My Hopes and Plans for 2012- from Khoeurn

In this post scholarship student Khoeurn shares his very sensible resolutions for 2012.

Hi! My name is Khart Khoeurn. I am very happy that I could get the chance to view my 2012 plans and hope.
Why do we need to plan? According to wise people in the world, anyone who always plans who he is going to much more than unplanned person. During 2012, I plan to do the following:

The first thing is to volunteer. Here, I am going to teach voluntarily at a pagoda. I think it is the most important thing. I would like to provide what I have learnt to everyone who needs studying and who try hard to find it. Even though I am now teaching at JWOC and a number of students have been learning, there are thousands students who need education. I am going to teach from 2 to 3 in the afternoon.

The second thing is to read book at the library. We know that library is the most useful research place and the most powerful resource for us who love studying. I am going to spend my time to read books at lease one hour after my class. A proverb says, “The more you read the more you know.”

The third one is to develop myself through JWOC. This point is that JWOC has programs to help every scholarship student to increase ability in each project. I myself have everything which runs smoothly. My subject at the university and the project at JWOC are symmetrical. I am going to join every activity at JWOC and learn more from it.

The last one is to write diary. I haven’t done this since I was young. But this idea happened after I had learnt with teacher Anne who taught me and a friend of writing. During 2012, I am going to do it and make sure I will be acquainted with it and go on write it all my life.

In sum up, after I will have done these four activities for one year at the end of 2012 I hope I could help my society and improve myself and my English.

If Khoeurn has inspired you to also make changes in 2012 take a look here to see how you can work with JWOC to make a difference.

Clean Water Update from Sokhorn

In his post this month Clean Water Project Manager updates and thanks all recent Clean Water and Emergency Relief donors.

Dear Supporters

I am glad to update you about Clean Water Project.

I worked in Brasat Char village for almost five months, which means I took a much longer time than previous villages. There are a few reasons that I took longer time than other village, firstly, because of flooding destroying infrastructures, so we could not reach to the village then we had to delay our project.

As the solution, we did emergency relief in Brasat Char village; because we could not transport filters to the village. Our team went out to the village and gave out clean water tablets. We gave out fifteen tablets in each family (one tablet could produce 20 liters of safe drinking water).

Because of flooding, we could not use tuk tuk or truck for transporting hygiene packs so we decided to use backpack to carry all the materials. This photo shows student carrying their backpack along the badly damaged road with their own motorbike.

Because of the road was destroyed by flood, we could not transport filters to the village so we decided to choose twenty poorest families in the village (just two people from each family) to repair the road then we gave them fifteen kilogram of rice to work per day. These photos show road repairing and villagers received their rice.

After we repaired the road we could bring our filters to the village, we gave out 335 filters plus one mosquito net for each family. The reason for giving out mosquito net because of flooding just recede so there are a lot of mosquito in the village. Most people used very old mosquito net, which has some hole on net that could not protect from mosquito or did not have enough mosquito nets for everyone in the family. This picture shows villagers receiving filters and mosquito nets after the training.

Once again, the villagers were lacking hygiene knowledge and their children always get sick in their families. Therefore we provided useful training to them for example, hand washing and teeth cleaning, In the training, they were very happy and they could practice and show the correct steps which we had trained them. As the result, we hope they will change their habits and follow the training. Then we gave out 1033 hygiene packs. Additionally, we drilled 44 new wells, fixed 25 existing wells; next, we did 44 water tests from the new wells and 10 from filters.

Now villagers are very happy because they have clean water for using and drinking, they especially like that the wells are nearby their houses. They stop using pit wells. I am very happy to see the result that our team has tried with our best to help them. In the recent update from Brasat Char village chief, told us there are 1612 people and 335 families in the village. Most villagers are farmers, fishermen, and a few are working as a construction workers in the city.

Other news- I trained my team to entering data analysis from baseline survey through impact assessment and also some extra functions in Excel. Because JWOC has budget for staff training I was able to join an Advanced Excel course at a private school. Now my team can help me with a lot of work. I divided them into two groups- one group entering data analysis in the office and other group goes to the village.

Finally, I would like to say thank you again for helping the Clean Water Project. I look forward to writing to you again next time to tell you more about the project.

Best wishes,

Sokhorn

My Dream and Hope

This January JWOC has been thinking a lot about resolutions and plans and they are also part of our New Year Appeal. In this blog post Soubanh, a scholarship student in Laos, writes about his ideas for the future.

My Dream and Hope

I dream to become an English teacher in the future because English is very important in communication with many people around the world for example in economics, tourism and in co-operation. Due to the fact English is an international language many people use English to communicate to each other. Therefore, I need to teach English to young Lao student so they will be able to speak in the future.

If I have enough capital for my education, I will continue with a master degree after my graduation of bachelor. I think I really need to do that. I think if we have high education, good quality of work and teaching and good organization skills we can be a school director. I hope I could be the chief of school at my own English centre. At my centre I will try to provide the very good course by selecting the teachers who have high experience to teach with me.

