Cambodian Community Dream Organization, Inc.

Dream Journal – August 2023

Cordelia’s New Tuk-Tuk

Cordelia Chang has been an avid traveler and for the past eight years a generous and reliable supporter of CCDO. She first traveled to Cambodia in 2015 and noticed a donor signage on a well. She was intrigued and soon donated her own, following by sponsoring a scholarship student. She finally joined a CCDO ‘Travel with a Purpose’ in 2019 and met her scholarship student in person.

Her funds have built and furnished 2 preschools. When our CCDO tuk-tuk reached a venerable age of 10 years and urgently needed replacing, Cordelia stepped in and has now donated a brand new tuk-tuk. Please note that motorcycles and tuk-tuks are our organization's only mode of transporting staff, materials, books, and visitors. We do not spend money on cars or other fancy transportation options.

In Cordelia’s own words:

“When I was in Siem Reap w/ Odysseys, I saw a sign saying a well had been donated by someone from Europe. I thought that was a great idea and was happy when I found out that CCDO did that, too.

I want to help the people in the Cambodia/Laos area because of the US's involvement there during the Vietnam War. Also, my dollars go much farther there than here.

I enjoyed visiting the CCDO schools and meeting the students my friends and I are sponsoring on my last trip there.”

Thank you, Cordelia, we cherish your support!

Breakfast program ensures school stays open

In 2020, the Bangkoung Primary School was in danger of closing as the attendance was waning. The often-proven solution was to start a breakfast program to ensure that children would continue attending and the school remained opened.

Spearheaded by Elsie Gung, the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Central stepped up to the plate and provided the $5,000 needed to set up the kitchen and feed the kids for the first year. They have been providing food ever since and you can see the happy, healthy smiles on the kids’ faces. The school has grown by 10% and even younger siblings are welcome to tag along in the morning to be fed a meal.

Thanks to RC Hong Kong Central who have pledged yet another $2,500. They are also interested in a library program and are working on a Global Grant to secure funds. Watch this space for more news.

Donors

It is always a challenge to find funds to keep the lights on, the rent paid and internet working as well as providing office supplies and refurbishing staff computers. Our generous longtime donors see the need for this and allow us to use their donation as we best see fit.  

A big thanks to Sandra Horowitz who recently donated $1,000 for our General Fund. Sandra has donated over 30 times to our various programs!

Our very generous donor, Paul Schrieber, recently donated another $5,000 for CCDO to use as needed. Just in time as four of the staff were working with 10-year-old second hand computers that were slow and almost crashing daily. With a portion of Paul’s grant, we were able to buy them new computers.



Staff News

We are so proud of Sombon Nom, who joined CCDO in 2013 as our first librarian. She was instrumental in encouraging the kids to read and have them create pictures of the stories they were reading. She insisted on decorating the library and classrooms with drawings and plants. 

Her dream was not only to complete her own high school but to get a university degree. She took computer classes but found her passion in teaching English. She was recently nominated to do a two-week practicum in Thailand as she was top of her class. She is the ultimate teacher and has such enthusiasm and joy in her classes. Well done, Sombon!

Our Early Education Coordinator, Bunsrak Pan, recently graduated with his Master’s Degree in English Literature. He is responsible for training all the 29 preschool teachers as well as working with our program that trains English teachers in the rural communes. He also makes sure that preschoolers get healthy snacks and ample educational toys, books and art and craft supplies. 

Bunsrak is also our self-taught digital guru and has been creating lovely videos, showcasing different aspects of our work. His dedication to improving the lives of the Cambodian students, wins our hearts. Congratulations Bunsrak!