Hot lunches for 500 Cambodian children and youth

Hello from everyone at M’Lop Tapang.

We wanted to say thank you again for you support and donations to our food program and helping to make sure that children and youth in education and training programs have a healthy, hot lunch.

Lunchtime is one of the busiest times of the day at M’Lop Tapang’s Education Center. Since you can’t be here to see it for yourself we put together a very short video that I hope you will enjoy viewing and give you a glimpse into how your donations are used (and a few cooking tips if you ever have to prepare lunch for 500 hungry kids). The link to the video is at the bottom of this letter.

Your support is truly making a difference for children like 13 year old Vibol and his two younger brothers. There are among the hundreds of children that are receiving nutritious hot lunches. These three brothers come from a very poor family and until recently were not going to school but are now in our education program to help them catch up with their studies. Knowing that they can have a hot lunch is a big incentive for coming to class every day.

Thank you again for your generosity.

Sincerely,

Eve Saosarin
Director

Links:

• Lunchtime at M'Lop Tapang
• Vibol and his brothers return to the classroom

Hello from Cambodia!

I just wanted to write to say thank you again for the donations you’ve made to help support the food program here at M’Lop Tapang. With your help we continue to be able to provide more than 500 hot meals a day to children and youth in education and training programs.

Being able to provide children in our programs with healthy meals is such an important part of what we do. The problem of insufficient nutrition is widespread in Cambodia. Ten percent of Cambodian children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished, 32 percent are considered stunted and 24 percent are underweight. Stunted children face long-term physical and mental problems that interfere with education and employment.

Your donations help to ensure that we can provide hot meals to children like 11 year old Chan Mao (name changed for confidentiality), one of the newest children in classes at our Education Center. Chan had stopped going to public school a few years ago because his family could not afford to send him to study. The young boy is now in the Grade 2 classroom at our Education Center. Like for all the other children in classes at our Education Center, the goal is that Chan Mao will be able to catch up with his studies and soon be reintegrated back into the local public school system at a grade level suitable for his age.

For children like Chan, the meals that we provide at M’Lop Tapang are often the most substantial they will have all day. Although not fancy, the meals are healthy and nutritious and allow the students to concentrate on their studies instead of worrying about having an empty stomach.

From all of us here at M’Lop Tapang, thank you again for your generosity and joining s to help vulnerable Cambodian children and youth in need.

Sincerely,

Eve Saosarin,
Director, M’Lop Tapang