Hello to all our generous supporters and friends.

Due to Covid 19 this communication is in the form of a brief report on our tertiary scholarship program.rather than our usual half yearly newsletter. I haven’t been able to travel to Cambodia and our students are still not able to return to university and school. I speak regularly to our General Manager and to our students.

Over the last 18 months our focus has been on enabling students from very poor rural villages to go to high school and university or tertiary vocational training..
I thought I would let you know how this exciting program is going. Of course I haven’t been able to travel to Cambodia but I am in weekly contact with our General Manager and our students.

Comparatively few rural students have the opportunity to go to high school and tertiary education. So we have set up our Tertiary Scholarship Fund and developed a support program to enable our scholarship students to live safely in the city, and to go to university or college.

Our Education Centre in Siem Reap provides a safe home and a strong support base.
Some of our students have been with us since primary school. Others have joined us through our Tertiary Scholarship program.

All of our students are young people from very poor families who live in traditional rural districts. So it has been a really big adjustment for them to live and study in the city. They have all made the transition very well and we are really proud of them. They are studying a wide range of courses – teaching, law, nursing, accounting, engineering, hospitality, international relations, finance and banking. Our students have worked hard and all have passed their annual exams.

Given their backgrounds we recognise that these young people need a lot of support in the first couple of years of study, and we aim to provide that support through a program of extra curricula activities, and mentoring.
Extra curricula activities include life skills workshops, leadership training, extra English coaching, and our household management program at our Centre where students learn to shop, cook, handle a weekly budget etc.

A very important and successful initiative is our part-time work program. The students have part-time jobs, for example in hospitality, in NGOs, as a teacher’s aid, assistant to a social worker etc.
They are really enjoying the experience and learning so much – about communication, time management, team work, and their English is improving greatly.

Students enjoy an English class with our American volunteer teacher.
Unfortunately the Corona virus has led to the closure of schools and universities, and most of the employment the students have had, so it has been rather frustrating for them. However we expect university and schools to open again later this month.

It is impossible to know the true state of the virus in Cambodia – we cannot rely on any of the figures published, but staff and students have completed training on how to look after themselves and each other in this difficult time, and so far so good. Unfortunately Corona does mean that I cannot make my usual visits to our project in Cambodia.

Thank you again for your interest in and support of Opportunity Cambodia.

Carolyn Fletcher
Founder and Director

Please consider donating to our successful Tertiary Scholarship Fund. DONATE

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

There is lots of news after my recent visit to Cambodia.

Our high school students are very excited about our new home – we signed the lease on a bigger building very close to our former Centre in Siem Reap. This will enable us to support more rural high school students and also our university students.

We would love you to help us furnish our new building. DONATE

If you wish put ‘new home’ in comments box

Before moving in, the monks from our local Pagoda performed the traditional blessing ceremony. A big group of students’ and their families, all our staff, and local community leaders joined the ceremony. Cambodians love a party and we certainly had one after the blessing!

Rob and Essie Sullivan joined the Blessing

Plenty of hard work is taking place to paint our new home, and to prepare and plant a vegetable garden at the back of the property.

Our high schoolers are continuing to work hard and later this year we expect to have our first university entrants which is very exciting. We are proposing to launch a Tertiary Scholars Program to help support our students at university. I will be writing to you about this program in the near future, as we will be seeking funds to support this initiative.

We are conducting a series of careers talks by local professionals to help our high school students better understand the career opportunities available with a tertiary qualification.

Our dear friends, Don and Jan Mottinger, have been with us again. Jan is a fantastic English teacher and has really helped our high schoolers to improve their skills. Don has been delivering some lectures at the University – pleasantly surprised by the level of competence of the students.

Don and Jan with some of our high school students.

Down in the country at our rural education centre all is progressing well. Jan was able to spend time with our primary and secondary students which they loved.

Extra-curricula art classes are one of the highlights of the week.

At our pre-school we have a wonderful new teacher and the little ones are really responding.

Aided by a small grant from the US Peace Corps we have built an extensive vegetable garden to provide fresh food for our pre-schoolers and their families. Preparing and planting was a real community effort.

Making rice husk charcoal for compost

Cooling off when the hard work is done.

Our pre-schoolers love helping in the vegie garden.

The vegies and herbs go into the delicious breakfast we provide the children each day!

We are also growing fruit.

The pre-schoolers and their parents enjoy training in basic hygiene and nutrition.

