Cambodian children teach US Women of Vision the Saravan dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYxaVHC1sZk
Roam Kbach performance by the Children at the Youth Club in Kampong Speu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEEV99LQT8A
Showing posts with label US charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US charity. Show all posts
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Hands-on help for Cambodia
School project offers education in caring, sharing
May 11, 2008
By Victoria Cheng
Boston Globe Correspondent (Massachusetts, USA)
Four letters may not be a lot, but it's enough to underpin a $20,000 fund-raising effort to build a school in rural Cambodia. Calling itself the Cambridge School for Cambodia (and Camb-Camb for short), the campaign brings together students, businesses, and several groups across the city, some with deep ties to Cambodia and some who have always called Cambridge home.
Rachael Harkavy, a fifth-grade student at the King Open School, started learning about Cambodia in January when she and her peers in the school's fifth through eighth grades joined the effort by hosting weekly penny drives. She reels off statistics about the country that highlight how Cambodia compares with the United States. "It's about the size of Oklahoma and has the population of Pennsylvania," she began.
Camb-Camb is raising money to send to American Assistance for Cambodia, a nonprofit organization run by former Newsweek journalist Bernie Krisher, that has built more than 400 schools across the country.
"We'll be the 405th school, but it's not enough," Harkavy added. "Massachusetts is about half the size of Cambodia and has about 1,000 schools, so that just brings into perspective how many schools Cambodia needs."
The planned Camb-Camb school will be 40 miles north of Phnom Penh and accommodate between 200 and 400 students. Krisher started the initiative in 1993 and negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the World Bank that called for it to match whatever money he raised for the project. The cost of a school, Krisher said, "is actually about $30,000, and the donor only pays about $13,000." By contributing an extra $7,000, the Cambridge School for Cambodia will be able to equip its school with an English teacher, solar panels for a computer, and Internet access, he said.
Longteine de Monteiro owns the Elephant Walk restaurants, which feature French and Cambodian cuisine at locations in Cambridge, Boston, and Waltham. The Cambodian native explained that outside assistance is sorely needed in the country, which was devastated first by the spillover effects of the Vietnam War and then by genocide during the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
"The government now doesn't really do much to help education," she said, "so all the foundations from outside of the country who go there and build whatever the country needs, especially schools and hospitals, are very important."
When Camb-Camb contacted de Monteiro to explore opportunities for collaboration, she agreed to host a benefit dinner at her North Cambridge restaurant early last month.
"We served the meal that we usually serve on New Year's Day in Cambodia," which is April 15, de Monteiro said. "We did chicken curry, Salade Cambodgienne, and beef short ribs with green coconut juice."
The event raised enough money to bump Camb-Camb's funds to the $13,300 mark and also gave attendees like East Boston resident Selena Sang, whose family is Cambodian, a chance to revive memories of childhood traditions.
"My parents live in California," she said, adding that she had not eaten a traditional Cambodian New Year meal since moving here. The event also gave de Monteiro an opportunity to showcase a prominent part of Cambodian culture - its cuisine - and the desire to teach Cantabrigians about this small country perched on the southeastern peninsula of Asia.
At the King Open School, Rachael and fellow fifth-grader Eliza Klein have made it their goal to involve younger students in the project. "In the library we have a display with recipes and books and how to make origami elephants," Klein explained. "We don't want to be collecting money from people and having them say, 'Oh, we're sending it across the world to do blah blah blah.' We want them to really understand it, so that then they'll feel closer."
Before classes one day earlier this month, the girls helped set up an origami table at the school entrance, along with an empty water jug inviting donations of spare change. Sixth-grader Brianna Lavelle patiently guided the younger students through the steps of folding a colorful square of paper into the shape of a crane.
"See all these points here?" she said, indicating the triangular sections where the corners met. "Point it down and fold it like this," she instructed, pressing the edge of a flap against the table.
Eventually, the students managed to fold their pieces of paper into diamond-shaped creations that they then bent to create long necks and pointed tails.
