IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN

We are proud to send our annual end-of-year newsletter. It has been a great 12 months, with much progress, healthy kids, schools running well, a truly regenerated English language school, joy in the preschool, and good health and morale in the orphanage despite its being overfull, with 71 children in residence.

The Sharing Foundation is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary of “helping to care for Cambodia’s children.” We started with a small school and clinic at Cham Chao serving about 40 children, and now have about 1500 young people a day in our Khmer literacy school, preschool, high school, and college programs; sewing school; Roteang Orphanage; outreach programs; Owens Family Home for pregnant women with HIV; water programs; Farm Program; and so on. Ten years ago, we could not have dreamed that TSF would grow to encompass so many activities and so many people, nor could we imagine how many talented volunteers would come to Cambodia to help, and that the “home team” in the United States would work so tirelessly to make it all possible.

We are looking at plans to possibly build a new residence on our grounds at Roteang Orphanage to separate the boys and girls as they get older. The estimated cost of about $150,000, less than almost the cheapest condo in the U.S., is nearly prohibitive, with our current annual budget of close to $300,000, and our work to build an endowment of $3 million, currently with $1.7 million in place. We now have 47 younger boys and girls, and 22 children in first or second grade, along with two teens, Pharoth and Vuthea, who have been with us from the beginning. Adoption to Australia has made new homes for a few children this year, but new children come, often with HIV, from the National Pediatric Hospital, the prisons, or even from our own Owens House when a very ill mother does not survive childbirth.

Progress on All Fronts
The Khmer Literacy School out at the edge of the farm land, where we once had to insist farmers send their children if they wanted to work in our farm project, is a total success. Over 135 children eagerly attend daily, and the parents are very proud of their children’s abilities to read and write.

The English School is showing significant results from the changes we made a year ago. We have all our students tested at the Australia Center for Education as they come out of high school: where previously level 3 [out of a possible 12] was the mean score, this year we had many 6's, and even one 9.

The sewing school has 24 graduates of our four-month course, all now skilled sewers. Cambodian law prevents them from working in a garment factory until they are 18, so they continue to do piece work for the sewing center in the village, supporting their families well, sometimes for six or more months, while awaiting this maturity.

Other Initiatives—and Invaluable Volunteers
This year, we have immunized many children in Roteang village, with over 3000 shots given. We also immunized 71 children at Kampong Speu government orphanage thanks to funding from the CamTom group in Seattle. Other new projects have expanded the computer school (even with one, slow Internet line to the village), and taken all our orphanage children for high-quality dental care, including sealants on molars!

The chief thing to applaud at the end of this year is the vast group of really dedicated volunteers—both those who have traveled to Cambodia to share their expertise, and the even-larger group who have given time in the U.S. to keep TSF moving forward. We have an incredible board who give of themselves both at board meetings, and originating and running projects, in taking care of all the crafts dispersal, tending and improving the website and the newsletter, working on endowment development, handling vast numbers of letters and photos for sponsored students and orphanage children, and keeping our finances impeccably straight.

We owe major thanks to our donors who are the base on which all our programs stand. We cannot thank you enough, for sponsorships of students and for support of the orphanage children, and for funds for water tanks, a new orphanage van, immunizations, and general support.

Donations of every size count—we are grateful for birthday party gifts from children and oldsters, memorial gifts, and every fundraiser, large and small, dreamed up by folks in our wider circle. Many cheers: we are heartened by your ingenuity as well as very thankful for your help.

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STUDENTS SPONSORED FOR EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

49 Students Sponsored for High School
Forty-nine fully sponsored students from Roteang village began “private classes” at Jayavarman VII High School, 8 km. from the village, in October. The sponsorships from generous donors allow the students to be in small classes, with paid teachers, and textbooks and discussion, instead of the “open classes” where not much is taught or learned. The $300/year sponsorship pays teachers’ fees, textbooks, uniforms, and transportation by group trailer. Many students take 4-5 “private classes,” which are actually groups of 15-20 students taught by teachers not on duty, commonly in chemistry, physics, Khmer literature, and math. The sponsored students also have organized their own study groups, held in early mornings on weekends, back in the village. They all aspire to be able to pass the National High School graduation exams at the end of 12th grade. The sponsored youngsters also go to TSF English School after the regular school day, back in Roteang village; most have had six or more years of English School by the end of high school They are committed to exchanging letters with their sponsors four times a year, a dialogue they love for the support it offers and as a window to the wider world.

