Cambodia4Kids.Org

Help Sponsor Leng Sopharath's Education

 

Click here to view video

I’m the parent two wonderful children, Harry and Sara, who were adopted as orphans from Cambodia.  My children have food everyday, clothing, go to school, have toys (probably too many), and many other necessities of life that we in the US often take for granted.  When we were in Cambodia, many Cambodian people came up to us and said “Your child is very lucky!” We would reply, now we’re lucky parents.  But in some respects, they were right.  The infant mortality rate in Cambodia is very high, so my children are lucky to be alive.

When we adopted our beautiful children, we also adopted their birth country.  We have embraced Khmer culture and we also feel a responsibility to give something back to the country, particularly to seriously disadvantaged children in Cambodia.  Soon after coming home with our first child nearly seven years ago, I volunteered for the Sharing Foundation, an ngo that works directly with local officials, orphanages, and NGOs in Cambodia to identify and carry out projects which improve the lives of children.  I now serve on the board.

There’s lots of could tell you about TSF and I encourage you to visit the web site so you can get an sense of the scope of the good work this organization does.  One of its focus areas is education. Over 1,300 children in Cambodia receive educational support every day as a result of The Sharing Foundation initiatives.  The Foundation has increasingly focused its efforts on ways to create and improve educational opportunities for Cambodian children of all ages, including public school projects, pre-school, Khmer literacy, English language instruction, high school and college sponsorships, and vocational training.  These projects present what might be the only means for the most disadvantaged children to life themselves, as well as their families, out of poverty conditions, become self-reliant and lead more productive, hopeful lives.

The Foundation is now its second year of college sponsorships.  Last year, our family stepped forward to sponsor Leng Soparath, an orphan from Kampong Speu orphanage.  For a gift of $750 annually, TSF is able to cover her college fees and living expenses. (It is a stretch for us ... we’re not rich but this could make such a difference in the life of one young person) In addition to money, we provide emotional support and encouragement through regular letters and photographs that we exchange.  Our letters are hand-carried to Cambodia by Sharing Foundation’s 76-year old founder, Dr. Nancy Hendrie.  Watch the video for more information.

I’ve also documented our correspondence with Leng Sopharath in flickr (here, here, here, and here).

While TSF has paid staff, Cambodians, in Cambodia to manage all its programs, the work done in the US (primarily fundraising) is all volunteer-driven.  Almost of the money raised comes from grassroots efforts and primarily done offline as well as some web fundraising. (See these wonderful examples.) So, when I saw the fundraising widget, it looked like a natural extension of the type of grassroots fundraising that we’ve been doing offline.  And I might add that our family has made a commitment to sponsor Leng Soparath through graduation and we ask our friends, family, and colleagues to help us.  Even my kids contribute money from their piggy banks and direct birthday money to the effort.

How you can help

1.  Make a contribution:  A little bit of money in Cambodia goes a long way.  Click on the ChipIn badge above to charge your contribution.

2.  Blog about the campaign and include campaign badge:  Help tell the story aout why a college education for someone in Cambodia is so important.  To copy the badge code,simply click on the HTML icon on the badge and cut and paste the code into your blog post.  Here's a screencast that shows you how.

3.  Click on the Video and Ad:   The campaign video is in Revver which is advertiser based and pays per click through.  You can also add the video to your blog by copying the code.  All proceeds will be donated to support this project.

4.  Digg it!:  Click through and digg the story.

5.  Advice: Give me some advice about how to get the word out by leaving a comment to this post.

Thank you!  Here it is Khmer too!

P.S.  Please be sure to read the letter from Leng Sopharath to the Sharing Foundation explaining why her college education means so much to her.

 

The $3 Laptop

Via Snazzzz's post in live journal comes the story of the $3 laptop.   First,  "snazz

Inspired by MIT's $100 laptop project and not to be outdone, they've been working on their own educational laptop project and delivered their first working model to Saron, a banking and finance student living in a small village near Prek Eng.  Despite being blind in one eye, he was one of the best computing students at Jayavarman VII High School.

The machine was an ancient laptop, P2, running Windows 98, with a cracked screen.  They had it fixed it!  Snazzz  wonders whether refurbishing older, discarded laptops and getting them to new, less demanding owners in developing country might be a suitable strategy. 

I know there are organisations that recycle desktops (and some laptops) from US and transport them in larger quantities in developing countries.  It can also be done on a smaller scale, as Snazz suggests, "Small numbers of laptops are a much easier proposition - just slip one in your hand luggage."

