Q1 2023

The sense of gratitude is so important in life. By appreciating what we have, it puts into perspective the many challenges we individually face in our lives and the empathy that it gives rise provides us with the opportunity to cultivate generosity. By doing so, we learn to let go and become more contented, if not happier people. So, in this first newsletter issue of the year, we would cover what we have done to make the lives of the most marginalised in the community a little bit better and this would not have been possible without your continued generosity and support.

Community Development
The availability of potable water remains a challenge in the rural areas of Cambodia. This is compounded by a distinct dry season. We dug our first well for a group of five families in the village of Anglungkuki where our community school is located. The well was dug to a depth of about 40 metres at a cost of USD1,100.

While the well is located on the land of a single family, it is condition of our funding that the neighbouring families be allowed to have access to collect water. With the availability of clean water, these families comprising about 20 members can now cook, take their bath and use toilet facilities; all the basic necessities that we might have already taken for granted.

At the end of last year, we sought the help of supporters to help build a house for a homeless family. With kind contributions by the LUFF Foundation and individual contributors, Darrel and Henrike, we were able to recently complete the construction of the house.

We are now seeing the results of our Income Generating Projects where we endeavoured to financially empower villagers. We provided startup funding to six families who participated in poultry and vegetable farming. Besides enjoying an income, each of the families are now able to have greater food security.

We assisted an elderly lady to buy cooking supplies to enable her to start making Ansorm (a traditional Khmer cake) which she sells while walking around with a basket in her village and is able to make a profit of around USD80 a month.

Education
In schools, we are emphasising soft skills to students as we consider it to be equally if not more important than having adequate building facilities. We were able to facilitate the formation of student councils at our four Model Schools which provide students with the opportunity to gain leadership skills and to be involved in the decision making process so that they able to see for themselves their ability to initiate change (for the better).

We organised educational talks on female menstrual health which were well attended and received a lot of questions from curious students. With the high number of traffic accidents reported including fatality to two of our students and to one of the parents, we wanted our students to have greater awareness for road safety and also organised First Aid training in schools. We have now educated about 300 students on basic First Aid.

We continue to emphasize personal development for young people because we feel that with such a mindset, positive change can take place and bring greater progress to the people. We organised an inter-school English debate competition which saw enthusiastic participation by eloquent students. From this event, we were able to witness the performance by one of the students whom we selected to receive a university scholarship.

Health
Being the largest NGO provider of free dental health in Cambodia, we had embarked on a new initiative to digitalise our dental operations covering student patient records and big data capture on the various and number of treatments which we provide at our 3 dental clinics and 1 mobile clinic. After an extensive period of development work led by volunteer project manager Steve, the Dental Hub App was successfully implemented early this year.

This has also enabled us to undertake more effective dental screening program in schools and to double the number of students checked by our dental staff from 1,500 to 3,000 per month. Instead of students being transported to our clinics, our dental staff visit the targeted schools, thus enabling more students to be checked.

We would continue to focus on improving the outcomes of our work in Cambodia so that your contributions would have the desired maximum impact. It is with gratitude that we receive your support which we trust might be the outcome of your sense of gratitude to life.