October 2021: A Good Month
A GOOD MONTH
October has a lot of Important Days: International Day of Poverty Eradication. World Habitat Day. World Mental Health Day. World Food Day.
It’s almost as if the Important Days of October are Heartprint’s Mission Statement for the work you help us do year-round.
And honestly, October has been a good month. A very good month, following a grim September. The rains have made everything all kinds of shades of green and the air is cooler. Many schools will reopen this month. International travel restrictions and quarantines are slowly being relaxed so there is hope for some tourist business in 2022. And the roadworks that have made life even more difficult here appear to finally be showing solid progress.
With a few dry days behind us a couple of weeks ago, we were able to begin construction on a new home for the Chean Savuth family. This was exciting for everyone on multiple levels. The few dry days allowed us to get started, but then came a big rain that lasted all day. Foundation holes filled with water, our truck couldn’t get down the road to deliver supplies (our team hand carried them in, a little rain wasn’t going to stop them!), but finally had to call it a day and wait for the earth to dry to install a safe and solid foundation. A few days later we were able to get back to work and enough progress was made that when another heavy rain hit, the team were able to work above ground level.
The house is being built on the edge of the Tonle Sap (Big lake, No salt), a seasonal tidal lake. Water is always a significant factor there, naturally, and combined with the yearly heavy rains makes it all the more important to ensure rock-solid construction. And it’s so life-changing for the family that will, before too long, have their lovely new home with a toilet and clean water well.
We are also beginning to restart our programs at Heartprint, still following all Covid safety protocols. We are especially thankful to be able to restart our professional counselling programs - thanks to so many of you who contributed to All Minds Matter during Silent September. Covid has made these sessions even more important, with addiction issues becoming more prominent and children being affected on many levels. And while every day hope for the future shines a bit brighter, right now daily life is still extraordinarily tough with no tourists, few jobs and ongoing struggle just to eat.
We are using a new, bigger, brighter space for the counselling sessions. We’re hoping that will help make participants more comfortable.
All the rainy days forcing us inside gave us an opportunity to finally set up the Heartprint Fairtrade Shop. Cambodians in our community can take part in one of our Build a Future and Creative Arts programs. If they’d like, they can sell their creations in our shop and receive a commission on any sales. This helps them create a personal portfolio and perhaps even the impetus to set up their own shop.
And school! Children have been out of school for so long and now most of them will be going back soon. This means we have also been busy distributing some of the donated bikes we stored while schools were closed. The importance of bikes to many children being able to get to school cannot be overstated. Not to mention the smiles when a bike is delivered.
Schools reopening also means that we have now distributed our last (we hope!) school packs. However, we will still be right here with free professional tutoring for kids who might need a little support in English education or in their Khmer studies. It’s been a long time since they have been in formal school and we want to do everything possible to help them succeed.
An update on our two guys who were accepted to train at Haven: Nothing has been easy the last couple of years, but they are finally there! Settled in and ready to take on the hospitality world! More, please!
Food distribution remains a critical monthly activity. More and more people are also popping into Heartprint to see if we have any food at all to give them. We have started to keep a small extra supply in-house to try and help them make it through another day or two. The world may be reopening, but until it comes to full fruition, the most vulnerable will still be suffering. Thanks to our generous donors, Heartprint’s food contributions really are making a difference between life and starvation.
And finally, all of this activity has to be dreamt of, planned for and organized from somewhere. We’ve done it for years now using whatever equipment we could scrounge up, borrow, tape together and even sit on! This month the Rotary Club of Logan gave us a whole new office! Desks, actual desk chairs, a colour printer, a laminator, a shredder - and so much more! We are so grateful and will use all of this generous donation to work even harder for our Cambodian community.
Thank you all.
