Champions

If you check multiple dictionaries, you will find varying definitions of the word “Champion.”  None accurately defines the Champions we see every day in our world. 

Today, we are giving Champion a Heartprint definition. 

This is one of those backward stories.  You know, where we start now and track back to its beginning. 

I am going to write this in the first person since I want to tell you the story framed by my personal observations, emotions, and memories.  
I am writing from my perch overlooking the programs unfolding through my glass window into our new Community Centre. 

Yes!  We are here.  We are functioning amidst boxes and the small sounds of final construction outside, but we are here.  It has been a dusty and often muddy process, but we are here. 

One of the great benefits of our new Community Centre is the space to hold multiple programs simultaneously.

From my perch, I can see the front gate and the three classroom areas. Right now, I am watching participants in the sewing, short-term circus, and design programs. 

This week we started our Adult Interpersonal Skills Training (AIS), where we have a structured focus on empowering women through personal and skill development.  

To many of us from highly developed communities and countries, this sounds old-hat.  Believe me; this is a whole new outfit for some in our Siem Reap community.

We tried it years ago at the very beginning of building our Community Centre, but it didn’t take.  There was little to no interest among the adults - there seemed to be roadblock after roadblock. 

So we changed directions. We went for the middlemen.  Well, middle kids.

We focused on young people who were not too old to feel defeated but young enough to see the adventure and promise of learning. We thought they could be the brokers between the generations above and below them. 

We were right. 

The kids showed the parents how amazing it is to learn, and, needless to say,  their younger siblings didn’t want to be left out!   The parents saw how our programs were showing their children multiple pathways to a future brighter than they would have dared dream for their kids, much less for themselves. 

So, the women began to ask us to help them to learn this or learn that. 

It is important to understand where the women live—both physically and psychologically. Many are in physical homes that lend themselves to despair and marital homes that psychologically discourage any hint of independence. (Perhaps that says more about male psychology, but that is out of our control.)  Helping the women who have decided to follow in the footsteps of their children is not. 

We started small with our Build-A-Future program and more recently with Hair-Aid. Now, there is burgeoning interest in starting their small businesses. 

Of course, that entails learning much more than we were able to offer in our old Centre, but we have much more latitude now, and we are GAME ON! 

We don’t start with negotiating a lease or stock acquisition and marketing. 

We start with belief—belief in yourself—even when those closest to you try to tear you down and shatter your confidence before it has a chance to take full root. We help them see their challenges, work over or around them, wipe the sand out of their eyes, and come through the other side. 

We are helping them be their own Champions.

Then - and only then, do we get to the easier part of having their own business. 

As we say, it still isn’t easy, and we are teaching them that. We will not help them set up a small business only to watch them fail because they don’t understand everything that goes into it: the uncertainty and periodic need to power through panic, the motivation to be there every single day, to be consistently present in and vigilant over their own financial undertaking, and, of course, the business basics you would expect.  

Our strength here is also training them for the non-academic, the unexpected, how to fall in a hole and find the right rope to pull yourself out. 

All of us at Heartprint are passionate about this program's success and are so happy we now have more space to expand it to fulfill these dreams. 
We are dedicated to developing Champions on all levels in our Centre.  

The children in our Centre are, in many ways, miles ahead of their parents because of the extra opportunities and skills they have received.  

Again, because of our additional space, we are now able to fully implement new programs (and I can watch them all through the big glass window in our office!) so we can hold multiple classes at the same time. 

One of the new things is our Monitors project. Our kids are put into groups of all ages, so they work together, and the older kids help the younger ones, just like in an extended family.  

Gardening, dusting and floor-sweeping, nutritional programmes and kitchen help, managing the token “bank” for all of the kids; anything with a routine needs to be done. 

(It is hard to understand, but many of these young people do not have floors at home to sweep or a sink to wash dishes.  But someday, they will need to know these basic things and the importance of doing them, so what seems simple to you and me is new to them.)  

Each Monitor group will rotate in our Shop. So, they will learn more about financial management through the token bank and running a small business through shop management. They will have a basic understanding of running a business well before they are out of school. 

Maybe they can work in partnership with their newly confident and trained Mums!

Personal note:  While watching the Olympics, I gave a lot of thought to the Champions and realized that we are living with the Olympian “life” champions all around us. And, perhaps overdoing the metaphor, I will also assign the first verse of a Queen iconic to our Community Centre Champions.  I hope you will join me in singing it loudly for them as they travel their path:

“I’ve paid my dues

Time after time.

I’ve done my sentence

But committed no crime.

And bad mistakes

I’ve made a few.

I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face

But I’ve come through.

And I need to go on and on and on and on….

We are the Champions, my Friends

And we’ll keep on fighting 

To the end.”

With your help, we will be right there supporting them in their fight. All Champions have coaches! 

PS:  They will now have extra help from Center mascot Bobbi the Cat, who just today moved from the old to the new Centre.  So all is well. 

As ever, thank you for all you do.  

Wendy