I hope you will excuse my brief intrusion before Venerable Somnieng’s year-end letter, but as chairman of the LHA board, I have an important message to share. Because Buddhist ascetic principles require monks to eliminate their attachment to material things, in the following letter Venerable Somnieng expresses his gratitude for your great support of LHA, but does not ask for its continuance.
So I just wanted to remind you that if Venerable Somnieng and his fellow monks are to achieve their plans to expand LHA’s six programs and improve the services they provide, your sustained generous support is vital. At the end of the letter, you will find it convenient link to the ways you can make donations .
Thanks again for your generosity and continued support. On behalf of the LHA board, I wish you a joyous holiday season.
Chairman, LHA Board
Dear friends, It’s been a year of joy, challenge, and achievement for Life and Hope Association. So I hope you will excuse my final newsletter of 2013 being a little longer, but I want to highlight a few things we have been able to accomplish with your great support over the past 12 months.
In March, the eighth class of LHA Sewing Training School (STS) students graduated after completing their 10 month class. The skills they acquired are allowing them to escape lives of poverty, difficulty, and exploitation in which all of them had been trapped.
Their places were taken by 28 girls in the ninth class which will graduate later this month, bringing to 217 the number of lives that the sewing school has changed since it began in 2006. We offer our grateful thanks to the Park Hyatt Hotel for its ongoing support of this program.
During the year, our Sustainable Community Program (SCP) continued to work with children and families in the poorest and most disadvantaged villages. The Food for Education program sponsored by Rice for Cambodia provided 70 families and their 440 family members with extra food so that their children could attend school rather than working to provide added income.
SCP also had 15 new Peace Houses built by monks and volunteers during 2013. Thanks to this program, a total of 59 families that have renounced domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, and gambling, have been able to move from derelict hovels into new homes.
SCP also continued to help families and communities become self-sufficient and self-sustaining by offering vocational training and helping establish small businesses through micro-loans.
In September, 12 girls from our Program Advancing Girls Education (PAGE) graduated from high school, with seven of them obtaining scholarships to attend universities. Of the 49 girls who have entered PAGE since 2008, 24 have graduated from high school. No PAGE girl has ever dropped out or failed to graduate high school. There are now 17 in university, and six more will start next month. And our first PAGE girl just obtained her BA!
To select girls who want to return to school, Venerable Loeurm, Ms. Sreyserey Ratha (project coordinator), and 10 PAGE girls traveled to remote communities to interview 49 applicants from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds committed to continuing their education. In October, 12 new girls moved into the PAGE houses and returned to high school to complete their studies.
As several young people transitioned out of Children’s Development Village (CDV) orphanage over the past year, we welcomed 7 new children to CDV in 2013. However, we keep in touch with all our CDV graduates, supporting their continued education and ensuring their successful transition to independent living.
Peanh Phary, a CDV graduate who completed high school while serving as a Temple Boy, recently returned to CDV as an assistant to the program coordinator “big brother” to the kids. Three PAGE graduates have also joined the CDV staff as teachers, house mothers, cooks and “big sisters” to the 40 children who live at CDV.
In LHA’s Foreign Language School (FLS), monks and volunteers continued to offer daily English classes, providing hundreds of students with a skill that gives them access to jobs in hotels, restaurants, and tourist related businesses. Tuition is inexpensive or completely free for those who cannot afford it.
Finally, last month, LHA’s Buddhism and Social Programs (BSP) continued its community outreach mission by providing emergency relief to 317 families displaced by Cambodia’s devastating floods. Each family received food, living supplies, and some cash to help them through the emergency.
My thanks once again to all of you for your generous and loving hearts, and for helping to change young lives forever.
With peace and love,
Executive Director | Life and Hope Association | Wat Damnak | Siem Reap | Cambodia
Address: Wat Damnak (Damnak monastery), SangkatSalakomreuk, Siem Reap, Cambodia,
US Tax-deductable Donations: Via Omprakash click here or Give2Asia click here Australian Tax-deductable Donations: Make cheque to “Rotary Australia Overseas Aid Fund, Project # 55/2009-10 (LHA) and mail to Rotary Australia, P.0. Box 807, Strathfieldsaye Vic. 3155. Bank Transfer – click here for LHA’s full remittance details Please email us to advise of your donation.
A Dhamma Talk on Vipassana and mindfulness meditation by Vipassana Gossalaya Jotannano Hong Keo, Vipassana Buddhist Master during a 10-Day Meditation & Vipassana Retreats at the Buddhist Meditation Center, Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam on the 11th Waxing Moon – 7th Waning Moon of Jeṭṭha B.E.2560 equivalent to June 15 – 26, A.D.2016 in Leverett, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in 2016.
ក្រុងសាវត្ថី Sāvatthī or Śrāvastī
Vipassana chanting by Meditation Master Ketodhammo Som Bunthoeun. Footages from 2016 Vipassana classes at the Buddhist Meditation Center – Wat Kiryvongsa Bopharam in Leverett, Massachusetts, USA.
SAMDECH CHUON NATH
Khmer literature and Dhamma talk by His Holiness Jotannano Chuon Nath, the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Buddhism. His Holiness was born on March 11, 1883; passed away on September 25, 1969
MAHA GHOSANANDA SERVICES
Extraordinary Funeral and Memorial Services for His Holiness Samdech Dr. Maha Ghosananda