"What is this for?" asked 6-year-old Bianca Byfield, as she handed over her crane to be placed on a large branch of a tree that will eventually hold 400.
"Every crane represents one child who will go to school in Cambodia," said Lavelle's mother, Risa. "And all of Cambridge is helping raise money."
May 11, 2008
By Victoria Cheng
Boston Globe Correspondent (Massachusetts, USA)
Four letters may not be a lot, but it's enough to underpin a $20,000 fund-raising effort to build a school in rural Cambodia. Calling itself the Cambridge School for Cambodia (and Camb-Camb for short), the campaign brings together students, businesses, and several groups across the city, some with deep ties to Cambodia and some who have always called Cambridge home.
Rachael Harkavy, a fifth-grade student at the King Open School, started learning about Cambodia in January when she and her peers in the school's fifth through eighth grades joined the effort by hosting weekly penny drives. She reels off statistics about the country that highlight how Cambodia compares with the United States. "It's about the size of Oklahoma and has the population of Pennsylvania," she began.
Camb-Camb is raising money to send to American Assistance for Cambodia, a nonprofit organization run by former Newsweek journalist Bernie Krisher, that has built more than 400 schools across the country.
"We'll be the 405th school, but it's not enough," Harkavy added. "Massachusetts is about half the size of Cambodia and has about 1,000 schools, so that just brings into perspective how many schools Cambodia needs."
The planned Camb-Camb school will be 40 miles north of Phnom Penh and accommodate between 200 and 400 students. Krisher started the initiative in 1993 and negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the World Bank that called for it to match whatever money he raised for the project. The cost of a school, Krisher said, "is actually about $30,000, and the donor only pays about $13,000." By contributing an extra $7,000, the Cambridge School for Cambodia will be able to equip its school with an English teacher, solar panels for a computer, and Internet access, he said.
Longteine de Monteiro owns the Elephant Walk restaurants, which feature French and Cambodian cuisine at locations in Cambridge, Boston, and Waltham. The Cambodian native explained that outside assistance is sorely needed in the country, which was devastated first by the spillover effects of the Vietnam War and then by genocide during the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
"The government now doesn't really do much to help education," she said, "so all the foundations from outside of the country who go there and build whatever the country needs, especially schools and hospitals, are very important."
When Camb-Camb contacted de Monteiro to explore opportunities for collaboration, she agreed to host a benefit dinner at her North Cambridge restaurant early last month.
"We served the meal that we usually serve on New Year's Day in Cambodia," which is April 15, de Monteiro said. "We did chicken curry, Salade Cambodgienne, and beef short ribs with green coconut juice."
The event raised enough money to bump Camb-Camb's funds to the $13,300 mark and also gave attendees like East Boston resident Selena Sang, whose family is Cambodian, a chance to revive memories of childhood traditions.
"My parents live in California," she said, adding that she had not eaten a traditional Cambodian New Year meal since moving here. The event also gave de Monteiro an opportunity to showcase a prominent part of Cambodian culture - its cuisine - and the desire to teach Cantabrigians about this small country perched on the southeastern peninsula of Asia.
At the King Open School, Rachael and fellow fifth-grader Eliza Klein have made it their goal to involve younger students in the project. "In the library we have a display with recipes and books and how to make origami elephants," Klein explained. "We don't want to be collecting money from people and having them say, 'Oh, we're sending it across the world to do blah blah blah.' We want them to really understand it, so that then they'll feel closer."
Before classes one day earlier this month, the girls helped set up an origami table at the school entrance, along with an empty water jug inviting donations of spare change. Sixth-grader Brianna Lavelle patiently guided the younger students through the steps of folding a colorful square of paper into the shape of a crane.
"See all these points here?" she said, indicating the triangular sections where the corners met. "Point it down and fold it like this," she instructed, pressing the edge of a flap against the table.
Eventually, the students managed to fold their pieces of paper into diamond-shaped creations that they then bent to create long necks and pointed tails.
