BOBist_Chanly_April2005

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Dear Friends,

On behalf of my family, thank you kindly for giving us the opportunity to experience the power behind giving. It is a blessing and a life changing experience for us and those impacted by your contributions. As we all know, even a single dollar will go along way for a life of a poor struggling soul in Cambodia. Your kind donation has made a significant impact to struggling souls fortunate enough to benefit from your kind donations. We can not thank you enough for your kindness and generosity. Friends and family contributions made it possible for us to:

Dig a pond 20x16 Meters in diameter and 5 meters deep that is shared by the people residing in the Ong Village in Thmar Gohl/Battambong Cambodia
Provide school clothing, supplies, and 10,000 Reils each to 26 orphans who's parents died of AIDS (Courtesy of Michael and Melanie Lim).
Provide school supplies such as 12 desks, books, pens, pencils, and money to 350 students (note: not all 350 students are present, but materials purchased from the donations were for 350 students. 640 students in total at this school).
Provide school supplies and $10 each to 14 teachers and faculty members.
Provide rice (40 lbs each), soy sauce, fish sauce, msg, noodles, sarong, towel, medicine, and 20,000 Reil to 40,000 Reil ($5 to $10) to 12 families.
Provide rice (40 lbs each), medicine, sarong, towel, and 20,000 Reil to 40,000 Reil to 50 poor families.
Provide medicine (thank you Dr. Bryant Lee for the discounts on the medicine) and 40,000 to 50,000 Reil to more than 20 Old Men/Woman encountered during our travels
Provide jobs to local children and adults to help with additional work needed to complete the pond that will supply water to the local villagers.
Donated medicine, $20 US Dollars, and 300 lbs of rice to a Buddhist temple.

Please note: The children “volunteered” to assist with the post work needed to complete the village water supply project. Food and refreshments provided. The children volunteering to help are paid 10000 Reil, while the adults get 20,000 to 30,000 Reil per day for their service. Only adults were asked to work, but their children and/or brothers and sisters helped knowing that they are paid for their service. (Jobs are scarce in Cambodia and I didn't have the heart to tell them that they can not help). Many adults (including my own nieces and nephews, cousins) illegally journey into Thailand to find low paying jobs (6000 Reils per day, or about $1.50 per day. Some more than others depending on the job). Some risk life and limb simply to provide for the family. This is the year 2005. Reminds me of how blessed I am to live here in America.
Future Plans/Goals:

Fulfill a dream for the local school in Thmar Gohl/Battambong Cambodia to:

Dig pond that will be water supply for school and surrounding village
School supplies (furniture and materials)
Remodel section of the school
Build 4 bathrooms for the school (one exist, but does not work too well)

Collect more technical, science, medicine, engineering books, and retired computer equipment for a public library in Phnom Penh Cambodia. Approxiamately 4 boxes of books were collected and donated to the library in Phnom Penh.
Provide rice, medicine, food, and school supplies to more villages in Cambodia.

One month in Cambodia seems to be too short, but I can not complain for this rare opportunity to experience the humanitarian work that has helped a handful of poor souls in Cambodia. We can easily make a dollar, but making a difference is a little more difficult. Here and/or abroad, it doesn't matter, but our efforts to make a difference in someone else's life will make a difference in our own lives. Thank you all for continuously making a difference here and abroad. Below is the link to some pictures that I've been able to post to web containing the humanitarian mission to Cambodia. Let me know if you have any questions. Again, thank you. Please enjoy! ~ Chanly Bob - BOBist

	A little girl's daily chores in Cambodia. She lives nearly half a mile away from the source of water. Here you see a picture of her retrieving water from an dike that is nearly dried up. The water will be used for cooking, drinking, and bathing as well. This picture is of a pond dug by the NGO in Battambong (not sure which, may UNICEF? - will find out). As you can see, this is the local water supply and it is nearing its last drop. Livestocks share this with the villagers. It is quite a sad sight, but when this is all you got, what can you do? It's survival to them and you do and deal with these extreme hardships. Initially, I had plans to have the pond re-dug and repaired to make it more useable and safe. However, do to a constraint on the wallet, this had to be delayed. Maybe April 2007 will be a possibility.
	A couple hundred hards south of where the little girl retreiving water, a nearly dried up pond where the local villagers use it to water their crops, cook, clean, and also a water source for livestocks in the vacinity. This is a BEFORE shot dated April 2nd, 2005.
	And so it begins - the excavation starts and the Water Supply for Village project begins with excavaters who spent 2 days digging the 16x20 meters, 5 meters deep pond. The price for $630. This does not include the additional work needed afterwords before it can be used by the local villagers.
	Here a 12 inch cylinder is attached for 200 meters to the irrigation ditches where water travels down during the flood season and also when the levy is raised. Manual labor were used at a 30,000 reils per day ($7.50), including food and drinks. It took 2 days to complete the work performed by 3 local villagers looking for a job.
	Local children earned from 10,000 reils to 30,000 reils per day depending on the age for their help in finishing this project. Please note: They were not asked to help. They willingly came on their own accord in the hopes to make some money for the family. And what they were getting paid is a dream to them. Teachers make about $20 per month. And so, they are quite happy. Also, food and drinks were also provided.
	Red gravel is layed around the pond. To prevent people from manually retreiving water from the pond, barbed wires were installed and a hand pumped was put in place for safer water retrieval.
	A handful of ENGINEERS installed the water pump to be used by the local villagers for water retrieval. NO ONE allowed to retrieve water from the pond.
	Courtesy of Rithy Chean who just returned from Cambodia on December 23rd, 2005, took the pictures of the pond only about half a year's pass. Lemon grass, plants, and trees were planted around the pond to hold the soil together.
	Bob Sambo, who works for UNICEF stands next to a stone engraved sign made for CACO and Friends who contributed to this project. Through these kind donations, hundreds of lives were saved because of the fact that water (critical to all survival) is now available for them to use. If any of you wish to visit Thmar Gohl, I encourage you to pay a visit to the local villagers and ask them how this pond changed their lives. Thank you so much for your compassion towards humanity. And thank you for allowing me (Chanly Bob) and family to go through this powerful experience. It too has changed my life.