I know at the Sharing Foundation that's how we been able to stock up the computer school we've set up in the village.  More on that in a bit.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Skype, Flickr, Stickers and Paper

Today I visited both Harry's and Sara's schools and did a  lesson on the Lunar/Chinese New Year which ends this weekend. 

Sara's school does not have an Internet-connected computer, so the activities were focused on movement, reading a book about it, circle time, doing related crafts, and singing a song.   The kids were age four and five year olds.   I was impressed that they were able to sit still for the ten-minute circle time where we talked about Chinese New Year. 

I told them the story about the Animal Zodiac race and I asked why you did Rat won?  One kid answered, "Because he exercised!"  I interpersed circle talk with some hands-on tasks - like they got to fold the buddhist prayer money and put it inside the red envelope and touch the firecrackers.

They made "Year of the Dog" New Year's cards and good luck scrolls.  I used photoshop and word to create templates and "stickers" on address labels for them to use.

They really enjoyed the "Gung Hay Fat Choy" song.   Before I introduced the song, in the circle time we practiced saying Happy New Year in Chinese.  (I told the kids that if they say that in Chinese restaurant to the waiter, it will make the waiter happy and they might even get a second fortune cookie.)  I made up a game on the spot where I would point to someone and they would have to Gung Hay Fat Choy and then point to someone else unitl we went around the circle. 

Then I played the song and had them raise their hand when they heard the phrase.   Next we sang the song together - mostly the chorus.   And for each verse, we made up hand movements to match the words.   The song has a nice relaxing tune.  If I were to do this lesson again, I'd put the song at the end before the snack and right after the circle I would do a more energetic movement activity.  We didn't have a video in the classroom, so couldn't do the lion dance stuff I did in Harry's class.

The crafts were a big hit.   With two crafts stations set up, and so many kids, I was so busy I didn't remember to take out my digital camera until the end. 

At Harry's class, I spent circle time explaining Chinese New Year -- mostly as an inquiry lecture - asking them lots of questions and encouraging them to raise their hand and ask me questions.   I also showed them examples.  Each kid got a red envelope with Buddhist Prayer Money.   

I told them that after circle we would use SKYPE internet phone to call  Nick in Hong Kong.   These six-year olds were amazed that we could do that with a computer and very impressed that I knew someone in Hong Kong.  I explained to them that my computer was turned into a phone and showed on the globe where Hong Kong was.  I told them Nick could answer the questions they had about the flickr photo set he put together.

The day before, I had worked with the school's IT Director to get access to their wireless network and get ports cleared so we could I jack in my laptop and get beyond the firewall.   I was not able to get on with my laptop.   While IT director went back to her office and grabbed her laptop loaded with SKYPE, Harry's teacher and I  asked the kids to brainstorm a list of questions they wanted to ask Nick.   

I wasn't sure whether Nick would be available -- after it all there is like a 12 hour time difference and that would make 2:00 a.m..  So, we left a message on his voice mail and the kids screamed all together "Gung Hay Fat Choy."   Later that evening, Harry and I spoke with Nick via Skype and then Nick created a podcast of the answers.

Here's the list of questions from some pretty curious 6 year olds:

• What time do Asian people go to bed on Chinese New Year?
• How did the animals know what the emperor ("god") was saying to them when he suggested having a race to name the animal zodiac?
• Was there really a dragon named Nien -- or is that just a story?
• Why did the emperor decide to have a race?  What other animals besides the cat didn't win and why?
• When Nieth the Dragon sees the color red, why is he so afraid? 
• Did Nieth think the red color was blood?
• Why were the villagers so scared of the dragon if dragons aren't real? Could they have been afraid of something else?
• Is the dragon smart or stupid because he was afraid of firecrackers and loud noise?
• What kind of food do people eat for Chinese New Year?  What is the food in the first flickr photo?  Is something sweet?  It looks yucky.
• Is hard is it to learn how to write Gung Hay Fat Choy?

The kids watched a video of the lion dance.  I showed them the photo of the Lion Dance in Cambodia. Then I had them color in the masks and then I taught them a very simplified lion dance gestures.    Finally, they settled down for a snack!

Technorati Tags: chinesenewyear, skype

Lowcost Wireless Networking in the Development World: Free Book

I received an email from Tomas Krag telling me about his new book on wireless networking for the developing world:

Together with a group of my friends and colleagues, I have been working on a book specifically about wireless networking for the developing world. After 4 months of work, we are proud to announce the completion of a 250-page free book, jam-packed with information about building wirelss networks in the developing world.  It's available as a free download in pdf format, and there's the option of ordering printed copies from a print-on-demand site in the US We are currently negotiating with publishers and others to try and get the book printed and published, so keep an eye open for news on the website

Technorati Tags: ict, ngo, wireless_networking, development, net2, nptech

More Broadband in Cambodia?