The students have been selected from a pool of the best students proposed by our English School teachers. At the end of September, Elephant and Nancy Hendrie chose 10 new ninth-graders, by written and oral interview, to replace the students who have now gone on the college. All had sponsors already waiting in the United States!

27 University Students on Full Scholarship
In October, TSF proudly enrolled 27 students from the Roteang countryside in various Phnom Penh universities. All previously sponsored by American donors through “small classes” in high school, all had reached success in the National High School graduation exams, and all the students also are graduates of three or more years in the TSF English School in Roteang village.

Much of the money for University sponsorships comes from sponsors who have a real relationship with their students from corresponding with them, and supporting them, through high school. (This year, only three of the sponsored students did not pass the national exams.) University tuitions range from $150-450 each year, depending on the university and the major, with additional costs for dorms, board, uniforms, books, bikes, required field trips, and allowances of $5-10 a month. Additionally, the costs of the Australia Center for Education, which has consistently given us multiple discounts and about four scholarships per term, bring the annual cost per college student to an average of about $1200.

Our eight new freshmen, boys Chhang Seka, Thay Rotha, Now Sokren, Thy Thorn, and girls Nuth Sunny, Soy Sovanthida, Phong Sophy, and Srey Nita, joined 10 sophomores and 9 juniors in TSF’s two dorms in the city. Four of our students are going to the highly selective International Foreign Language university (IFL), majoring in English teaching, and planning to perhaps be back in TSF’s village English program after graduation. One student, Chan Phearum, a sophomore boy, is the recipient this year of a full scholarship at IFL, having taken tough exams with 700 other students and having been awarded one of their 50 scholarships! Other students are majoring in business, economics, information technology, banking, and hotel/tourism.

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FARM SCHOOL STUDENTS HEADED TO HIGH SCHOOL

Srey Mom

A very proud moment arrived in October for TSF and our Khmer Literacy School! Two students from Farm Project families who initially attended the Literacy School out at the farm fields, then the village school, and then the TSF English School are now ready for high school! This is the first time we have had Literacy School students progress to this point, and it is a tribute to their families that they are willing to give up the girls’ labor as farmers for them to pursue their educations.

Chheng Srey Mom, 16, whose parents stopped school in grades 3 and 7, and whose two grown brothers quit in grammar school, has completed grade 8. She first went to the Literacy School 5 years ago, then joined the public school at a 4th-grade level, and also began after school English classes with TSF. Srey Mom wants to be a teacher; her favorite subject is Khmer. During her interview, she wrote that she “wants to work hard for higher education, and when I have good knowledge I can help my community.” Hun Srey Neth, 17, also has parents in the Farm Project; her father finished 7th grade, her mother, 6th. Her three siblings all left school in early grades. Srey Mom would like to be a doctor “to help children and give them advice.” We welcome both girls to the high school sponsorship program, and are sure their American sponsors will have interesting letter exchanges as they follow these students’ progress.

Srey Neth

About the Farm Project
The Farm Project was started in 2001 with a grant, ultimately renewed for four years, from the Michael and Maureen Ruettgers Family Foundation. The village chief felt that help for the poorest families—families living out in back of the main village, without money to rent land or buy tools or seeds—was the most urgent need. TSF hired a farm manager, rented fields, and bought seeds and hoes, and water pumps. Chosen by the village chief, the families enrolled to grow vegetables for their families and to sell the excess in markets in Phnom Penh. The farmers earn a laborer wage from TSF and the money from excess produce sales is put into a separate account, disbursed annually as each family selects a new roof, home siding, or a latrine, with the materials paid for from this account.