"What is this for?" asked 6-year-old Bianca Byfield, as she handed over her crane to be placed on a large branch of a tree that will eventually hold 400.
"Every crane represents one child who will go to school in Cambodia," said Lavelle's mother, Risa. "And all of Cambridge is helping raise money."
Monday, March 17, 2008
Oregon family aids Cambodian sex slaves
This is a picture of a young girl in peril. Girls working in the brothels are given numbers and displayed to the sexual predators. (Photo: TransitionsCambodia.org)Sunday, March 16, 2008
By WAYNE HAVRELLY for Kgw.com
KGW (USA)
As the Pond family sits around the dining room table playing trivial pursuit, they appear to be the typical American family. They’re not. Anything that was typical changed forever after watching a Dateline NBC investigation 4 years ago. The story about Cambodian children being sold to sex peddlers touched the family so deeply, this father of three quit his six figure sales job and traveled to Cambodia to see what could be done to help.
“We were seeing pedophiles walking up and down the riverfront purchasing kids, said James Pond. Pond knew he could make a difference, but only if his family wanted the same thing. His wife Athena said, “We were trying to teach our kids you can do more in life and we should all be helping others, but we really didn’t have an outlet for that before this.” It was a unanimous vote so the Ponds sold nearly everything they owned and moved to Cambodia to open a transitional housing center for girls rescued from brothels. 14 year old Srey Neth was sold by her mother for 300 dollars.
“Her virginity was sold a week later for the same 300 dollars she was sold for after that she was forced into a brothel where she saw 10 to 20 men a day, said James Pond. Neth was rescued. After 2 years with the pond family, she's now working for their Oregon based charity called Transitions Cambodia.
“She's not just our voice she's the voice of every girl that’s ever been through something like this,” said Pond.
Transitions Cambodia now provides shelter, support and vocational training to about 20 rescued girls each year.
The Ponds run the charity from their Hillsboro home. They have a staff of ten running the program in Cambodia. They recently moved back to the US to raise awareness about the child sex issue. They hope that will lead to more financial support which will enable them to open even more shelters in Cambodia and other countries around the world.
They said what started out as an idea after watching Dateline NBC has turned into a lifetime commitment. They hope to create awareness on a large scale starting in Portland and spreading all across America.
For more information go to the charities website at
Transitionscambodia.org
“We were seeing pedophiles walking up and down the riverfront purchasing kids, said James Pond. Pond knew he could make a difference, but only if his family wanted the same thing. His wife Athena said, “We were trying to teach our kids you can do more in life and we should all be helping others, but we really didn’t have an outlet for that before this.” It was a unanimous vote so the Ponds sold nearly everything they owned and moved to Cambodia to open a transitional housing center for girls rescued from brothels. 14 year old Srey Neth was sold by her mother for 300 dollars.
“Her virginity was sold a week later for the same 300 dollars she was sold for after that she was forced into a brothel where she saw 10 to 20 men a day, said James Pond. Neth was rescued. After 2 years with the pond family, she's now working for their Oregon based charity called Transitions Cambodia.
“She's not just our voice she's the voice of every girl that’s ever been through something like this,” said Pond.
Transitions Cambodia now provides shelter, support and vocational training to about 20 rescued girls each year.
The Ponds run the charity from their Hillsboro home. They have a staff of ten running the program in Cambodia. They recently moved back to the US to raise awareness about the child sex issue. They hope that will lead to more financial support which will enable them to open even more shelters in Cambodia and other countries around the world.
They said what started out as an idea after watching Dateline NBC has turned into a lifetime commitment. They hope to create awareness on a large scale starting in Portland and spreading all across America.
For more information go to the charities website at
Transitionscambodia.org
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Book collection benefits Vineyard School in Cambodia
Dressed in their school uniforms, students gather outside the five-room Vineyard School in the Siem Reap Region of Cambodia. (Photos courtesy of Todd Alexander)Click on the photos to zoom in
February 7, 2008By Janet Hefler
The Martha's Vineyard Times (Massachusetts, USA)
When Oak Bluffs harbormaster Todd Alexander visits the Vineyard School in Cambodia at the end of February, he is hoping to bring a little bit of the Island with him, in the form of books and monetary donations from the community.
