December 2022: It Was a Very Good Year.
It Was a Very Good Year
Everyone at Heartprint sends a giant “thank you” and the warmest hugs to each of you who helped make a Christmas gift a reality for four hundred young people.
It was glorious!
As you know, Cambodia is primarily a Buddhist country, and our annual Christmas party is really an end-of-year party for our community. We have a list of children and youth who qualify for the annual gifts - and we know this is often the only “fun” present many will receive all year.
It’s more than just a “fun” gift, though. Everyone also gets important hygiene and school supplies for the year to come, giving them a head-start for success. This year we included a Chan Shrak in every package rather than the sturdy plastic lunch boxes of years past, and it turned out to be one of the favorite items received. They are traditional and sturdy tiered metal lunch boxes, constructed to last the full year and beyond. Our community center kids and youth can also bring them to Heartprint at the end of each week for the Friday meal. Of course, everyone is responsible for the care of their own Chan Shrak.
In addition to the new-style lunchbox, this year we also had new entertainment. Our Heartprint kids played their instruments and sang carols. They practiced for ages and really performed their hearts out.
Looking back on 2022 - before we turn fully into 2023 - we have noticed how, over the past few months, we have more and more parental involvement in our Community Center. Entire families are more on-board with what we are doing here - and feel free to come and go - just as their younger members have for a long time. Maybe it’s because they see how their children thrive here; maybe they just understand us better. The “why” is not as important as the result. It’s really something special after a couple of very hard years.
At the end of every year, we compile an overview of accomplishments. Like this one for 2022:
These lists are essential, but the real story lies in the lives behind the annual tallies. To show how all of this work comes together to create a circle of opportunity and growth, we want to revise a family story from April:
“There is one hard thing about circles when you want to tell a story. Where do you start?
We’ll start with Lyna. You’ve probably “met” her before. She’s eleven, the eldest of three daughters, and currently one of the five participants selected for our swimming program. She also comes to Heartprint for English lessons and Creative Arts. Plus, she was given a bike to help her get to school on a regular basis.
Lyna was living with her parents, her two sisters, her Yay (Grandma), her disabled aunt and her male cousin, currently putting himself through a University degree. Two related families living under the same, dilapidated roof.
Their living conditions were quite poor and qualified them to receive new homes built by Heartprint. At first we were going to build two separate structures on the available piece of land, but decided, instead, we’d be able to make the living spaces larger if we built a duplex. (In Khmer, it’s called a phteah pi knong. It literally means “two houses back together”.)
This month we finished their phteah pi knong. They are still two related families living under a common roof, but the roof is new and there is a sturdy wall creating separate, private homes.
Now, Lyna’s two sisters are also coming to Heartprint programs and are starting their first Education Support classes. Ly Ta just received a donated bike so she can also get to school. She used to go with Lyna, but their school schedules are now different, so she needed her own means of transport.
Yay, the family matriarch, makes lovely woven mats and is now selling them in the Heartprint shop.
They’ve all stepped up to create their own circle of hope and opportunity, making full use of Heartprint programs.”
And with that in our hearts, we head into 2023. Happy New Year!