Empower 2,000 Cambodian Kids Through Sport

Happy New Year!

It’s a joy for us to be able to start the new year with great news: schools are open and the sports program is back up and running again!

Back to Normal

Having vaccinated nearly 80% of the population, the Cambodian government finally deemed it safe to open schools again in December. That meant that our Helping Hands School could open its doors and, with it, our sports program! Having spent most of October and November on the reduced schedule of hour-long, small-group PE classes once a week, everyone is ecstatic to be back to daily classes with all their friends again. The children were a bit out of shape at first (not the coaches though, after the additional work they’ve been doing on their personal fitness during the downtime!), but they quickly got up to speed and the exhausted smiles have returned.

New Lesson Plans

While the sports program was operating on a reduced schedule, the coaches continued meeting several times a week to work out, share ideas, plan lessons and talk about curriculum expansion. They have already been working some of the new exercises and drills into the sessions and so far, the reviews have included lots of laughs and perspiration!

Onwards and Upwards

With a full sports schedule operating at Helping Hands, we are able to continue to promote healthy lifestyles and provide fun sports activities every day. As state school schedules get back to normal, we will restart communications with them and hope to have our PE outreach program back in full swing by February. We are also working on restarting our Goals for Girls program with female students from Helping Hands and, as we re-establish contact with local schools, we will start inviting participation by young women from nearby high schools as well.

Links:

• Find out more on our website
• Follow us on Facebook

Not much has changed over the last few months and schools remain closed, so we’re continuing to do what we can. We have continued offering workout sessions to groups of 20 students when they come to pick up schoolwork and meals. Our sports field is big enough for them to run around and exercise while maintaining social distancing and masks are used to keep risk of infection to an absolute minimum.

We have been happy to hear that the children have appreciated these workouts and have been trying to continue the healthy living practices we teach, outside school!

• Reaksa (10) says that although she doesn’t exercise every day, she likes to do some of the calisthenics routines, that she learned in sports class, at home.
• Srey Mom (11) regularly plays soccer with her brother when she isn’t at school.
• Davan (9) told us that she has talked to her parents about the value of exercise for one’s health.

The good news is that Cambodia’s vaccination program has advanced rapidly, with 58% of the population now fully vaccinated and another 10% partially vaccinated, so we are hoping that schools will open soon. With all the extra personal training and planning time our coaches have had, we are excited to start back up on our normal schedule, to deliver fun and challenging sports sessions.

We look forward to seeing all our students – including those from nearby schools – on the sports field soon!

Links:

• Follow our students and coaches on Facebook!
• Sports project in pictures on Instagram!