How to clean your teeth!

A very big thank you to all our generous donors. It is no exaggeration to say that your support is helping to transform lives.

Carolyn Fletcher
Founder

Please help us to continue our successful programs by going to our website donate page GIVE NOW
Remember every cent of your donation goes to the education and welfare of the children in Cambodia. Costs of admin, fund raising etc are privately and separately funded.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

Opportunity Cambodia wishes all our generous donors and friends

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL YEAR IN 2018 

We are finishing our year on a high note with all our programs on course and producing great results:

The first year of our pre-school program has proved really successful and we now have the first group of 6 year olds starting at the local primary school.

The family income support program is also delivering results – in the form of piglets in surprising numbers!

Our Primary and Secondary school support program – our original project started 10 years ago – continues to enable children living in extreme poverty to gain an education and training.

Our high school program is enabling able students from our primary/secondary program to advance to high school and vocational training in Siem Reap.

Pre-school program: 

This year three primary schools in Sydney – Concord Primary, Mortlake Primary and Marie Bashir Primary – have joined together to fundraise and support our pre-school program. The schools have been really inventive in their fundraising efforts, and they see this relationship as a wonderful way for their pupils to learn about Cambodia and at the same time help less fortunate children.

We thank the staff and pupils of these schools for their support, and we look forward to growing our association in 2018.

Primary/secondary program
We have recently been informed that our commune of 14 villages will be expanded, taking in 2 of the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake. It is quite a long but beautiful trip by boat across the vast lake to the villages.

We are accepting a number of children from the villages. They will be need to be weekly boarders at our rural Centre.

These children work on and around the boats from a very young age and usually don’t attend school for more than a few years, if at all.

High school program: 

In Siem Reap our high school program is producing some outstanding results.

We are tremendously proud of our Year 11s – Srei Penh top of her class of 25 students, Seng Heul 2nd in the class and Nasee 6th. They are competing with city students who have had a much superior education throughout primary and secondary school.

Unfortunately we have really outgrown our rented building in Siem Reap as we now have over 20 of our students in high school. We want to enable more rural students to attend high school in the city so we are searching for a bigger building to rent. We would like to build a new boarding centre for the longer term. This will be a financial challenge!

This Christmas you might like to make a donation towards the high school education of our disadvantaged rural students.

DONATE

Besides going to school our highschoolers have the opportunity for lots of extra curricula activities.

Leadership training workshop below – our older students just love the workshops with the opportunity for creative thinking, exchange of ideas, and meeting other students.

Some of our high school students attend a vocational training familiarisation at the Victoria Hotel in Siem Reap. Training in hospitality is a popular choice for school leavers.

Our family support program: 

Sadly the rainy season has once again left a trail of damage.

Despite efforts to repair it before the rainy season our road has fared badly.

Some of our families spend much of the rainy season surrounded by water – very unhealthy!

When the rain stops we are planning to put in a drainage system to mitigate the worst of the flooding in this community.

The families are doing very well with their pig breeding program – despite the floods this pig has 14 healthy piglets which we managed to move to higher ground.

As the year draws to a close I want to thank all of you who have supported Opportunity Cambodia in some way this year – our donors and our volunteers.

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.

HAVE A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS 

Carolyn Fletcher AM
Founder and Executive Director

The last of our beautiful Pierro wine has been reduced to $250 for a case of 12 bottles.

If you would like to buy some wine please email Carolyn Fletcher and she will organise payment and delivery – carfletcher.c@gmail.com

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

This is our first newsletter in 2017 and I want to start by extending heartfelt thanks to our wonderful donors without whom we could not enable so many disadvantaged rural children to gain an education.

However unfortunately the fundraising task is never finished, and this year we have launched a fund raising drive to support our High School Centre in Siem Reap.

The Centre was opened in September 2015.  Our objective is to enable our older students, who wish to finish high school (grades 10-12) and continue on to university or quality vocational training, to attend high school in the city.

We are very keen to extend this program to more students from our rural commune.

If you would like to support this transformative program please CLICK HERE.
Our Siem Reap Centre provides a safe and supportive environment for the students and ensures they have all they need for school – fees, uniforms, bicycles, books, extra tuition – and plenty of nutritious food!

The standard of education in rural areas is poor.
We recognise that if our students are to have a chance of competing against city educated students for places at college and university they really do need to complete grades 10-12 in the city.
So far our girls and boys have adjusted really well to life in the city and are doing remarkably well at school.

