Saturday the 1st Waxing Moon of Citta B.E.2561, March 17, A.D.2018 Year of the Rooster

After a 2017, we would like to share our wonderful achievements of all the projects of Life and Hope Association which have been actively operating to solve many problems and needs of the poor, disadvantaged, and vulnerable children as well as young women at risk in various communities of Siem Reap Province, Cambodia.

Our goal is to develop a successful model of change through the Buddhist Wats in Cambodia that offers society’s most disadvantaged people a significantly improved LIFE AND HOPE for a better future, and then to replicate this model in other Wats to bring a transformational change to society. We are strongly committed to using our energy, knowledge, experience, and skills to invest in disadvantaged people and help them break the cycle of ignorance and poverty, bringing them a more comfortable environment for poor children, families, and communities.
Sustainable Community Projects (SCP) – Mr. Lorm Lon, Project Coordinator

The Sustainable Communities Project started in 2006 with the aim to help the most disadvantaged in the community help themselves to improve their lives. We do this through a series of community and social based project.

Many social problems plague our society. Families already stressed by poverty, can feel a sense of hopelessness and frequently fall victim to alcohol abuse, drug addiction, domestic violence, and gambling. Helping people to overcome these problems and offer a helping hand to financial independence has been the pillar of our Sustainable Communities Project. We have learned over the year that continually providing people with charity does not help them to help themselves – people become dependent on handouts and have no motivation to become self-sufficient.

Our strategy is to work with families to help them earn an income by encouraging them to start a small business and providing them with low interest microloans. In extreme cases, we give food support and safe housing to families in desperate need. In turn, the families commit to try to become more self-sufficient, address their social issues (with our support) and send their children to school regularly.

There are now 13 families in our microloan program who have started businesses such as raising pigs, rice farming and processing and a barber shop. Our Program Directors Mr. Van Ratha and Mr. Lorm Lon meet with the families regularly to monitor the business activities, school attendance of the children and to offer advice.

A story of…

Nov Nith is 15 years old, and lives in Sondan village, Peaksnang Commune, Angkor Thorm District. He has 7 sisters and brothers and he is the youngest. His parents died a few years ago. He lives with two single sisters and he is now in grade 9 at Angkor Thorm Junior High School. He is poor and in a difficult situation because four brothers and sisters are already married and have moved away. One older sister is a teacher at Primary school on low wages. Another is still in high school without income.

Nov Nith has selected to receive support from SCP in 2016 with monthly food, a school uniform, and study materials and tools. Due to the poverty, his educational performance was not good resulting in low scores in school.

After SCP provided the support to his family, he has more time to focus on his education and his education quality is getting better and better and he is now always the number 1 in class.

“Unless, I am poor but I do like studying because I wanted to have better and bright future for my life and family and I thank you a lot, SCP for the helpful support to me, without your support I couldn’t be much more focused on my education especially, many thanks Rice For Cambodia Foundation that funded SCP to deliver the support to disadvantaged families and children to improve the educational quality and life.”

Children’s Development Village (CDV) – Mr. Path Soben, Project Coordinator
We have 22 children in the Children Development Village which is located in Peak Sneng, about twenty-five kms north of Angkor Wat.

All the children are thriving, are in good health, are very active and try hard at school. Like all children, some did well, with several children achieving the highest marks in their classes, while some did not perform so well. We have met and discussed with the director of the school to see how we can best assist the children lagging behind. 7 students went on to Junior High School and 3 CDV girls were upgraded to High School and sent to PAGE this year. At the end of 2017, there are only 19 kids including 8 girls.

There is a lot of land at CDV so we have started an agricultural project. Already after 1 year of planting 154 lemon trees we have a plan to sell the fruits for generating income. Now they are well grown and give some flowers and fruits but not much. The new academic year 2017-2018 is already 2 months old and all the kids in CDV are in school in both Primary and Junior High Schools. CDV is grateful for the long and ongoing support from Chance Fuer Kinder of Kambosha and North University Chapel SOCI.

