AUGUST TWENTY TWENTY TWO

Welcome to August. 

Eight months into the year now and what a busy one it’s been.

Huge thank you to all my friends, family and support crew for your encouragement and support to me over this last eight months, we have achieved a lot together. Here is a summary of the three areas that we’ve been concentrating on to give you an idea what you have all been part of.

Community
We’ve been out to the province three times over the last few months concentrating on providing school supplies to the underprivileged provincial children. These children turn up to school without any books or uniforms and their families are unable to give them the basic needs for school. They are so so poor. The Aroha Project was initially approached to help about 20 of the most desperate families so the first month we provided 20 packets of school supplies, the second month we were able to provide 35 and last month we did 60 backpacks full of school supplies – inclusive of a backpack for each child, books, pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste and water bottles.

It's been so encouraging to see everybody jumping on board with this. $20 for a backpack full of school and hygiene supplies! Special thanks to LifePlus and Edge Kingsland whanau and my many friends that pitched in to help make this happen. What an awesome gift to give to children allowing them the feeling of going to school the same as the other kids and being able to study for the future. Hopefully we can do this as an ongoing venture - so if you have a spare $20 a month and you’d like to support this community outreach it’s such a great opportunity to bless a child.

A comment the school principal wrote after we visited, "today is a happy day for our students because we receive school supplies and most of our children have never had even a book to come to school we’re so grateful to the Aroha Project for helping make this happen and we hope you can come back again and help us with the rest of the children” (no pressure 😊)

Over the last few days we have been helping a family devastated by the deaths of a young mother and her baby who died during childbirth leaving her other child, a one year old, orphaned. The father left for Thailand after she fell pregnant, not wanting either child. She was the sister of one of the boys I look after up here so we’ve been able to come alongside as a Project and raise some funds to bring support to this devastated family. We were able to pay for her funeral and have enough to provide some essentials for the young baby for possibly a few months. He is now with his Yay (Grandma) and they will find a place for him to live as she is too old to care for him indefinitely.

We have provided another two bicycles to students and also paid for two operations one that was a life-threatening situation and an urgent appeal from the Pastor here.

Scholarships
Up to now our Project has concentrated mainly on university scholarships however since Covid affected the planet there’s developed a huge need for students in the year 11 and 12 age group to get educated and up to speed to pass their exams to enable them the opportunity to then go onto university. We have decided to broaden the net as a project and provide for year 11 and 12 students that need help in the form of extra classes. Tuition. I think I’ve shared previously in other newsletters that students receive basic education at school but anything worth learning they have to pay for after school hours in private tutoring or group tutoring. If they can’t afford to do those classes they miss the crucial elements of the study hence failing year 12. This then excludes them from university entrance.

If you look below we have selected six students that desperately need support to continue their studies. They are from very poor families but they’re desperate to study and have made a commitment to stay in school if they can find some financial support. Without support they will drop out of school and will have to work to provide for their families (would be such a shame as they are all very bright and are extremely keen to stay at school).

Now is your chance!!!
Have you ever wanted to sponsor a child??
What if you could change a future for under $80 a month?

AUD$70 or NZD$80 a month will provide for one student to attend 6 extra classes per week in all core subjects.

I’m asking you to consider as a group, an individual or as a business if you could partner with us? We urgently need six sponsors. Can you help?

Our scholarship students are doing really well. Two of them are in the last six months of study now and will graduate at the end of the year all going well. They have been held back a bit by Covid but mostly they’re doing great. Our English classes are a hit too. We have full attendance most nights now teaching 2 to 3 times a week. The students are very receptive and very excited about coming (not sure if its for the food or my amazing teaching skills 😊) and have definitely improved over the last few months of attending class. I joke with my family that I’m like ‘Miranda’ swatting just before they arrive trying to catch up on my past, present and future tenses to present simple grammar and all the other things that come with teaching English. I’m so not a teacher but we have a lot of fun and if all else fails we play charades!

Our little Shop has been doing quite well in the last month or two. We just hope to keep building it up again as tourists and travellers arrive back to Cambodia. The business gives the students an opportunity to earn income, learn about business and also give back to the Project.

I know sometimes the news here isn’t hugely exciting or life altering for most people and I know we are not achieving things in grand numbers but I really feel the consistent giving and the consistent outpouring is the key to making a difference in the lives of Cambodians.

As a Project and as an individual I hope;

- we can continue to bless people through you all
- we can rescue some of the ones that really have no hope
- we can improve peoples lives
- we can encourage students to stay in school/ universities and be better educated to have a chance in their future
- we can bring joy to the people around us
- we can bring all kinds of education opportunities to those who most need it

Mostly I hope I can make you all proud of all we’re doing here together.

FINANCIAL INFO.

For those of you who would love to  partner with us financially –no gift is too small! Whether through offering a scholarship for a student or for general support here are the details:

To claim donation tax (through GDG) in the USA, Australia or New Zealand click here. You can set up a one off, monthly or yearly payment towards a project goal of your interest.

Alternatively, pop your money in any one of these accounts and it all goes directly to the Aroha Project.

Australia ANZ Direct Deposit: WILSON 016141 299685840
NZ ANZ Direct Deposit: WILSON 06 0383 0164749 04
Direct Deposit: Edge | 03 0155 0451009-000 and reference 'arohaproject'

Thank you for everything
Poet Mary Oliver in her ‘instructions for living a life’ encourages us to:

‘Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it’

(borrowed reference from my friend)

Life is short, love what you do. 
Thank you for your love and prayers, 

Arohanui, Annie.