We know we have been quiet for awhile and it is not because nothing has been happening. In fact, a major revamp is taking place. We feel that we should be doing more but in a different way. We have been asking ourselves how we can facilitate your contribution in order to make a greater impact. This required us to think deeply of what we have been doing and how we could make it better. We are glad to say that we have planted the seed of change and are very excited to share with you our plans in this issue….
But before going any further, we want to let you know how your valuable support transformed lives in 2019…
We have now built water tanks in over 900 schools covering almost 85 % of the school population of the Cambodia provinces where we operate and what this means is that more children now have access to clean water.
The water tanks were of especially great help last year because the drought ended late and with the COVID-19 pandemic now, the availability of water to maintain hygiene becomes even more crucial.
Poor dental health continues to be a major problem for children in Cambodia. By the time a child reaches six years old, she can have around 9 teeth which show decay. Many have experienced extreme pain at some point, along with infection and this in turn affects eating ability and school attendance. Most of them have never received any kind of oral health instructions or care. Their dental appearance can be affected resulting in embarrassment and social problems.
Our three dental clinics and one mobile clinic provided dental services to over 20,000 students in 2019. Thanks to your gift, we now offer comprehensive dentistry programs including oral health education and prevention with the added distribution of dental care products including toothbrushes and toothpaste made possible by kind givers and vendors like Colgate. Children are also encouraged to brush their teeth at school after their food interval.
Our latest initiative SMILE involves working with the government focusing on oral health care involving the application of fluoride varnish and parents’ dental education for early childhood children. The need for oral healthcare is overwhelming, especially in the remote areas of the community and it is through your help that we have been able to provide mobile dental services to more than 1700 children in the villages last year.
In education, we are providing more than 60 classes to over 2,000 students each day. The extra English and computer classes mean that the students are able to progress further in their education and find meaningful jobs to support their families.
With the generosity of your gifts of vans, our three mobile libraries visited several remote schools giving children the opportunity to read more widely. If there are interested donors, we might even consider the gift of library buildings and books.
In 2019, we were able to support the delivery of 19 sanitation and handwash facilities which minimised the spread of diseases. We actively managed the construction of a new three-classroom building with 100% of your contribution. This would not have been possible if not for the significant gift of a group of public donors that the students of Steung Keo Secondary School deeply appreciate.
All public donations received go directly to funding expenditure for children’s programs in Cambodia.
This is made possible because we have the continued generosity of private donors who cover overheads like salaries, office administration expenses, flights for inspection of projects and much more. As an example of what this means, the three classrooms costing USD36,000 was funded by 100% of public contribution.
None of the costs at YourAid was shared with public donors in implementing and monitoring the project.
That is why we name ourselves as YourAid and it is all about your contribution that we do our best to deliver.
We call this our 100 ][ 0 Gift Principle of donations that we receive from the public with zero going towards our overheads.
In early 2020, we had our first visit to Sydney by the Country Manager of our partner organisation in Cambodia, BLCP for meetings with YourAid directors. This resulted in several new initiatives for project improvement and delivery which include a computer software for our dental services, new care pathway for dental clinic, water quality improvement and teaching delivery enhancement. In 2020, we are going to implement our programs for school facilities through the MODEL SCHOOL concept.
We will use your contribution to improve all aspects of facilities in specially selected schools by providing better quality water with the use of filtration systems through to well-designed handwash, sanitary facilities, waste disposal equipment and classrooms. We feel that with your desire to do good, we should ensure that your contribution achieves its maximum benefit. We intend to engage school staff to teach the students environmental care within the clean surroundings of schools and to undertake recycling activities in order to minimise waste generation. It is through holistic development that we hope to see lasting change in the lives of the children whom we are all helping.
So, we are moving forward with optimism and great enthusiasm to deliver your aid. We are only here as the link between heroes like you as the generous donors and the children you care about. As a facilitator, we shall strive to ensure that your continued contribution make the life transformation of Cambodia children possible.
P.S. It would be great to share what you are doing by forwarding this newsletter to your friends who might want to help children in need.