CEDF – OpCam is a Cambodian charity registered with the Ministry of the Interior in agreement with the Social Affairs Department. Opportunity Cambodia, an Australian NGO*, partners with CEDF – OpCam and provides its funding and overall guidance. About 2007 Opportunity Cambodia opened an Education Centre in rural Anlong Samnar Commune. Today, general manager Youchheng Uch (Chheng), and founder, Carolyn

We are seeking for several sponsors for 25 school girls available at the Good Shepherd Sisters in Nongkhai. Here’s some information about the program, in the words of the Sponsorship Programme itself. Programme Participants We wish to share with you the following statistics which show the numbers assisted by our programme over the past three years. Sponsorship funds are provided

Last week we once again visited Palel Myintta. You may remember this as the small child-care facility for about 20 HIV positive kids either orphaned by the disease or abandoned by their caretakers. This is where I first met May Mi, a four-year-old girl whose grandmother had been seeking a lethal injection so she wouldn’t have to care for an

I’m delighted to share with you the story of one of the finest Monks I’ve ever met. This man is named Ashin War Thithta. He is the Head Monk, called the Sayardaw, for the Kabahlone Monastery in Hpa-an, Myanmar. That is my good Myanmar friend and our Myanmar Country Director, Treasure, in the background. I first visited Kabahlone in 2013.

Along with my colleague, Peter Scontrino, I’ve just finished four full days coaching the future leaders of Myanmar on leadership and management skills. How, you ask, did that come about? Well – it all happened because our wonderful colleague in Myanmar, Treasure Shine, working with a local head-monk, along with the Hpa-an Education Foundation, pulled together this highly select group

My good friend and fellow Rotarian, Carol Acosta, asked me to help with a meeting so that the people in a local Hmong village called Rak Phan Din could explore the possibilities of organic gardening. Sure. Why not? We had no clear idea about their real agenda, but we sorted that out during the first meeting when 35 villagers showed

Today we visited Lahu village of San Leung, about 40 miles south of Lashio, Myanmar. There we met with the Village Leader (a nice fellow called U-Tone-See) his village committee, and many of the villagers. San Leung has 31 households with 15 kids in the 3 to 5 age range. They have a pre-school for them but only for two

This evening we met with the Hpa-an Education Foundation, including the current Chairman, a dedicated man called U Khin Shein. This is a group of 300 local citizens dedicated to filling the gap between what the government provides in the way of education and what is really needed. Each of the members contributes monthly to the Foundation. And, the leadership

As a long-time advocate for educating girls, it is gratifying to visit the various Monk and Nun schools to see first-hand their fine work being done in this regard. Up until this recent trip to Myanmar I have heard very little about this issue of “keeping the girls safe”. I heard a lot about it during this trip. As I

Today was a busy day in Lashio. In the afternoon we visited the Nayar Thiri Nun School. There, in the interest of safety, 40 girls from the local villages become nuns and attend nearby government schools. Two long-time nuns run the school and see to it that the girls are well cared for and get an education preparing them for