Soubanh is able to study at university because he is matched with a JWOC sponsor. If you would like to become a sponsor in 2012 take a look at this page to find out.

Meet two of our scholarship students!

Earlier this month a group of MBA students from Stanford Univerity visited JWOC to learn more about our work and to take part in activities with our students. After their visit some of the students wrote mini profiles of the students they had spoken to. Read the profiles to learn more about Sothy and Borey.

Sothy Hout

Huot Sothy (27) has a big dream. He is just beginning a bachelor’s degree at Build Bright University in Economics and International Finance because he wants to help Cambodia reduce its dependence on foreign imports and increase its domestic production. He believes that many Cambodians do not understand how to create a strategy to start a business and he wants to address this too.

This vision comes from the son of a fisherman in a small village on the Tonle Sap Lake shores. Dressed in the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk he calmly shares the dreams he’s held since 9th grade with patience and quiet confidence.

In 9th grade his dreams of university studies seemed remote as his father could not afford tuition, with a family of 7 to support. Sothy became a monk in order to pursue his studies, saying “lay people with a good heart let me study.”

Last year, a teacher referred him to JWOC’s scholarship program and he was selected as one of 18 recipients from a pool of over 400. Thus, two months ago this twenty seven year old began his dream from 12 years ago to obtain a university degree. Even though he has just begun his undergraduate studies, he is already dreaming of a doctorate degree and study abroad. His advice to 10 year olds is to “persevere in studying and have a strict future plan.”

It seems his dreams of helping Cambodia develop economically have begun to materialize unwittingly. Over the years, he has “explained the precepts of Buddhism to my sisters, brothers and parents. To avoid harm, respect each other.” Because his family depends upon fishing for its livelihood, his challenge to stop killing takes courage. It seems that his influence with them is such that they have been able to hear his message and his dream about local production. His father has supported his sister in a business that is successful enough that he fishes less. And, his sister’s gratitude to him reveals itself in her offers of financial support for his continued studies.

At the end of our hour interview, we ask Sothy if he has questions for us and he wants to know how he can learn more about the economies of the world.

Borey Uk

Borey is the youngest of five children and one out of three students from his village who has received a scholarship. Borey’s parents, his two older brothers and his two older sisters are very proud of him: without the scholarship, he would have never been able to afford university.

At high-school, Borey was already very interested in math, physics and chemistry. Not surprisingly, Borey now seeks his challenges in Finance and dreams of becoming a branch manager at a Micro Finance Institution. Making a lot of money, however, is not what drives Borey. He genuinely dreams of having a meaningful impact on his country. Through micro finance loans, Borey wishes to enable people to start and grow businesses.

Borey realizes that, in the villages, education conflicts with young people’s need to work for food and support their families. However, Borey strongly believes that education – despite being a long-term investment – will eventually change Cambodia, its economy, social life and politics: Borey explains that a significant share of Cambodia’s population does not even know about its right to vote in government elections. Hence, education will help people to help themselves and those around them.

Borey is happy to meet people from all over the world. Tourism enables young Cambodians to make money to finance their education. Borey’s dream is to spend time in the U.S. or U.K. in order to further develop himself. In the long-run, however, Borey wants to be a responsible dad and have a family in Cambodia.

Borey is a very ambitious person. In his free-time, Borey plays volleyball and soccer with his friends. However, it is not about winning. Borey defines success as enabling others to pursue their dreams the way Borey does himself.

If you would like to find out more about the Scholarship Programme and how you can get involved, take a look here.

Have you made New Year's resolutions?

JWOC always likes to be helpful and this January we want to help you with your New Year’s resolutions (and hopefully get in on the act as well!).

Have you resolved to get fit in 2012?

How about focusing your training and running a 10K race or half-marathon? There are lists here and with 1904 races there’s sure to be one near you. Once you are focused what could be better than also raising funds for JWOC?
Whatever distance you decide to cover Crowdrise allows you to set up a personalized fundraising page to allow your friends and family (and anyone else!) support your amazing run by donating to JWOC.



Do you need healthier eating habits?

Give some of your cake money to JWOC! A monthly donation of $20 makes a huge difference to us and can mean less cake for you. Click here to set up a subscription donation and make a difference.



Is your resolution to volunteer more?

Small acts of service add up and you can always help JWOC by spreading the word- ‘like’ our Facebook posts, share our blog and request JWOC Gifts for your birthday!



Want to reduce paper waste?

Send e-cards instead- great for all occasions and no wastage. Click on the donate button here to see how to send an e-card with a donation to JWOC. There’s a range of designs or if you prefer you can upload your own picture to make a fantastic, personal card.



Have you decided to have an adventure?

Journeys Within Tour Company is running its unique Active Philanthropy Tour in 2012. This tour is a great way to see Southeast Asia and donate to JWOC at the same time.


Whatever your resolution is for 2012 we hope you achieve it and that we can be a part of it!