Found this pr news release today with the headline:

Cambodia Data Communication Selects SOMA Networks to Provide First Nationwide Broadband Wireless Infrastructure

a leading provider of last-mile broadband wireless access technology, today announced an agreement to deliver broadband services across Cambodia using SOMA Networks' last-mile wireless access system.

With a population of approximately 15 million people, Cambodia has a relatively low telecommunications penetration rate and only a handful of carriers authorized to provide Internet services. Headquartered in Phnom Penh, CDC, under the registered branding of AngkorNet.com, intends to increase its national footprint by becoming the first ISP to offer tiered and bundled packages of high-speed Internet access and other data applications, all powered by SOMA's SoftAir(TM) wireless system. The first phase of the project will focus on the capital city of Phnom Penh before expanding to other major cities in Cambodia in 2006.

Wow, does this mean vlogging might be possible within the next 18 months? 

Will this happen?  If so, what will be impact?  What do you think?

A blogger named Ted who tracks wifi and broadband had this to say:

Conventional wisdom says that China and India will lead the charge in
bridging the global digital divide. But savvy governments and carriers in
smaller countries aren't waiting for China and India to lead the way.  />
While China moves slowly, smaller, more nimble countries like Malaysia,
Vietnam and the Cayman Islands are leading the way in deploying wireless
broadband services. Today, Cambodia joins the roster of surprising
leadership with the announcement that Cambodia Data Communication Company will provide Cambodia's first nationwide broadband wireless infrastructure. CDC will use technology from SOMA Networks, a rising San Francisco broadband wireless provider.

The significance of this announcement extends beyond Cambodia itself and
raises broader global questions, including:

- How will vendors evolve to meet the rapidly changing rules of global
communications?

- What is the significance of Cambodia not waiting for China and India to
take the technology lead, as once thought they would?

- What is the overall impact of wireless broadband connectivity on the
emerging global economy?

Technorati Tags: cambodia, khmer, ngo, net2, nptech

Seeking Volunteerwork in Nonprofits/Technology in Cambodia

My colleague Patricia Perkins, who is a computer geek and has worked with nonprofit organizations, will be doing a world tour.    She is looking for some volunteer opportunities where "help nonprofits working to turn back the tide of poverty to use the technology at their disposal."  Her plan: "To find local nonprofits, roll up my sleeves and see what I can contribute."

Cambodia, is in her itinerary from Mar 26-May 21, 2006.

She has lot of great skills if you read her more detailed post about her travel plans here.

Please feel free to spread this around or contact her directly if you know of any opportunities to take advantage of her expertise.

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, cambodia

Take a look at this!

Lots of web sites using Khmer unicode.

Khmer Unicode Paves the Way for the Yellow Pages in Cambodian Language

According to a press release from the Interquess Enterprises, the publisher of the Yellow Pages, will debut for the first time in the Khmer Language in 2006.   The Khmer Yellow Pages will be available in different formats, including a printed book, an online directory and a desktop application for Windows, like its english sister publication "Cambodia Yellow Pages".

Making this possible is the Khmer Unicode, a project of the Khmer Software Initiative.  Notes the general manager Omry Revach in the press release, ""This is a natural development as a country should not be without a Yellow Pages telephone directory in the local language."

Technorati Tags: cambodia, khmeros, nptech, net2

Web 2.0 and Cambodia?

In the US, there has been a lot of attention given to "Web2.0."  I had been wondering whether it even made sense to post anything about it here in this blog space.  (On my main blog, there is a movement called "Netsquared" to gather attention for nonprofits on this concept. And, I've posted a few items on my other blog about it.)

Tonight, I was reading Rebecca MacKinnon's blog about the Chinese blogercon.

I came away from this conference with a lot more than just a t-shirt.

I’m also leaving Shanghai with a realization: Web2.0 is potentially a very Chinese thing. One of the most important words in the Chinese language is “guanxi.”  It means “relationship.” Whatever you think about the term “Web2.0”, the point is that social networking and relationship-building are at the core of today’s most exciting web innovations.  The Chinese happen to be the most natural and skilled social networkers on earth.

Is Web 2.0 a Cambodian thing?

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, cambodia, globalvoices, gvo

Frappr

Google has a new tool called "Frappr" where you can create a group and people can add themselves to map.  It's a world map, so please do add yourself!

Here's my frappr group!