By Amber Warren | Programs Manager
Thanks to your donations, 35 PIO students were served free, nutritious lunches each school day! Their lunch was made up of rice and soup with vegetables and meat. These lunches were prepared fresh each day with produce from the local market. The effectiveness of the program is reflected in the good health of the children. They enjoyed their PIO lunches and for some it was the most nutritious meals they had.
These lunches mean the world to students and do indeed make a difference in their lives. They give them the nutrients they need each day to grow, learn, and dream about the future. Thanks to your support, they will have the same opportunity to make a new life for themselves, outside of the poverty that afflicts their parents, just like Kean.
Kean is 19 years old and studied at PIO's Stung Meanchey school. Before attending PIO, her life was extremely difficult. Her parents were farmers who could never make enough money so her father moved to Thailand to work as a laborer. Kean did not go to school and instead looked after the buffalo and looked for fish to make dinner. She said they never had enough food. When her grandmother brought her to Phnom Penh, she and her mother collected garbage to earn money ($1.72-$2.46) to buy food each day. The room they rented to live in had no electricity so they waited until the neighbor turned their lights on so they could see their food to eat. Her life changed when she overhead PIO's Founder talking to kids at the dump- she was offering for them to go to school for free and receive lunch, uniforms, shoes, and school supplies. Kean has now been at PIO for 10 years and is in her last semester of Grade 12 at the local public school, hoping to pass her national exam successfully.
"Thank you to my teachers, Mrs. Phymean Noun and supporters for giving me the best opportunity and to everyone for motivating me."
The nutrition program is a critical part of PIO's education program, which has provided Kean with the hope of a much brighter future and continues to transform students' lives every day.
Thank you for being part of their journey!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