Most of the parents in the project have very little or no schooling, and most cannot read or write. The only requirement TSF puts on participation in the project is that the families have to send their children to school. The children, of varying ages, cannot just jump into the village school so TSF built a simple thatched two-room schoolhouse on the edge of the farm fields. Initially, the parents balked, saying their children would grow up to be farmers, and needed no schooling. Gradually, however, under two good teachers, parents have become incredibly proud of their children’s accomplishments as they learned reading, writing, and math. We now have three sessions a day, and many of the children as they have become skilled also go to the half-day village school, with their parents’ approval.

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS WITH THE SHARING FOUNDATION

By Ruth Reeder
The celebration of Christmas 2006 was the beginning of a new tradition for 18 members of the Reeder and Moss families. Christmas had become an extravagance of presents and we wanted a better way to honor the holiday. We decided to support a charity in place of gift-giving. One of our teenaged grandsons led the way a previous Christmas by donating to the Heifer Project as his gift to everyone. There are many worthy charities that need support but we decided to each make a donation to the Sharing Foundation as our gift to each other. I have watched the growth of the Sharing Foundation from its beginnings and continue to be amazed at the scope of its accomplishments. My family had often heard me speak of Dr. Hendrie and the Sharing Foundation. They had also received gifts from me of articles made by the girls in Cambodia. Each year, Dr. Hendrie brought an assortment of these beautiful handmade items to sell at our church Christmas sale.

Our goal was to give a full-year sponsorship to a University student. The Sharing Foundation chose Sin Vuthy to be our student. He comes from a farming family and will be the first member of his family to attend a university. Sin Vuthy is a bright young man and a good student who is receiving excellent grades as an English major. We have become acquainted with him through the exchange of letters and pictures. He writes interesting and thoughtful letters and several family members have enjoyed corresponding with him. We had a great Christmas!

Eighteen family members representing three generations gathered at our home for Christmas. Young and old showed off their artistic talents decorating cookies. Everyone brought a $20 gift for a Yankee swap that turned into a lively affair. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together and then gathered for a sing-along accompanied by three guitars, a drum, and an assortment of handheld instruments. It was a fun and meaningful way to celebrate Christmas and we plan to repeat it this year. We have received more pleasure from sponsoring Sin Vuthy than any gift could have given us. Try it—-you will like it!

Stocking Stuffers: Sophie and Van's Pins | When Sophie Boardman of Oakland, Maine, completed a third-grade research project on Cambodia last June, her teacher gave her a lapel pin with the Cambodian flag, and a second one with the Cambodian and American flags together. Proud of her native country, Sophie began wearing her pins every day, and quickly saw a fundraising opportunity for The Sharing Foundation. Enlisting her brother Van's help, Sophie created a flier and mailed it off to relatives and friends seeking orders for pins to benefit The Sharing Foundation. Their parents, Shirley Brook and Dave Boardman, sponsored their project, and Sophie and Van quickly raised more than $350.

“Not many people in Cambodia are as lucky as we are, so I decided I just wanted to help give them money to buy food and water, because I was from the country,” said Sophie. Sophie and Van are continuing their pin project to help children in Cambodia and are now taking orders.

Pins cost $5 each and feature either the Cambodian flag or the Cambodian and American flags with crossed staffs. There is a minimum order of two pins. All proceeds from the project go to TSF. To place an order, drop a note with the quantity and type of pin you'd like along with a check made out to The Sharing Foundation for $5 per pin to Sophie and Van Boardman, 48 Lakeview Drive, Oakland, ME 04963.

Give a Very Unique Gift This Year | How about giving an outhouse for Christmas, or even three outhouses? Beng Krom School, with 595 grammar school children on the far side of the Mekong, is a poor school that TSF has helped support for the last several years. We regularly make two trips a year across, on a rickety wooden ferry, bringing school uniforms made in our sewing school, and copy books, pens, pencils, and sharpeners. Two years ago, with funds from the Long Island chapter of the American Association of University Women, we were able to replace their highly arsenic contaminated well with a huge rainwater collection tank and delivery system to supply safe drinking water. Now Beng Krom’s children really need three latrines to expand from the two they have for all their children and teachers. Local builders would build these, bigger and stronger than the “family latrine” shown here. The cost would be about $900 and our own Elephant would supervise the project.

