Wednesday 23 April 2014

Goodwill Centre

Goodwill Centre

The centres main purpose is to teach classes in English and Computers as well as Khmer literacy classes, the latter to supplement their State based education (a couple hours a day).
Toni, catching up with the IT teacher, discussing the recent employment success  of one of the students
at a printing house doing design

It also does a great job as a safe place for local children to play and to allow the parents peace of mind while they work especially as formal schooling is only a couple hours a day (either morning or afternoon) and of course the locals have no money for toys etc so the kids have access to puzzles and games etc as well as art and crafts.

One of the projects Toni had implemented when working at the Centre was English classes for the younger children.  We fund these classes with your donations, so she was keen to catch up with the teacher, Sambath, to see how things were going.

Toni talking to the English class

Craft

Nymboida local, Kim Lavery donated a box of crafts to take over. As an added bonus, the high quality craft items aren't available in Cambodia so the kids and the staff were incredibly excited.  A huge thank you to Kim !

Toni doing craft with the kids

Hard at it !

Moi, bee, bay ! (Khmer for 1, 2 3), strike a pose !

Plenty of craft items were left behind, with Toni passing instructions on to the staff showing how they could be used

Soap

The Centre has a set up a small business making soap,  This allows some of the local Mums a chance to earn a small income as well as allowing them time together to socialise and catch up.  We had organised to buy 50 soaps and they had just finished them when we were there.

We have these for sale at the local Nymboida Markets if any one wants one !  All the money from the sale goes back to the donations account.

Soap Ladies working hard


Soaps finished and awaiting packaging




Wednesday 16 April 2014

Clothing Donations

Clothing Donations

We were inspired by our friends in Ireland, Ciaran and Audrey, and asked our local community to donate clothes for us to take to Cambodia.  Logistically it was quite simple. We paid a little more for extra luggage and booked a taxi directly from the Phnom Penh Airport to our accommodation in Sihanoukville, all paid from our own pocket not the donations. We had close to 50kg in clothing from locals in Nymboida and Grafton. We were overwhelmed. Thank you all so much but the biggest thanks come from the kids around the Goodwill Centre in Sihanoukville.

The Goodwill Centre does an awesome job and we were so happy to revisit and keep supporting them. They rolled out the welcome matt and it seemed we had never left

Sign on the Centre's wall !

Working with our friend, Jen, we laid the donated clothes out while the staff were minding the children.
Toni and Centre Manager, Jen

more clothes...

Staff and children swooped in !
L - R: Jen, Kolab and Toni trying clothes on with the kids

Local Mum's in on the action (ex Centre manager Sabine dropped in as well)

The clothes were snapped up in a flash.

We know they were appreciated, thank you to all who helped with their kind donations.

Local kids modelling the donated clothes
Local kids modelling the donated clothes

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Stueng Hav

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Steung Hav

We hit the ground running. The first day after our arrival we visited Steung Hau, a smaller coastal town outside of Sihanoukville. Sabine, our wonderful friend from Germany who is one of the main drivers behind an educational initiative in Steung Hav, arranged the visit. Long time readers may remember we gave a donation to fund the construction of  the main schools all-weather shelter, this could only happen due to your generous donations. It's long been finished but this was our first opportunity to view it.

The shelter allows the children to play outside during the long monsoon season where the center's yard turns to mud.

All weather shelter


The center is deigned to supplement the Khmer State School curriculum, with access to computers for computer classes

Computer Room

and more english lessons as well as a facility the community can use (library etc).

Village 

We also managed to take a tour around the school and village itself to see how the locals live, the photo slideshow below is probably better at telling that story.



English Classes

While there, we had the opportunity to visit the night English classes. Thi is an initiative where they have taken the schools to the children. They have several of these classrooms scattered through the outer areas of Steung Hav. The German charitable organisation running the project, led by Sabine is doing an incredible job, as are the local Khmer staff.

Typical under house village English class

and another
English lesson

You can read more about the great work being done at Steung Hav by Sabine and friends here