Dear friends and family,

October is here, and I’m imagining you with a cozy  sweater, a mug of tea and maybe a fire burning in the background. Ahhh that sounds so nice. Even though it’s rainy season here, it’s still 32 C (89.5 F), Benjamin and the neighbour kids are playing legos in front of a fan, we’ll probably turn on the air conditioning for them after lunch. 😉

This month went by quickly, here are some of our many activities!

Our water filter instillation this month was at Garuna Christian School. Garuna Christian School is a ministry that provides free tutoring and extra support classes for very poor children enrolled in the public school. These kinds of support programs are greatly needed in Cambodia because many children are not succeeding in elementary school and drop out around the 5th or 6th grade.  There are several factors contributing to the school dropout rate, but the two major factors are poverty and corruption. Poor children can’t afford the small bribes asked for by the teachers, and if they can’t pay the bribes then they don’t get all of the necessary study material or support from the teacher when they have exams.

For many years Warm Blankets Switzerland (WBS – the NGO that we direct) sponsored orphanages in Cambodia. But, the longer we work in Asia the more we realize that many of the children living in orphanages have family members that would love to care for them. Due to extreme poverty, poor families are sometimes persuaded to put their children into institutional care. Social programs such as free lunch, extra tutoring, free school uniforms, backpacks and bicycles to ride to school can make a huge difference in the life of a family living on a few dollars per day. It can even be the difference between children staying in family care, or being placed in an institution. 

In January 2025 WBS will begin supporting a new lunch and  tutoring program for poor children at New Life Church in Kampot. The program will run Monday – Friday from 11am-1pm and will include a free lunch, tutoring, and possibly free school uniforms. If this is something that you would like to have more information about, please reach out to us (Christmas giving opportunity, anyone?). WBS will be providing a portion of the financial support needed to run the program, and  New Life Church will fundraise for the remaining share. 

Two weeks ago we traveled to Phnom Penh to join in the “Swiss Partnership in Cambodia” meeting which is held at the Swiss Consulate every three to four months. This was our second time joining, and it was interesting to hear what projects other organizations are doing. This time we heard about some projects that World Vision and HEKS are cooperating on. We also got to see our new friends from Seed, who we partnered with last month to install two water filtration systems in public schools (link to FB post about the project from the Swiss Consulate). And lastly, it was a nice evening out for Lukas and I, because we could leave Benjamin with our friends Sam and Yein and their three girls. Sam and Yein and I used to work for Foursquare Children of Promise when we were young and full of youthful energy and innocence. Time has passed, we’ve all moved on to other jobs and ministries, but the friendship has lasted through the years. It’s wonderful to have a few friendships in Cambodia which have survived the test of time. 

Speaking of friendship, the Kull family from Switzerland is visiting us for three weeks. We’ve known the Kulls for about nine years, they are a fun and adventurous family! After only 48 hours here Elias and the older two boys were learning how to kite surf and ride motorcycles! They also accompanied us on a trip to install a water filter. Ester and the boys helps me with the the hygiene training, and Elias helped Lukas, the Cambodian guys install the filter. They also organized a game night at Safe Place Children’s home here in Kampot (https://www.safeplacemission.com/) and a great time was had by all!   

Well, I think that’s enough for this month, I’ll stop writing before you stop reading 😉

Here’s the photo link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bZ14PTVYBRDozY6N8

And here’s the link to the Warm Blankets Switzerland website: https://warmblankets.ch/en/welcome/

Have a great October!

Jenny, Lukas and Benjamin