It has been a busy start to the year with alot of activity in the village where our community development program is focused.

The best news is that our new pre-school is now open.
The building is very simple colourful and fun, with a playground and the first toilets in the village.

And here are our first little pre-schoolers

We are very pleased with the success so far of our animal raising project.  The families have really benefited from all the training they have had and are thrilled with their ability to raise, breed and sell their animals.

And here are some of the happy pig growers

Learning how to make food for their pigs

Back in our education centres English classes are progressing well – return visitors have commented on the very real progress the children are making and how proud they are of their skills.

Our older students in Siem Reap are not only studying hard, but also playing in the local football tournaments.
Here is our girls team with some of their opponents – they are all great friends and really enjoy the spirited competition.

Our city students are also enjoying vocational guidance trips to prospective employers.  Here some of them are visiting Sala Bai which is one of the best hospitality training organisations in Siem Reap.

As you can see we are off to a good start in 2017.

Once again I would like to thank our donors for their fantastic support.

I also wish to encourage others to consider making a donation or sponsoring a child.
It is a good time to remind our readers that 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 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

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

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.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

And thank you to all of you who have supported our project and helped to make possible a very full and successful year.

Our main fundraiser this year is the sale of Pierro wine especially bottled for Opportunity Cambodia.  It is a beautiful summer wine and we have discounted it for Christmas.
Ordering is easy – just click here Cellarone

So much has been achieved since our last newsletter.
Our younger students who attend our rural Centre have all advanced another grade and are doing well at school.

Our first students to go to high school (years 10-12) in Siem Reap all passed their Year 10 exams – a terrific achievement.  I am so proud of them. Despite very poor teaching in their rural school they have made the transition to life and school in the city with courage and determination.  We have gone to great lengths to provide our rural children with quality extra tuition, especially in English and computers, and this seems to have really paid off.

Some of the next group to start high school in Siem Reap

We have just accepted another group of students under our secondary school scholarship program.  This program provides support for students who have completed primary school, and are keen to continue to secondary school, but whose families cannot support their education any longer.

We have had a wonderful American couple, Don and Jan Mottinger visit us.  Jan did some special English teaching with the children and they just loved her different approach.
Don set about renovating the old kitchen in our Siem Reap Centre – photos next newsletter!

Jan gets rapt attention from our younger boys and girls

Down in our rural commune we have nearly finished the building for our early childhood and maternal education program.  It is situated in the very poor village where a number of our students’ families live.

A Malaysian government volunteer program has funded and built the pre-school.  I expected they would send a team of 10 or so volunteers and was amazed to find 54 young Malaysian volunteers slaving away in the heat on the building site.  Despite  the trucks bringing in supplies getting bogged on our terrible access road they are doing a fantastic job and expect to be finished mid-December.

Almost finished!

Toilet block

We have installed three toilets – the first sanitation in this community.

Opportunity Cambodia’s  primary objective is to enable poor and disadvantaged rural children to gain an education.  However we are undertaking development work in the communities where our students’ families live, funded by specific purpose donations.

We have been working with Water for Cambodia to supply 100 water filters to families in our Commune.  This is such an important initiative as few families have access to clean drinking water.

Loading water filters to distribute to families

Our pilot project to enable women in the community to earn income to help support their families is underway.  The women have been trained in raising pigs and the project is going well.  If it is successful we plan to expand it to more families and also to introduce chicken raising.
This project is being funded by Lee Anderson.

Water Festival time again. The festival lasts for three days, and commemorates the end of the country’s rainy season,[1] as well as the reversal of flow of the Tonle Sap River.  It is second only to Khmer New Year in importance for the Cambodian   people.  It is great fun with spectacular boat races on the River, fireworks, and general celebration.  Our Siem Reap students had a great time – especially dinner out after the races!

Once again, my sincere thanks to all our supporters – it has been a really successful year for all our programs and we simply couldn’t do it without your support.

I wish you a very happy Christmas and a wonderful year in 2017.

Carolyn Fletcher
Founder and Executive Director

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

BUY WINE

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.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

GIVE NOW

Hello to our wonderful friends and supporters – some more news from Cambodia!

The school year has finished and of course we had a party to celebrate – especially as a number of our students received prizes.  Our boys played a volley ball match with teams a mix of our kids and boys from our local community.