About 600 students attend the Vineyard School in a five-room schoolhouse in the Siem Reap Region of Cambodia. Mr. Alexander said he would appreciate donations of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade level books for the children, who are learning English at school. Collection boxes are set up at the Oak Bluffs School, West Tisbury School, the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School, ArtCliff Diner, and Mocha Mott's in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs.
Mr. Alexander plans to pack the donated books into some suitcases and pay to check as extra luggage on his flight, which he learned would cost much less than shipping them. He also would appreciate monetary donations, which he will use to purchase school supplies and books written in the Khmer language when he gets to Cambodia, where he can buy more for his money.
"I bought pens, rulers, erasers, and small notebooks for every single kid in the school when I was there in 2005, for more than 500 kids, and it was about $350," Mr. Alexander said. "Some people ask, so what's a couple thousand dollars going to do? And I say, are you kidding me? Twenty dollars will probably buy 30 books over there."
Checks should be made out to Todd Alexander and mailed to him at P.O. Box 2225, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557. The deadline for books and monetary donations is February 21.
This will be Mr. Alexander's first visit back to the school since it opened in 2005, built with funds raised by him and his wife, Kara Gelinas. Their involvement in such an ambitious and generous project started with an act of kindness towards a teenage Cambodian girl in need of an education.
In 2003 Mr. Alexander and his wife took a trip to Southeast Asia, visiting Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Outside Angkor Wat, a Buddhist temple in Cambodia, they met Roma, a 14-year-old girl selling postcards and books while her mother sold water and sodas.
"What struck us about her is an unexplained thing," Mr. Alexander said. "I think it was one of our first experiences facing the reality of such poverty. She was the sweetest thing in the whole world."
The couple asked her why she wasn't in school. "I have to work - if I don't work, we don't eat," Roma told them. She had dropped out of school after second grade to start earning money for her family.
At that time Roma lived in a bamboo lean-to in the woods with three younger siblings. Two older siblings lived elsewhere. "We said, what do you mean, you can't go to school? How much does it cost?" Mr. Alexander recalled. "It was $80 a semester - it ended up being $10 a week.
Determined to break the cycle of poverty for at least one young girl, Mr. Alexander said, "The next day we went back and found her, and offered to send her to school."
On the couple's return home, a teacher at Oak Bluffs School, where Ms. Gelinas worked as a student teacher, mentioned she had heard about a non-profit organization called American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC) and its Rural Schools Project.
Since 1999, AAfC, founded by American journalist Bernie Krisher, the former head of Newsweek and Fortune magazines' Tokyo bureaus, has built over 400 schools in rural Cambodia with matching funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, according to the organization's web site. Many of them are equipped with computers and have Internet access.
The schools include three to six classrooms, with desks and chairs, and are built on land donated by a village or added to an existing school site. Once a school is built, it is given to the village. All of the schools are recognized by the Cambodian government as state schools and are staffed by official state teachers who follow the Ministry of Education curriculum, the AAfC web site explains.
Mr. Alexander said when he found out it would cost $13,000 to construct a rural school in Cambodia, he told his wife he could raise that much. "So we did - I asked a bunch of people I know for donations, and we had a benefit concert at the Atlantic Connection, and six months later, it was done," he said.
When Mr. Alexander attended the Vineyard School's opening, he said he was overwhelmed at the sight of 1,000 parents and students lining the street and the sound of monks chanting as he walked in a procession towards the schoolhouse to take part in a ceremony attended by the provincial governor. "There were so many kids that enrolled, they do two sessions of school a day," Mr. Alexander said.
