Education for 300 Urban Poor Children

Family Development:

Handouts will never help a community to climb out of poverty and so Sunshine has been actively encouraging and supporting its families to work towards improving their standards of living through various trainings and job placement.  However the most successful venture to date has been starting our own savings groups which have the capacity to lend money and pay interest.  

There are 31 members in our second savings group and one of its leaders is Mr Houn Kosal who started out as a builder’s laborer but through his hard work and leadership qualities is now a road construction sub-contractor. He says, "I am saving a lot every month because I have a very strong goal for improving my occupation over the next 6 months. I plan to buy a portable cement mixer to replace the old one because if I have a new one, it can help me to save on maintenance cost and I can use it for 4-5 years to improve my business.  I'm glad that Sunshine can also help me attend a machinery course."

Mr Kosal's commitment gives us confidence that he will do a great job of supporting his family by the end of this project.

Child Development:

Meanwhile, Sunshine has continued to support 107 children by covering the cost of their school education.  84 of these kids have come twice a week to Sunshine for clubs in computers, social awareness, music and sport and we've also helped 64 kids attend English courses at local schools.  Besides education, we've supported their nutrition through food subsidies given to the parents, dental treatment and the distribution of toothbrushes and toothpaste. A more fun outing for the kids was to the National Museum and a public playground.  However, the highlight for secondary students was overnight trip to the beach 4 hours away - some for the very first time!

Spiritual Support:

Another new development is that a member of a local church now goes visiting with our staff, to provide pastoral care as the families request it.  She also accompanies several of our children to attend local churches.

May you be encouraged by all positive things that have taken place in recent months and we hope you will continue to support us and enable even more of these exciting things to happen!

Blessings,

Channy Nop and Bonnie Lepelaar

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