Dear Friends,
The Attitude Centre for Education (ACE) are specifically designed to bring about positive attitudes in Cambodia’s younger generation. We strongly believe that all the youth are capable, but lack the opportunity to achieve their dreams.
In early 2009, we had the remarkable idea of opening ACE, providing leadership training, dormitory rooms, and a scholarship program for disadvantaged students from the slums and province areas. At the same time, we decided to establish an outreach program to help the people who were evicted from Dey Krahorm by providing child care, a women’s clinic, business experience, and general family assistance.
Looking at our accomplishments, 2009 was a busy year for us. Since we established ACE, we have conducted one year of leadership training for 24 students. We also conducted two-day workshops for leadership training and the Attitude Forum 23 times for 15 NGOs and schools with 773 participants of various backgrounds, though most of them were students. With scholarship program, we have paid university fees for four students and will provide for five more students next year. There are seven students who have been staying in ACE’s dormitory, including two females with free accommodation.
We established the outreach program after realizing the needs of the people from Dey Krahorm who were evicted in late 2008. We now have four children who come to day care from Monday through Saturday. We give them breakfast and lunch every day, and in the afternoons we take them to pre-school. We have also been giving scholarships to four students from the Bording Blog. One is studying in grade 8 at Pannasastra International School. The women’s clinic has helped 11 women, from age 15 to 45, get medical treatment. There have been 505 toys taken to Australia through our Start a Business.
With leadership training and other short-term workshops, we have provided a lot of training for the students and staff members. We also allowed them to put what they learned into practice by encouraging them to join as many sessions as they could and to volunteer in our projects.
In 2010, we plan to run two more projects providing non-formal education. One is established at relocation site, Rudi Boa Center, another site 22 km from Phnom Penh, and is being managed by a student from ACE. The other one will be established in a remote area in the Kampong Thom province, Saing Sy Centre, with a program similar to the Rudi Boa Centre and also managed by a student from ACE.
I feel confident saying that through our ACE programs, the staff and students have been transforming their life, family, community, and country. We not only conduct the training for students; we also allow them to invite their parents, relatives, and friends to join our course. We first find out what they really want and then help them to make their dreams come true. So they become transformed. I know that even if these people cannot spend the rest of their lives changing Cambodia as a whole for the better, they can still change themselves, their family, friends, schools, and the communities where they work or live—all because of ACE and CKF.
Thanks always for your support to give them hope. With that, the country itself will improve because each individual we have touched becomes a better person.
Sincerely,
Sokchea SAING