Each AAfC school is named after the donor or given a name selected by the donor. Mr. Alexander said he and his wife wanted to name the school the Vineyard School, not the Oak Bluffs School, because people all over the Island had donated money, as well as visitors to Oak Bluffs harbor.
"Calling it the Vineyard School gives everyone a connection," he said. To show his appreciation to those who donated, he had their names inscribed on a laminated plaque, which hangs in the school. Mr. Alexander said he plans to do something similar for donors who contribute this time around.
After schools are constructed, sponsors such as Mr. Alexander are encouraged to contribute towards other improvements, such as Internet access, solar panels to power a donated computer, or funds to pay a school nurse. He said he hopes to be able to add some "extras" at the Vineyard School, starting with hooking the school up to the Internet during his upcoming visit, if possible. Eventually, he would like to buy some inexpensive computers that students could share and use at school.
Another "extra" that donors can fund is a vegetable garden, Mr. Alexander said. "I'd love to get a garden there, because a lot of those kids don't eat very well."
Last summer children at the Sense of Wonder Creations summer day camp in Vineyard Haven painted a 4- x 8-foot canvas mural to send to the Vineyard School, which is due to arrive any day now. Since the school's walls are bare, Mr. Alexander said he would also like to buy some additional posters and artwork.
In the meantime, he and his wife keep in touch with Roma, who is almost 19. "She has an e-mail address, so we talk every week," Mr. Alexander said. Although Roma visited the Island a few summers ago, he said it has become more difficult since then to arrange for another visit.
Roma still lives in the area near the Buddhist temple, where there are jobs available in the hotels and restaurants that cater to the tourist traffic. "She has a job as a hostess at one of the restaurants, so the family is not as bad off as they were - they're eating now," Mr. Alexander said.
Although a friend is going with him to Cambodia, Mr. Alexander is disappointed his wife won't be able to go, as well. Ms. Gelinas is a grade 5/6 student teacher at the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School. They planned his trip for her February school vacation so she would be home to care for their two-and-a-half-year-old son Sebastian.
"Maybe in two more years, we'll all go," Mr. Alexander said. "The school will keep itself going no matter what I do, but just because it's so much fun, every once in awhile or every few years, I'm going to do whatever I can do to give extra."
About 600 students attend the Vineyard School in a five-room schoolhouse in the Siem Reap Region of Cambodia. Mr. Alexander said he would appreciate donations of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade level books for the children, who are learning English at school. Collection boxes are set up at the Oak Bluffs School, West Tisbury School, the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School, ArtCliff Diner, and Mocha Mott's in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs.
Mr. Alexander plans to pack the donated books into some suitcases and pay to check as extra luggage on his flight, which he learned would cost much less than shipping them. He also would appreciate monetary donations, which he will use to purchase school supplies and books written in the Khmer language when he gets to Cambodia, where he can buy more for his money.
"I bought pens, rulers, erasers, and small notebooks for every single kid in the school when I was there in 2005, for more than 500 kids, and it was about $350," Mr. Alexander said. "Some people ask, so what's a couple thousand dollars going to do? And I say, are you kidding me? Twenty dollars will probably buy 30 books over there."
Checks should be made out to Todd Alexander and mailed to him at P.O. Box 2225, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557. The deadline for books and monetary donations is February 21.
This will be Mr. Alexander's first visit back to the school since it opened in 2005, built with funds raised by him and his wife, Kara Gelinas. Their involvement in such an ambitious and generous project started with an act of kindness towards a teenage Cambodian girl in need of an education.
In 2003 Mr. Alexander and his wife took a trip to Southeast Asia, visiting Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Outside Angkor Wat, a Buddhist temple in Cambodia, they met Roma, a 14-year-old girl selling postcards and books while her mother sold water and sodas.
"What struck us about her is an unexplained thing," Mr. Alexander said. "I think it was one of our first experiences facing the reality of such poverty. She was the sweetest thing in the whole world."
The couple asked her why she wasn't in school. "I have to work - if I don't work, we don't eat," Roma told them. She had dropped out of school after second grade to start earning money for her family.