A Story of…

Chat Khunthea is 15 years old and comes from a poor family in the Srey Snom district. In 2012 she was in 5th grade and came to CDV so she could continue her schooling which her family could not afford. Kunthea is a good student – she always passed her examination and had a good score. Now, she passed her examination to upgrade from Junior High School to High School and also alreadywas sent to PAGE for her high school education. She is not only good at general subjects but also the English Language. She passed the text of general English Program at Paññāsāstra University-PUC at the level Beginner and already attended this program. In the future, Kunthea wants to be a businesswoman to generate an income to help the family and share some of the profits to help others in her community, especially to support the poor boys and girls in the rural remote areas to get the education.

“I like reading and writing very much and I like speaking English because I want to improve my English skill for my future career and help my family”.
Program Advancing Girl’s Education (PAGE) – Mrs. Srey Sereiratha, Project Coordinator

The primary goal of PAGE is to provide young girls access to education and an opportunity to improve their lives, the lives of their family and have hope for their future. PAGE provides a sanctuary for girls who wish to continue their education through high school and beyond but do not have an opportunity to do so due to their families’ social and economic situation.

We currently have 36 students. The PAGE Residential Campus is located at Chreav Village, around 3.5 kilometers from Siem Reap town center. They all attend Angkor High School in Siem Reap. 7 students are attending the general English Program at PUC beside that joint the English Program in PAGE. At PAGE, they not only get an education but also have the opportunities to take apart on social engagement programs such Environment Cleaning, Youth and Rubbish, Cam Reading, Short Courses Training, Workshop, and others.

The girls have worked very hard this year with 11 girls achieving 1st to 5th place in their class. We have had a dedicated English teacher, Mr. Chen Sonet providing after-school classes 5 evenings a week for students at elementary and beginner’s level while those in the higher levels attend English classes at Paññasastra University.

Out of our last group of school leavers, 3 went on to study at university, 4 went on to Primary Teaching, and 2 to work in private companies to generate money to help their family. 10 former PAGE Students completely and successfully graduated from their bachelor degree in different fields.

The Story of…

Pisey is 24 years old from Yeang Village, Rerseylok Commune, Chikreng district. She was recruited to PAGE in 2011 when she applied for Sewing Skill Training after dropping out of school in grade 9. Her family was dysfunctional, her father an unemployed alcoholic.

The family had no land for building a house and their small hut was built on neighbouring land. Her mother made some money by selling Khmer cakes. Two younger brothers had no education and two younger sisters were in Primary school. Due to poverty and domestic violence, Pisey’s situation was hopeless. After LHA recruited her to PAGE, her family started to change, her father stopped drinking alcohol, found a job, and the domestic violence stopped. The family could earn money to buy the land, building a big new house, and buying a car. The two younger sisters finished their high school, and the family members are now living happily and harmoniously.

Pisey has successfully finished her high school in 2013. After that, she moved to University at the same time as volunteering as the cooker at Children Development Village-CDV, LHA project and she completely graduated with a bachelor degree in 2017 in an Accounting Major at Build Bright University, Siem Reap Campus. She was warmly congratulated by her parents, PAGE students, and the LHA team.
“I am so delighted and proud that I could be a one who selected to be a PAGE student. PAGE is my new hope, PAGE changed my family, my life, and my future I could not be like today if there has not PAGE. I would like to say thank you a lot PAGE , LHA, donors, and people who involved in PAGE that you are hard working to serve the girls to improve the quality of life and to meet the greater change. I am the one who takes benefit of this projects and my life and family are totally and already changed. I wish you all success in your life.”
Park Hyatt Siem Reap & LHA Sewing School (STS)

The LHA Sewing School started in 2006 with the generous funding of the Park Hyatt Hotel Siem Reap. PLS continues to provide vocational training to young, disadvantaged Cambodian women from rural communities. Our last promotion of 25 students graduated in December 2016. Out of which 4 students’ returned home to help their family by opening home businesses, and the rest have been working in Siem Reap.

