June 2022: Seventy-Nine and Still Rockin’!
SEVENTY-NINE AND STILL ROCKIN’!
We build houses. You know that. You are the reason we can.
And in June, in the boiling heat and monsoon rains, we started House #79. Imagine that! Seventy-nine new safe havens from which families can emerge better prepared to study, work, play, and prosper.
As you also know, it was clear from Heartprint’s beginning that a clean and safe place to live is only one rung on the ladder out of extreme poverty. It’s why we continue to expand our educational and community programs.
It’s about the whole person; the whole family; the community writ large.
So let us tell you just a few June stories from our growing village here in Siem Reap.
Young people everywhere face challenges, and those challenges are multiplied many times over for kids in extreme poverty. We continue to develop programs and activities to help our young friends gain critical workforce skills and cope with everyday stress and strife.
An important element of our Youth Group program is for each member to keep a journal. For those of you who also practice journaling, you know how it can help you reduce stress levels and really focus on the moment. It helps with creativity and problem-solving. It promotes focus and goal-setting and lets you get the angst out of your brain and onto paper. Somehow, in its totality, journaling equips you to better deal with the outside world once you lay your pencil down.
One of the things everyone has to deal with in the outside world is…drumroll…money. But Cambodians tend to live day-to-day with little forward planning, so we designed our own traineeship life skills program. It covers financial literacy, goal-setting, communication skills, computer education, and more.
For example, we created a twelve-month budget game to promote saving. We took some of our trainees to open up bank accounts to help them track their money and establish real savings goals. Next month: budget setting…and budget keeping.
We also finished a Khmer keyboard training module in June. It’s a great skill to possess to work in any industry in Cambodia. The final project was to create a book to print and take home. There were story books and some books of reference. There was a cupcake recipe book. They wrote about their own interests and we are - as always - in awe of their creativity, hard work, and sense of fun in learning everything.
And look here : to see the results of a lockbox challenge to develop critical thinking and teamwork skills. It was so successful the young participants want to challenge Heartprint staff to solve one they create for us! Game on!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our “Match it May” campaign. As you know, its whole purpose was for us to have the funds necessary to house the programs described above. It’s for the roof that shelters our center. It’s for the rent and electricity and water and paper and pencils. You donated a total of $8,340.40 AUD.
That AUD forty cents will buy us a couple of treasured pencils. Who knows what changes may be wrought by the hands holding those pencils t? Just imagine our young journal-ists, writing out their thoughts and plans and dreams. Every. Pencil. Counts.
Even though our May campaign ended, there are other ways to help. You can always become a regular donor through our Heart of Gold Club. Or, support one of our Community centre programs. A day of Creative Arts or Get Active and Healthy for 42 children costs USD$50; A Youth Group session USD$60 or how about helping our adults learn new skills to sell their wares in our fair trade shop? USD$60.
Some energetic people like Aleisha take very long treks to raise money for Heartprint. Rene held an art fundraiser with her students in Singapore and raised a whopping $770 and four bikes! If you are interested in trying something like this, drop us a note. So much fun and such amazing results!
Finally, you might recall that our in-house musicians are enamored with the song, “We Will Rock You”. Well, they are still rockin’ it! Check out this trailer for a taste of the Grammy-bound music video by the “Heartprint Beat”. (Just kidding, that’s not their band name, but if you have ideas send us a note!)
Have a great July!