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UPDATES FROM THE VILLAGE AND ORPHANAGE
Where Your Money Does Not Go | Did you know that the Sharing Foundation has no Americans on salary? Your money is not spent on executive pay; the board members are all volunteers. Many parents and other volunteers work hard selling crafts, planning and running benefit dinners and events, and raising funds for the many TSF projects. The Sharing Foundation has no office suite to eat into your contributions—just rent-free spaces in volunteers’ homes. There are no paid fundraisers or soliciting staff and no paid advertising campaigns. Our only administrative expenses are the required accounting and legal expenses, and the printing and mailing of the newsletters. All of the rest of your donations go straight to helping the children of Cambodia! If your organization is interested, we would love to come and speak to your church or community group and share a DVD or Powerpoint presentation about Cambodia and our projects; please contact us at nhendrie@roteang.org. Thank you for helping us help the children of Cambodia.

TSF Distributes School Uniforms | In October, as school was about to open for the year, the sewing school finished the last of over 1450 school uniforms, with 2 white shirts and 2 blue skirts or pants packaged in each set. The sewing girls are paid market prices for making the uniforms, though the cloth is of higher quality than market uniforms. The foundation distributes all the finished packets to poor schools like Beng Krom public school; Kampong Speu orphanage, where many of the uniforms were custom-measured for the teens; a Maryknoll program that takes care of many HIV-affected school kids; SCAD, the Cambodian NGO that works to get street children into school; and our own needy Roteang village students. (Pictured at right: Elephant and Pol Sok Ly hand out uniforms at Kampong Speu)

Career Advice for TSF Grads | Lee Steppacher and Dan Shepard, of Concord, Mass, have been corresponding with four TSF students over the past four years as the students went through high school, passed the national graduation exams and are now attending colleges. As the designated correspondents for First Parish Church of Concord, which is the financial sponsor for the students, Lee and Dan developed a great interest in visiting Cambodia. Now as their students (along with the others) grow closer to completing their education, many questions have arisen. Are jobs available for these students? How do young people get jobs, without experience, and without the connections so necessary in Cambodia? Students sponsored with full scholarships by the TSF program are from poor families, without relatives in high places. Are there things the students can do to prepare for the job market? And how can the students begin to get the experience that is needed in order to qualify for getting a job? Dan, a career counselor in Boston, and Lee, a program planner, have now spent several volunteer weeks in Cambodia in October looking for answers. Gathering information from NGOs, university officials, human resource agents and others, they have begun to determine the process for getting jobs in Cambodia. They also met with our university students several times and conducted a workshop to introduce them to some general job search skills: writing c.v.'s and interviewing. Dan and Lee know they will not have all of the answers after this short trip, but hopefully can make some recommendations that, over time, can guide efforts to assist these students in successfully getting jobs, and being ready to give back to their families and their community.

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The purpose of The Sharing Foundation is to help meet the physical, emotional, educational, and medical needs of orphaned and seriously disadvantaged children in Cambodia. Our goal is to prevent some of the problems associated with poverty by developing, in conjunction with Cambodian community leaders, programs to improve the social fabric for these children and their families.

Executive Board Nancy W. Hendrie, M.D., President, Concord, Mass. Judith Jones, Concord, Mass. Beth Kanter, Norfolk, Mass. Sally Stokes, Carlisle, Mass. Jim Ganley, Portland, Maine Kelli Kirshtein, Watertown, Mass. Kathleen MacDonald, Treasurer, Lexington, Mass. Richard Recknagel, Secretary, Bath, Maine

Advisory Board Mary Lynn Carson, Plymouth, Mass. Lisa Dennison, Kittery, Maine Marilyn Driver, Portsmouth, NH Lisa Hicks, Wellesley, Mass. Mary Hult, Carlisle, Mass. Robin Jean, Concord, Mass. Gracie Johnston, South Portland, Maine Jennifer Mendelson, Newton, Mass. Deborah Nelson, Ipswich, Mass. Liese Rajesh, Seattle, Wash. Kathryn Recknagel, Bath, Maine Laurie Relinski, Dover, NH Mary Beth Savage, Portsmouth, NH

Sharing Foundation home page