The good news is that the first group of our students to go to high school in Siem Reap have all passed their grade 10 exams.  This is such a great result for kids who have lived all their lives in a small very traditional rural village with all its disadvantages and limitations.  We are so proud of them.

Some of our newest group of High School students

The next group from our rural Centre have just arrived at our Siem Reap Centre to start their high school years. They are all so excited.   Hard to believe that children who started in our rural program in Grade 1 all those years ago are now entering Grade 10 and working towards careers in teaching, nursing, medicine…..

Early morning and it’s off to high school by bike.

Another group of our Grade 10s recently had a wonderful experience at Leadership Camp – learning alot, having fun and now putting some of the skills learnt into practice as they take more responsibility for managing their daily lives at our Siem Reap Centre.

The older kids have also been doing communications skills training with Possibilities World.

Meanwhile at our rural Centre the younger kids are loving their English and Art classes.  Great excitement when boxes of English language books from donors arrive.

And we have a number of budding young artists.

Another exciting new initiative – we have commenced a pilot project raising pigs and ducks, designed to assist some of our very impoverished families to earn some income.  After intensive training the 10 families selected for the pilot are now fattening up their pigs.  We are planning to extend the project to more families once successful results of the pilot program are confirmed.

Training to be a pig farmer!

Staking out the pig pens

The pigs are growing fast!

We are very excited – we have finally raised the necessary funds and will start building our pre-school in November.

Our grateful thanks to all of you who are supporting our goal of enabling desperately poor children to gain an education – it truly transforms their lives.

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.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

Hello again to our donors and friends.  I want to give a special thank you to our wonderful donors who have supported us during this last financial year.  You have made possible  a number of exciting initiatives during the year which you will have read about in previous newsletters.

Our main fundraiser this year is the sale of beautiful Pierro wine which has been donated to us.  This is a great opportunity to buy fine wine and support the education of seriously disadvantage children.  The new order process is very easy- just click on this link to Cellarone
or email carfletcher.c@gmail.com and I will arrange your purchase.

Good news – the rainy season has started – so essential for Cambodia’s main crop, not to mention our vegie garden.

As usual there is lots happening at our rural education Centre and our new high school Centre in Siem Reap.  A number of our older students have been attending a leadership training course which culminated in a camp which all agreed was a fantastic experience.

We have just conducted a training course on communication for staff and children at our rural Centre which has really made a positive difference within the Centre.

Khmer  New Year was celebrated with a party and fun and games before the children departed to spend time with their families.

The commencement of the rainy season is a time for replanting our vegetable garden. The garden continues to be amazingly productive and the children love picking their own produce and watching our cook turn it into delicious meals.

Training for our animal husbandry project has started.  The aim of the pilot program is to test the viability of raising ducks and pigs as a means of enabling some of our poorest families to make an income.

Thank you once again for your interest and support.  You really are helping to transform the lives of these seriously disadvantaged children and their communities.

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.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /

Hello again to all our supporters and friends.

I begin with a reminder that our main fundraiser for this year is the sale of wine donated by Pierro Vineyards in Western Australia.  This is a great opportunity to buy premium wine and help educate the seriously disadvantaged children at our Centre.

Buy wine and help educate our children

There’s lots happening at our Children’s Education Centre.  A generous donor has enabled us to run an art program with a visiting artist from Siem Reap.  The children are loving the classes and I think we have some budding young artists!

Our English classes are going really well now that we have a full time teacher.  Phearom has trained a couple of our older children, who want to be teachers, to teach some of the basics and help our youngest children with their homework.  This has proved a great success and our ‘student teachers’ are really benefiting from the experience!

Hygiene and dental care classes are fun and an important part of our programme.

Another year another Puppet Parade!  The children love the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Siem Reap, meet children from other NGOs and engage in a really creative experience

Our new Centre in Siem Reap, for our high school students and those doing vocational training, is proving very successful.  An unintended highlight is the open air roof top space where a cool evening breeze makes it a popular spot for our English classes.

Some of our oldest boys are now attending vocational training in Siem Reap.  Choy, pictured here is planning to start a motorcycle repair business in our Commune when he completes the course.

Thanks to our sports coach our football teams are now competing in Siem Reap, the cheer squad are just as enthusiastic.

They all love a cool off in the lake after the match

This year we want to raise funds to provide an early learning centre in one of our poorest communities.

Some of our prospective pupils – without our support they will not be able to go to school.

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.

Nick Fletcher / Uncategorized /