Q1 2024

Gratitude is a source of happiness. How is that so? The mind is the precursor to all things according to the Wise One. If we continue with a pattern of negative thinking, our natural disposition would be one of unhappiness. Gratitude on the other hand requires a sense of expanded awareness of the many ordinary things in our lives to be grateful for, from the food that we eat to the homes that protect us and the care of love ones are but only a few examples. By cultivating a sense of gratitude, not only will we be happier but also be more caring and kind human beings. The daily practice of gratitude will hard wire the positive neural channels in your brain and enable you to have a positive personality. Your personality is that which will drive your experience as a person in reality.

Cambodia is a country with a distinct dry season from March to May each year. However, climate change has aggravated the effects. This has been shown with the recent experience of the depletion of dependable water sources such as this pond in the village of our community school in Anglungkuki.

So, everyday, as you drink the glass of water in your hands, be thankful for the taste of clean and safe water which allows you to stay healthy and be free from the discomfort of thirst. Isn't that moment of gratitude a moment of happiness?

WASHH
Starting this year, the WASHH team has an added dimension of Health in addition to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at schools. Our team is doing amazing work to ensure the availability of safe drinking water in over 600 schools. However, In the current dry season, a few schools water tanks were depleted of water and had resorted to using murky pond water . This had resulted in the failure of their Water Purification Systems (WPS) which we supplied. The team was able to rectify the situation with deep cleaning or the replacement of faulty parts.

In order to improve their work efficiency, the team has embarked on grading schools so that schools with poor grades in the standard of school facilities would receive greater attention and guidance. Noticeable improvements include a cleaner school environment and safe foods sold by vendors. The reduction of foods high in sugar content sold in school has been identified to be a critical success factor of our Dental Program.

Dental Program
As an NGO with four dental clinics and treating more than 30,000 students a year, we remain the biggest provider of dental care to students in Cambodia. Our services go beyond providing dental treatment as oral health education plays a significant part in reducing caries in children.

We continue to actively engage the local health authorities to up the ante of our services so that more children have access to dental care. One of our directors, Cecilia who is a dental practitioner in Sydney, together with BLCP’s management team had a fruitful dialogue with the Secretary of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in January.

In order to widen our coverage, we intend to undertake a number of initiatives in the current year including undertaking more screening, focusing on primary dental care of prevention and introducing a full time mobile clinic. We sought the government’s help for the continued supply of fluoride oral supplies for dental prevention care of early childhood children in 31 health centres supported by us.

Education Program
With about 2,000 students enjoying free education from us every day, this remains a key area for us to improve our delivery. We are leveraging on social media with the introduction of an English education series delivered through Telegram App. This approach has been well received with views by several hundreds of our students.

In addition to English classes, we run computer software classes in schools while at our head office IT class, this had extended to a workshop on minor hardware repairs.

Anglungkuki Community School (ACS)
We continue to improve the facilities in the school with the establishment of a new creative centre where children now have a bigger floor area for art and to learn traditional Khmer dances. While we offer free English classes to students in the village, we are mindful of the need to preserve the deep cultural heritage of the country. We now have a dance teacher from Kampot Culture and Dance Institute who provides formal training to our students.

In the drive to enable the children to harness their full potential, the principal of the school, Sok introduced a public speaking contest. There was so much excitement amongst the children during the event and a few thanked Sok for the opportunity to do something which they did not think they could do.

While we are always exploring various ways in bringing the best out of the children, love for the environment is an attribute we continue to emphasize. In addition to the children being involved in doing monthly village cleanups, the children are encouraged to tap their creativity on the reduction of plastic wastes. The students ended up making shopping bags with used cement bags under the supervision of one of our dedicated teachers, Somaly who has shown a tremendous level of initiative by having earlier started dance lessons for the students. From the activity, the children learnt how to repurpose what could have been waste and minimise the use of single purpose plastics in addition to learning sewing skills.

Community Development (CD)
Community development is an extension of our care of the students of our village school as the well being of children at home has an effect on their academic progress. This was reflected when we learned of three children who became orphans when their single parent mother suddenly passed away. Our team immediately stepped in to provide the financial support for especially the eldest girl of 16 years to continue with school as we have seen instances of females as young as 14 years old being made child brides or sent to Phnom Penh for dubious work. The children have received gifts of clothing, a bicycle, meals cooked by a relative and paid by caring donors.

Basic necessities including the supply of clean water safe for drinking at homes continue to be supported by the team through the distribution of water filters. There is currently no piped water in the village and sources of water are ponds, wells and rainwater which we assisted by providing large water jars.

Low income remains the greatest challenge for the community and with it brings a host of other problems including food security. In order to address this issue, we have been supporting Income Generating Activities (IGA) on several fronts. As this is an agriculturally based community, we have encouraged widening the cultivation of foods beyond the early days of growing common vegetables to mushrooms and melons which can fetch better market prices.

In the current year, we are progressing towards establishing Self Help Groups (SHG) where villagers would elect their own leadership team and to help each other. BLCP would in turn provide seed capital and encourage savings by members to enable a ‘micro finance’ scheme for villagers to undertake various types of IGA. We are encouraged by what we are seeing as we provide guidance on the proper running of the SHG and arrange for visits and training by the local agriculture department.

The team is grateful for the opportunity to do work for the betterment of lives of children and the local communities In Cambodia made possible by the many supporters like you.

Q2 2024

Q4 2023

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