In the developed world cycling for the most part is primarily used for fun and fitness. In developing nations, the bicycle is a means to move from poverty to prosperity via many hours and many kilometers of dusty, muddy and bumpy roads. Students powered by incredible determination and resilience rise early in the morning to face the challenge of getting to school. Their focal point targeted on dreams of a better future for themselves, their present and future families, K.I.D.S. has purchased over a thousand bikes...so far.

In celebration of International World Bicycle Day please enjoy the following photos of a few happy students getting and riding their bikes in the opposite direction of child labour and servitude.

"Thank you for helping to make a difference"

Until Next time,
Adrianne and Rick

The Happy Room

Dear Friends,

We hope all is well with you and yours. In Cambodia people sometimes refer to bathrooms as "Happy Rooms"...and we certainly realize why. Having a bathroom changes and improves families lives. Each year K.I.D.S. builds as many bathrooms as we can for very poor families. This past trip while visiting one of the brick factory families, to meet one of the new children that we were taking into our Smart Kids sponsorship program, we asked where the girl was. The mother said she was over in the pond taking a bath and sure enough a few minutes later the young girl showed up obviously having just washed her hair. This is the reality for so many people in rural Cambodia, washing in dirty ponds.


Thanks to K.I.D.S. donors we are changing these situations. The bathroom/toilets we build have a septic field, foundation, toilet, and water reservoir. The door locks so the family members can have privacy and dignity. The families can also wash clothes in the bathroom as they have a nice tile floor, which saves them from having to wash their clothes outside.


Each year your support brings dignity and eases lives, not to mention that having a bathroom close to the house is safer for young women and brings hygiene to the family as well. We are pleased to bring six more families this basic yet important necessity.


So here is to "The Happy Room" and bringing smiles to these great kids faces!!!


Wishing you and yours all the best,
With gratitude,
Until Next Time
Adrianne and Rick

Hope and Houses

Dear Friends,

We are now back in Canada and home in Nanaimo. As always it is great to see friends and family. Although we are home K.I.D.S. work continues to assist children, families, and communities. Our ongoing programs proivide education, healthcare, student sponosorships and safety for vulnerable children and youth on a daily basis.

We also continue to work on some basic needs such as housing and hygiene. Just before leaving we visited some of the new houses that K.I.D.S. donors have supported. Although these houses are very modest they make the world of difference to families. The conditions we see people living is hard to witness.


The families we support work very hard to provide for themselves; working long, tiring hours, mostly 6 to 7 days a week, however, the pay is so poor they have a difficult time saving for anything besides the basics and even those are hard to provide. Some families have saved funds for years to buy building materials and others will never be able to build a house, hence some houses K.I.D.S. builds are more substantial than others as some of the families are able to contribute labour or resources to our house building budget.


It is great to see these families have a real roof over their heads and protection from sun, rain, wind and dirt floors that turn into mud during the rainy season.

We still have many children in our program that live in very difficult and dire situations however step by step with your support we are all changing their living conditions and improving their lives immensely.



On behalf of the kids and families in our sponsorship program we Thank You and pass on their gratitude.

Until Next Time,
Adrianne and Rick