Q2 2022 Newsletter
We are now into the half way mark of our journey to bring positive change to the children and local community in Cambodia. We have reinvigorated our endeavours with a new logo for Youraid:
It represents our approach in providing aid with a deep sense of loving kindness.
HEALTH
Our focus on dental health through our three dental clinics and one mobile unit enabled us to treat over 10,000 children for the first half of 2022. We are the only NGO in Cambodia undertaking this activity on such a scale and provided free of charge to students. While staying healthy, children are able to smile and grow up in confidence which is important for their social development. We had Pacific Smiles Dental Group based in Australia which recently donated dental equipment to help our clinics stay equipped. This was further supplemented by an autoclave machine donated by retired dentist Mark Russell.
Our dental services extend beyond providing treatment to students, and covers prevention to include oral health education which has benefited about 15,000 children so far this year. Children were taught the right way to care for their teeth and given toothbrush kits donated by our regular and leading sponsor, Colgate.
Our preventive care now includes fluoride varnish treatment to very young children and toddlers. The excellent work that our dental team is doing has gained recognition from the Cambodian Ministry of Health with visits by senior officials.
EDUCATION
While we continue to provide mainly free English classes to students in schools, we also run several computer classes to about 400 students. With the return of schools to normal times, we were finally able to establish a dedicated new computer class in one of the local high schools.
This was made possible with a generous donation by No Moss, a leading Australian IT setup which is not just an enabler of innovative thinking, but the company also strives to make their staff feel that the work they do is both meaningful and impactful to both their lives and those that they are helping. No Moss staff including Calvin Simpfendorfer volunteered time to provide inputs into our ICT curriculum for our computer classes. Thank you to the No Moss team! We look forward to a higher level of engagement with such a forward-thinking company staffed by deep talents.
SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT
School development involving building facilities greatly enhance our students’ school experience. We managed to recently complete the construction of a three-classroom school building with funds from the LUFF Foundation and another European NGO, Aide Et Action. Two classrooms are now being used for formal school lessons while one is used as a library with books bought with donations by kind individuals to Youraid.
Our approach to school development is based on our Model School concept. While ensuring that each school has all the necessary building facilities including a school canteen and adequate toilets, we require the school to provide holistic education. Our recently recruited manager, Sinorn, who is overseeing this activity has conducted training to students on environmental awareness and self care in addition to setting up vegetable gardens.
The five Model Schools that we have under our wings would serve as representative models to the local education authorities to undertake school development with a similar approach.
ANGLUNGKUKI VILLAGE SCHOOL
The 200 students, ranging in age between 4 to 16 years old, continue to receive a wide spectrum of education beyond formal lessons. Life skills including cooking, gardening and taking care of the environment are taught to the children. We have received positive feedback from parents of how helpful their children have become while being at home.
The village surroundings are now cleaner with the students being role models in helping educate their families and in participating in monthly cleanup days.
COMMUNITY
Families in the local community continue to face challenges and we intend to embark on several projects to improve their welfare. We have already commenced work with selecting targeted deserving families and providing community education programs including positive parenting.
While this program will be mainly funded by the LUFF Foundation, your personal contributions will continue to be helpful to enable us to transform lives.
Our overheads continue to be fully funded by a private benefactor, so what that means is that the full amount of your donations received is utilised for funding our projects.