Education Scholarships for Cambodian Trash Pickers

Dear CCEdFund Family,

We have such exciting news to share with you that we are bursting with enthusiasm to finally send it!

After nearly seven years of providing life-changing scholarships for some of Cambodia's most promising but impoverished students, CCEdFund's Board has unanimously voted to become the University Program of Cambodian Children's Fund beginning with the 2014 - 2015 academic year. When we launched, we set out to provide exceptional scholarships for Cambodia's future leaders...and moving forward, that means providing university scholarships in conjunction with a strong partner. But, we need your help ONE more time TODAY AT NOON - GlobalGiving's Match Day.

TODAY, please visit the link below to donate NOW (noon) to help CCEdFund recieve matched donations on GlobalGiving. Matching funds usually disappear quickly so please donate as close to noon as possible! Matching is applied at 100% for every donation from $10 up to $1,000 per donor until matching funds run out. Please share with your networks about this campaign using @CCEdFund & #YouthSpark.
Visit here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-impoverished-cambodian-children-to-school/

To remain high-impact in our scholarship operations, CCEdFund recognizes the following emerging realities about the nature of Cambodia's changing education scene:

• Funding for elementary and secondary scholarships in Cambodia is now more widely available than it was in 2007 when we launched. CCEdFund is no longer providing an unusual service.
• In fact, all of our students except 5 have CCEdFund funds available or alternative sources of funding for their scholarships for the 2014-2015 academic year (and moving forward through completion of their level of education). See below for information on how we hope to fund these 5 students, too. 
• Cambodia's impoverished youth are a focal point for international development funding and therefore they have access to services and education more so than when we launched in 2007. 
• But, once these students complete high school, the funding for impoverished youth to attend university is sparse. And, there is a large cohort of impoverished students about to graduate from high school. 
• This is a problem because to escape the cycle of poverty, these students must complete university studies. However, there is no federal student loan program.

Given all of these truths, CCEdFund realized in early 2014 that we needed to explore how to best serve Cambodia's youth and future. After exploring options with other organizations and critically evaluating our operations, we believe that becoming CCF's University Program will continue our work of providing high-impact scholarships to Cambodia's youth who will one day change their country and assist in peaceful economic and social development. We believe CCEdFund's new direction will be transformative for a new cohort of promising but impoverished Cambodian students.

But first, let's examine what we have accomplished so far.

Our successes:
In less than seven years, you helped CCEdFund provide an awesome amount of funding in the form of scholarships to students who will change their communities. Scholarship costs averaged between $800 and $3000 per student each year. 

• $119,100 in scholarships provided for CCEdFund's students! 
• Partnerships developed with 9 exceptional schools.
• Over 600 donors joined in the effort to provide educational opportunities to CCEdFund students.
• 22 students sent to CCEdFund partner schools until completion of their level of schooling (and beyond for some!).
• Youngest student to start with CCEdFund: 2.5 years old
• CCEdFund student featured in GirlRising - a film about girls' ambitions to attend school
• Helping students work towards ambitious goals including becoming vets, social workers, teachers, hotel managers, lawyers, and accountants. 
• Students consistently in the tops of their classes at all levels of elementary and secondary education. 

Our future:
Please help us one more time! We need your support one more time for two reasons:

1. We need to secure funding for the five students mentioned above who will no longer be supported by CCEdFund and who have no other source of scholarships (we will raise enough to provide them funds to finish their schooling); and
2. We need to launch the University Program with adequate funding (only after we have met our goals for our existing students).

Here is how we will do it: GlobalGiving!

• TODAY (On June 25th), GlobalGiving is hosting a 100% matching funds day.
• TODAY at noon, we need your support one final time to help us raise $20,000.

With $200,000 available in matching funds on GlobalGiving, we are confident that your donations will help us reach our goal. It is time to spread the word and get ready to support our students one more time!!

About Cambodian Children's Fund
CCF is a phenomenal organization that serves impoverished children in Phnom Penh and they are eager to work with CCEdFund. CCF has over 68 programs including on-site education, health, and social services that support their students' whole development. And, they have an impressive and sustained presence in Cambodia that CCEdFund has lacked until this new partnership. 

After 10 years of operations, some of CCF's students are graduating from high school and are in desperate need of funding for university studies. CCEdFund's scholarship programming and institutional knowledge will be transferred to CCF to help them build this Program which will expand rapidly in the next 5 years (by the 100s of students) as CCF's students complete high school. Without our programming and assistance in funding, these students will be left without the opportunity to pursue the studies that will complete their credentialing for a better life. CCF is a lean organization and we are confident that their use of our work will achieve the highest impact possible with our target: Cambodia's impoverished students. But, to ensure that it is, CCEdFund's volunteers will continue to work with CCF.

We have been honored to steward your donations and humbled by your generous support of our amazing students. We hope that you will continue the journey with us as global citizens and help to provide university scholarships for CCF's students. Thank you so very much for all of your support in the past and in reaching our last fundraising goal. We will be in touch after June 25th to share our final accomplishments.  

Warmly,
Carrie, Jennifer, & CCEdFund's Board of Directors

Links:

• Donate here TODAY at NOON!

Hello CCEdFund Family!

Thank you so very much for your continued support of our students! Your generous donations allow CCEdFund to provide life-changing scholarships to students in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh Cambodia. Since impoverished students' access to public education provides rudimentary education at best, your donations help these students attend CCEdFund's private partner schools who have verifiable measures of student learning in place.

In this report, we want to share a story of challenges. Often, we describe how our students are excelling at their studies and we are proud of them since we are careful to select appropriate partner schools for our students. However, our students come from challenging backgrounds and family circumstances that present additional difficulties for students' studies. Our students have been orphaned, trafficked, scavenged for survival, and/or lived in extreme poverty.

One such student is Khouch. She is in high school in Phnom Penh on a CCEdFund scholarship. When we first reached out for your support on GlobalGiving, she was a student we often described who had survived on a large garbage dump and who showed great promise and dedication to her studies. After being nominated by the children's center where she lived and with your financial support, she was approved for a scholarship in 2010. Since then, she has studied at two different schools on a CCEdFund scholarship as we work to find the best school for her. She is a great example of how CCEdFund continuously works with each student to determine the best academic environment for their current needs and their ambitious goals.

Khouch wants to be a veterinarian. Given her nomination and academic record, she receives one of CCEdFunds most expensive scholarships at close to $5,000 per year. But, beginning with her studies at Zaman, she has struggled to excel in her studies. Though she is focused, she is a few years older than her peers in her classes since she spent years on the dump sorting through trash for recyclables. To help her catch up, the children's center and CCEdFund have provided additional support and tutors. After two years, we recognized that Zaman was not the best fit for her. In 2012, she switched to a new school to have a fresh start and to help build her self-esteem. This year, she continues at the second school but is working with the center and CCEdFund to become successful as she begins volunteering with a local vet clinic. Even though CCEFund's scholarship recipients are typically high achievers, it is important to understand that they initially struggle with academic life as they transition. CCEdFund is committed to ensuring that they have the opportunity to succeed which is why we have worked with Khouch to find the right placement for her.

Each of our students' scholarships is granted with a commitment to help them succeed. Because of your support, we are able to continue this critical work, so - THANK YOU!

We look forward to sharing more in the next few months as the 2013-2014 academic year comes to a close.

Warmly,
CCEdFund

Links:

• Cambodia's Children Education Fund, Inc.