As pandemic spreads to small villages, kids in Southeast Asia need your help

The following article appeared on the My Edmonds News web site today. in Southeast Asia are in real peril from the current pandemic, way more than we are. Think about it. You’re a child. To you, the whole world is your small village. You and your family live in a primitive bamboo or wooden house, […]

Your Amazing Help with the COVID-19 Crisis in Cambodia

With a huge thank you to all of our supporters – you know who you are – last week we were able to send $22,000 in grants to eight of our highly trusted NGO* partners in Cambodia. This way we directly address the crisis brought about by the current pandemic. Hundreds of village families will […]

Vulnerable Villagers Need Our Help Urgently

Under normal circumstances this would be the time for me to send you a quarterly newsletter reporting on another successful trip working with the organizations we regularly support in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Unfortunately, I can’t do that right now. Like most of you I’m spending my time sheltering in place, keeping appropriate social distancing […]

It’s Always About the Kids — This Time in Cambodia

It’s hard to imagine that $2500 could buy 10 computers and give a group of young students in Cambodia their first experience with modern technology, but a recent contribution made that happen. When our board president, Candace Sellers, enthusiastically told her friend Larry about an upcoming trip to Cambodia to visit some of the projects […]

A Social Enterprise Story Helping the Entire Community

This is a story about social enterprise, and how we work to support education in a very real way. Imagine living in a house like one of these Now imagine that your only water source is a community well a very, very long walk away. This is life in the very remote Kyet Tuu Ywel (Two Parrots) […]

Innovation in Education

Meet Tammy DurandTammy runs an innovative school called ABCs and Rice educating street kids in Siem Reap, Cambodia.Nine years ago Tammy visited Cambodia. Saw the challenges village kids faced. Vowed to do something about it.Nine years later she is still there, living in Cambodia, doing something about it.One of our favorite placesto support. Here’s the Story […]

Helping People Help Themselves

This is a story about how we enhance the sustainability of the organizations we serve. He needed $20,000 CCDO is a fine organization. We’ve worked with them successfully on several of their other projects.But this time, our initial response was “No, not yet.” Keeping in mind our long-held value of “helping people help themselves”, my […]

We Can See The Difference

There are so many heartwarming stories I could tell you about the work we are doing in Southeast Asia. With your help we are now providing education and housing for thousands of needy young women and girls in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar each year, as these regions claw their way back from poverty and troubled […]

Sustainability: A Story of a Monk and His Machine

Here’s a story I love sharing – especially given our Foundation’s commitment to creating sustainability in those organizations we select for support. Meet U Vimala. (Oo-wee-mala) He’s the head monk at the Guiding Star Monastery located a short distance outside Hpa-an, Myanmar, the capital city of the Karen State. Now 42 years of age, having […]

Searching for Sustainability

Philanthropy Is Never Enough. Every single day I spend working in SE Asia helping organizations do a more effective job of educating girls and providing job training for women, that undeniable truth just becomes more and more evident. Philanthropy is simply never enough. That’s the issue we spent a day and a half wrestling with […]

A Success Story — Thanks to You

Back in 2015 I visited a small Karin village about thirty minutes outside of Hpa-an, the capital of the Karin State in Myanmar. The 800 families living there had only a primary school for their kids. That’s it. No secondary school. No high school. Given the difficulties of transportation to reach the nearest secondary school […]

A Recent Trip to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand

I’ve just returned from nearly five weeks in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. In this report I’ll give you a quick look at some (but not all) of the projects I visited, all of which are benefitting from improvements made possible by YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS to our Foundation. MYANMAR At the Koenawin Monastery I got to […]