At that time Roma lived in a bamboo lean-to in the woods with three younger siblings. Two older siblings lived elsewhere. "We said, what do you mean, you can't go to school? How much does it cost?" Mr. Alexander recalled. "It was $80 a semester - it ended up being $10 a week.
Determined to break the cycle of poverty for at least one young girl, Mr. Alexander said, "The next day we went back and found her, and offered to send her to school."
On the couple's return home, a teacher at Oak Bluffs School, where Ms. Gelinas worked as a student teacher, mentioned she had heard about a non-profit organization called American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC) and its Rural Schools Project.
Since 1999, AAfC, founded by American journalist Bernie Krisher, the former head of Newsweek and Fortune magazines' Tokyo bureaus, has built over 400 schools in rural Cambodia with matching funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, according to the organization's web site. Many of them are equipped with computers and have Internet access.
The schools include three to six classrooms, with desks and chairs, and are built on land donated by a village or added to an existing school site. Once a school is built, it is given to the village. All of the schools are recognized by the Cambodian government as state schools and are staffed by official state teachers who follow the Ministry of Education curriculum, the AAfC web site explains.
Mr. Alexander said when he found out it would cost $13,000 to construct a rural school in Cambodia, he told his wife he could raise that much. "So we did - I asked a bunch of people I know for donations, and we had a benefit concert at the Atlantic Connection, and six months later, it was done," he said.
When Mr. Alexander attended the Vineyard School's opening, he said he was overwhelmed at the sight of 1,000 parents and students lining the street and the sound of monks chanting as he walked in a procession towards the schoolhouse to take part in a ceremony attended by the provincial governor. "There were so many kids that enrolled, they do two sessions of school a day," Mr. Alexander said.
Each AAfC school is named after the donor or given a name selected by the donor. Mr. Alexander said he and his wife wanted to name the school the Vineyard School, not the Oak Bluffs School, because people all over the Island had donated money, as well as visitors to Oak Bluffs harbor.
"Calling it the Vineyard School gives everyone a connection," he said. To show his appreciation to those who donated, he had their names inscribed on a laminated plaque, which hangs in the school. Mr. Alexander said he plans to do something similar for donors who contribute this time around.
After schools are constructed, sponsors such as Mr. Alexander are encouraged to contribute towards other improvements, such as Internet access, solar panels to power a donated computer, or funds to pay a school nurse. He said he hopes to be able to add some "extras" at the Vineyard School, starting with hooking the school up to the Internet during his upcoming visit, if possible. Eventually, he would like to buy some inexpensive computers that students could share and use at school.
Another "extra" that donors can fund is a vegetable garden, Mr. Alexander said. "I'd love to get a garden there, because a lot of those kids don't eat very well."
Last summer children at the Sense of Wonder Creations summer day camp in Vineyard Haven painted a 4- x 8-foot canvas mural to send to the Vineyard School, which is due to arrive any day now. Since the school's walls are bare, Mr. Alexander said he would also like to buy some additional posters and artwork.
In the meantime, he and his wife keep in touch with Roma, who is almost 19. "She has an e-mail address, so we talk every week," Mr. Alexander said. Although Roma visited the Island a few summers ago, he said it has become more difficult since then to arrange for another visit.
Roma still lives in the area near the Buddhist temple, where there are jobs available in the hotels and restaurants that cater to the tourist traffic. "She has a job as a hostess at one of the restaurants, so the family is not as bad off as they were - they're eating now," Mr. Alexander said.
Although a friend is going with him to Cambodia, Mr. Alexander is disappointed his wife won't be able to go, as well. Ms. Gelinas is a grade 5/6 student teacher at the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School. They planned his trip for her February school vacation so she would be home to care for their two-and-a-half-year-old son Sebastian.
"Maybe in two more years, we'll all go," Mr. Alexander said. "The school will keep itself going no matter what I do, but just because it's so much fun, every once in awhile or every few years, I'm going to do whatever I can do to give extra."
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