Newsletter

AUGUST 2017

Hello to all our friends and supporters.

I have recently returned from Cambodia and am delighted with the progress being made in all our programs.

We are thrilled with the results of our high school students boarding at our city Education Centre in Siem Reap – some just completed year 10 and another group completed Year 11.

All of them have done really well, three of them coming in the first four in their class.  They are competing with city educated students many of whose parents fund expensive extra coaching classes for them.  So we are very proud of our kids who are from unbelievably impoverished backgrounds, have worked so hard, and made the most of the opportunities we have been able to provide them.

Our Year 9s have all passed the national exam to enter high school (years 10-12) which is a great result.

piano playing - Copy

guitar player

A generous friend has raised funds to buy some musical instruments for these older students and they are loving learning to play.

It has been a very busy couple of months at our rural Centre.

In July we had a visit from Dr. David Bailey and his medical team from Australia.  They set up two clinics – one in our Centre and one in our pre-school which is about 5kms away.  They examined and treated some 700 members of our communities and of course our students.  We are very grateful for the wonderful service they provide.

David Bailey visit

We had a visit from Nowra Anglican College students also in July – they really enjoyed their time visiting all three of our Centres.  The road to our pre-school has now deteriorated so badly that we cannot get a vehicle through in the wet season, so the students had to hitch a ride in some boats owned by villagers.  A bit of unexpected fun!

We look forward to building a closer relationship with Nowra College.

Nowra Students visit

The students enjoy their time with our pre-schoolers.

Nowra College visit

It has been the season for workshops!

Our older girls attended a two day workshop on reproductive health run by the Women’s Resource Centre in Siem Reap. It’s a very good program which the girls really enjoyed.

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Repro health wshop - Copy

Our indefatigable GM, Chheng, found time to attend a workshop on Sustainability for NGO’s.  His words – great value!  Sustainability is certainly the buzzword in the NGO sector at the moment.

Sustainability wshop

American Peacecorps International Volunteers provided a workshop on food security which several of our staff attended.  We are planning vegetable gardens in the grounds of our pre-school, to give nourishing supplements to the food we provide for our pre-schoolers.

Food security training

The little ones at our pre-school are aged 3 to 5.  After their first year with us the older ones will go to kindergarten at the local school in October.  They love decorating our simple class room but the effect doesn’t last long!!

pre school

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Our animal raising project is progressing well, although not helped by the government importing cheap pork from Vietnam and lowering the market price of our breeders’ pigs!

pig raising - Copy

Once again – a big thank you to all our generous donors.

If you are not already a donor please consider making a donation or sponsoring a child.  GIVE NOW

Any donation you make will go directly to support our students.  All administrative, travel and fundraising costs are privately funded.

If you wish to support our community development program (animal raising and community health) you can indicate this in the special message box if you are donating through the GIVE NOW page of our website.

Carolyn Fletcher AM
Founder and Executive Director

www.opportunitycambodia.org.au

We are promoting our beautiful Pierro wine specially bottled for Opportunity Cambodia.  All sale proceeds go to support our programs.  To buy a case click here Cellarone

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for the latest news.

DECEMBER 2015 – Happy Christmas from Opportunity Cambodia

Buy wine and help educate our children

I want to start this newsletter by thanking all our wonderful, generous donors – those who support our education program, and those who support our community development program.

You really are helping to transform the lives of seriously disadvantaged children and their communities.

We are now coming to the end of another eventful year at Opportunity Cambodia’s Education Centre.  It is wonderful to be able to report again that our students are healthy and doing well at school.

We are very proud of all our primary school students and special congratulations to those who received prizes for academic achievement at the end of the school year.

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Last month our oldest group of students became the first young people from our Commune to go to High School (years 10-12) in Siem Reap.  Teaching in rural areas like ours is really substandard and we felt that these able and ambitious students would not be able to compete with city students for places at college/university if we were not able to support them at High School in Siem Reap.

This is an expensive initiative but we believe we are educating future leaders in their chosen fields, leaders Cambodia sorely needs.

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The photo above shows our rented premises.  We have now hired staff  and the students are settling in happily to life and school in Siem Reap.

Before we moved into our Siem Reap home we held the traditional blessing ceremony which takes place when a new house is built or new occupants move into an existing dwelling.

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Some of our older children have recently taken part in a leadership training program in Siem Reap.  This program is run by Michelle Morin of Possibilities World and our students always enjoy and benefit greatly from the program.

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Our volley ballers go from strength to strength under Chheng’s tuition, as do our soccer players.  It is great to see the children’s skills and confidence developing and their excitement when they challenge some of the city teams!

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The rainy season has flooded Preah Kok village again.  However it has also delivered much needed water to fill the reservoir we have recently built in this impoverished village from which many of our children come.  This initiative, together with supply of filters, will provide clean drinking water all year round for this community for the first time.

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I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a joyful New Year

Many many thanks  again for your interest and support

Carolyn Fletcher
Founder and Executive Director

Please help us to continue our successful programs by going to our website donate page GIVE NOW

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for the latest news.

Please go to Travel Giver to book your travel and ensure a percentage of your costs will go to Opportunity Cambodia.

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