Some welcome news:
R________ is a teenage girl from the village who is now attending High School. Despite coming from very poor circumstances, she has a great confidence and supports herself and her extended family by making bracelets and selling to the tourists at Angkor Wat. She told us that she eats just one meal a day and makes the evening meal her daily meal.
During our recent visit we equipped her for High School with uniform, books and a bike (http://www.rice4life.sg/photos/gallery/?level=picture&id=294)
She was Margaret’s constant companion during our recent visit and was a valuable translator. We enrolled her at a private English language High School in Siem Reap so that she attends the government high school each morning and the private high school in the afternoon.
Robbie reports that her studies are going well and she has completed one term at school so he has paid for another term’s fees. We await receiving reports from the school principal of her progress.
We have high hopes for her to ‘make good’ perhaps being employed in the burgeoning tourist industry, a highly prized occupation in Cambodia.
Unfortunately, things have not gone so well with another student who was being assisted to high school. Early this year, Robbie generously provided transport for a disabled girl from the village to get to high school but this has not been kept up. The transport depended on one of her brothers but he has dropped out of school and taken up work to provide needed income for the family by selling at Angkor Wat.
Their mother has incurred a large debt to build a new house and the debt has to be repaid. Without access to banks, poor villagers are at the mercy of moneylenders. This has now caused three children from the family to drop out of school. So sad.
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