PLS has started the 13th promotion of vocational training in May with 20 young and disadvantaged Cambodian women and girls from various communities such as Oudor Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap Provinces. It’s taken 8 months to complete the promotion successfully. At the end of the promotion, 18 students were employed by sewing shops around Siem Reap City with fair wages, and one student is willing to start her own business in her hometown.

Besides learning skills in school, all students took on an internship at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap Hotel during the course to learn how to work and how to serve people such as business men or women. We previously rented a house but we have now built a new accommodation wing at PAGE to accommodate our sewing students. Both groups of girls have an opportunity to engage more closely, get to know one another, share experiences, learn from each other and have fun together. Apart from learning to sew, the students also attend a short training in health, child care, and law at the Women’s Resource Centre.

On the other hand, they had the opportunities to engage in social activities such as the city cleaning program which was organised by provincial hall, the Youth and Rubbish Project organised NGO partners, and Moral Retreat at Angkor Wat organised by Siem Reap City’s Head Monk. Furthermore, they also learnt the morality(ethics) and the concept of how to start a business, in particular, they received an orientation in how to work productively and effectively with the current movements of modern society to improve their lives.

Last but not least, a graduation celebration was held to congratulate their achievement and completion of the skill training with one new machine for each student. In attendance were local authorities, Wat representatives, shop-owners, Park Hyatt GM and his workers, monks, and LHA staff in a pleasant and memorable event.

Buddhism in Society Program (BSP) – Venerable Chorm Mao, Project Coordinator

The BSP is at the heart of Wat Damnak and LHA’s core philosophy of delivering lasting and meaningful change to individuals and communities.
The objective of BSP is to strengthen the role of Buddhist leadership, revitalise the role of Buddhism in community engagement and promotion of civil society in Cambodia. BSP offers several activities to reinvigorate monastic leadership and community involvement in social and spiritual issues. We also offer a Tertiary educational scholarship to Monks and provide social support mainly through our Peace House project where we identify families at risk and raise money to build a house for them utilise volunteers from the local community. Our scholarship monks try to take an active part in the building process.

Our key projects and achievements are:

Monks Scholarships: we have 16 monks studying a variety of courses and 5 were graduated their bachelor degree.
Peace House: So far we have built 128 Peace Houses in various communities of Siem Reap. In 2017, we built 12 houses which from the house No.116 to 128.
Communication with Communities: BSP continues to broadcast a daily radio programme where they discuss Buddhism and other topics centred around community and social affairs.
Spiritual Teaching: The monks also conduct monthly spiritual education to more than 300 students of the Siem Reap Teacher Training College and twice a month at the provincial prison with about 50 to 150 prisoners. Our monks in the scholarship programme also provide Spiritual education to the primary school, English and basic computer classes at Wat Damnak Learning Center and spiritual teaching and English classes to the Sewing Training School students.
“I want all Khmer people to have consciousness about our culture of sharing which provides happiness and harmony to one another, and reduce our greed to be always rich while million others are struggling with poverty.”

“I happily volunteer in LHA as I could help the society as well as the association.” Ven. Chorm Mao, MA in Buddhism, India.

In conclusion, we continue our work to benefit our communities, especially poor and vulnerable adults and children, with a strong focus on young women at risk. We help them to step into a new and improved way of life by means of compassionate love, care and an opportunity for education. Many people continue to be positively impacted by our programmes and their lives have been changed for the better. We are strongly committed to continuing our work and concentrate more and more on helping communities in need in the future.

On behalf of everyone at LHA, I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to all our friends,volunteers, partners, donors and sponsors who have always given us such amazing and generous support to ensure our work can continue to help those most in need, to improve their lives, gain some stability, peace, and happiness .I wish you all success.

With peace and love,

Venerable Lorm Loeurm
Executive Director | Life and Hope Association | Wat Damnak | Siem Reap | Cambodia

Address: Wat Damnak (Damnak monastery), SangkatSalakomreuk, Siem Reap, Cambodia,
Office phone: (855-0) 63 761 810 | Cell: +855 92/16 206 877
Email: Executive Director: lifeandhopeangkor@gmail.com

Website: www.lifeandhopeangkor.org