We're back!
After the Khmer New Year holiday, ABCs is back in school and raring to go! We're so excited to tell you everything that happened in the build up to the holiday... prepare to be amazed!
YCIS CQ VISIT!
We had the incredibly exciting event of a visit from YCIS CQ, an international school based in China. This was not their first time coming to see us, and we certainly hope it wont be the last! While here they made an amazing change to ABCs and we cannot explain how grateful we are! In the space of 4 days, 80 students, aged 16 and 17, made an incredible difference with the help of their teachers and our own Project Manager Houk!
As anyone who has been to ABCs knows, our library is mostly aimed towards our junior students. Well now our seniors have their very own chill out area upstairs, hidden away from the craziness of the small ones, they can listen to music, do their homework or chill out with a book. Some of the little things we take for granted are now theirs as well. Check out our facebook page for photos of this!
Next up on the list of AMAZING things the YCIS students did while they were here was to build us our own vegetable patch! See the above photo for one of our very own Dragons nurturing the vegetables. The ability to grow food on site will make a huge difference to the kitchen!
One of the most amazing things to happen recently is the introduction of a clean water tap.
As some of you may already know, we are lucky enough to have a filter on site that allows us to have safe, clean drinking water on tap. The amazing YCIS students did something amazing with this. They ran a pipe from the filter around the kitchen and library to just outside the front gate. Here they added a tap and have provided the entire village with 1000 of clean, safe water every day!!! Check out facebook for more pictures of the amazing things the students did while here!
Accessibility!
As we told you in the last newsletter, we were in the middle of a huge fundraising effort to make it easier for our wheelchair bound student to come to school. Well, as you can see from the picture WE DID IT!!!! Huge huge huge thank you to all of you amazing people who donated and helped us get another child on the path to a brighter future! This is one of those wonderful moments where we can see the impact being made by just looking at both her and her father's faces. Two determined and strong people being given some sort of reward! It was a beautiful moment for all.
Sun, sun everywhere, and now a little shade! Volunteer Jennie from Sydney, Australia, had an amazing experience during her time with us, but she couldn't help noticing how little shade there was at ABCs.
Well she decided to change this and now we must say a big big thank you as Jennie kindly donated the funds for us to build a pagoda over our cement play area. (Which was also freshly painted and sealed by the amazing YCIS students). This has come as a very welcome relief from the sun in this April heat!
Making a Difference We regularly tell a volunteers that they are the change and are truly making a difference in the lives of our students. Well, just before Khmer New Year, some of our students cam together to make a difference to their city.
Alongside other NGOs, schools, hotels, private organisations, the police and even members of the military, our Owls and Dragons class spent one Friday morning cleaning Siem Reap city centre. Everyone teamed up to meet at the Royal Palace and then spread outwards to clean all the trash! Siem Reap was sparkling just in time to celebrate Khmer New Year!
PARTY! Speaking of a Khmer New Year, we made sure to celebrate properly at school! We had a morning of singing, dancing and party games! It was the perfect way to celebrate working hard and deserving a short break, while also bringing in the New Year the only way Cambodia knows how - with a giant water fight!! For obvious water-fight related reasons there aren't too many pictures but stay tuned to our facebook page to see lots of videos and pictures of different games and activities going up over the next few weeks!
We'd like to end this newsletter with a huge thank you to everyone who supported us this month. Be it a like on facebook, a donation, some time spent volunteering or simply your faith and emotional support, it is because of people like you that we can continue to change the lives of children in Cambodia.
ARKUN THOM THOM - BIG BIG THANK YOU