By Jess Robinson | Community Programme Manager
Dear all,
This is a very strange and scary time we find ourselves in, I hope you and your loved ones are well and managing to keep some element of normality. Now, more than ever community spirit is key. How we show this community spirit may have to change, but a simple phone call or message to check in, or simply asking if you can support in anyway can mean the world to someone and show you care. Lets try and keep this at the centre of our thoughts.
As I’m sure is the case for you, the situation is changing here on a daily, if not hourly basis, making everything very uncertain. At the beginning of the week, The Ministry of Education made the decision to close all schools, so for now, Helping Hands school is on a break. This doesn't mean we stop. Instead we have to think outside the box to show our care for the community, and we need to ensure we are fully prepared for when the situation begins to settle.
Many of our students will be forced to seek work to help them and their families through this difficult time, and once we’re able to re-open they will likely need our support more than ever. It’s imperative that we keep our garden healthy, to ensure we have plenty of fruit and vegetables growing to provide the much needed nutrients that our students will require on their return to school. On top of that, the health and well-being of our staff is of the utmost importance, and despite not being on their normal work schedule, we want to ensure they still receive their salary and are able to look after themselves and their families.
I’m sure this is a very disconcerting time for you, with so many questions and uncertainty. If you find yourself in a position where you can spare a few pennies to help us, we would be immensely grateful. GlobalGiving are running a 5 day long match campaign starting 9am ET, this coming Monday 23rd March and during this time they will match any donation up to $50 by 50%! No matter how much you have to spare, your donations really can go far and have significant impacts on our staff and students. Please consider supporting us at this time if you can.
In other news, I have some happy and hopefully uplifting updates for you. Read on for all the details.
Our newly formed Green Team
Plastic, and the build up of general waste are big problems in rural Cambodia. There are no waste disposal or collection services that cover these areas and there is little education and awareness of the damages such issues can cause to the environment and personal health.
A group of students who are keen to learn more about, and take action against single use plastic and rubbish in our local environment, recently came together to form our Green Team. These inspirational students will lead the way in the fight against plastic and rubbish around our school and in the local community.
Their first task was supporting Director Sopheap in organising and running a clean-up in our village, and what a wonderful job they did! Following an eye-opening presentation on the detrimental effects of plastic and waste, our Green Team led the rest of our students through the village, sharing their knowledge with the locals and clearing up the rubbish as they went. Everyone made sure to separate items they could recycle, and despite the hard work and hot sun, everyone had a fulfilling (and fun) time making their village a cleaner space!
Going forward, the Green Team will support with monitoring and maintaining the school environment, support teaching of the younger students, and organise more clean-ups in the village and surrounding areas. We're so proud of the team for showing an interest and taking the initiative to improve their environment.
Child Safety Module Outreach
As you know from our last update, at the end of last year we launched our new Child Safety Module. This initiative is developing well, both within and outside school. Members of the local community have shown great interest in learning themselves, so our Social Worker, Kong, has been running workshops for parents and others in the local area to cover the topics that our students have been learning about. We’ve also had interest from other schools in the area who are keen to have us deliver workshops to them as well. We look forward to seeing how this can continue to grow once schools re-open.
Sports Programme continues to grow
Following our Sports Festival in December, the Globalteer Sports project has gone from strength to strength. The team is growing, and following training from Senior Sports Coach Lak, our new Sports Coaches are able to run the sports Programme at Helping Hands while Lak is focussing on rolling the programme out to other local schools. We’re thrilled to be given the opportunity to take the sports programme further afield, reaching more students and impacting more lives in the community. We look forward to updating you on more developments soon.
Please take care and look after yourselves and loved ones. Stay safe, but take care of your community where you can.
Love and best wishes
Jess, and all at Helping Hands.
Links:
By Jess Robinson | Community Programme Manager
By Jess Robinson | Community Programme Manager
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