Year end 2016 HVTO Newsletter

Summary: HVTO has made remarkable progress in 2016. The centre is still strongly active with a great team to educate over 600 children to study English and computers with books in the library; a new building for educational presentations has been built next to the Viking-funded school; 9 new students were enrolled into the sponsorship program, so HVTO has the total of 160 sponsored students; HVTO has been forced to drop the dormitory for university students due to financial reasons but the office still remains in the city for administration and communication; 27 water pumps were installed for the people in Kontreang and Khnar Pur communes. In total, we have installed 410 water pumps to date; HVTO accommodated four different groups of volunteers to do different projects such as 38 students and faculties from Tabor academy, USA, who came to stay for 10 days in the communities to help build a bridge, a house, install a water pump and teach English; Three friends from UK came to stay three days to build a bike-shelter that was changed to be a presentation room with funds from Mr. Hiram Johnson; Shelly Riera, a former Viking passenger travelled and stayed 7 days to help set up Siem Reap village eco tour and finally the group of 9 volunteers via A drop of life, a Hong Kong based charity, came to stay 7 days to do many things for people and children at the end of 2016 (as well described below). Special thanks to Mrs. Betty and Jerry who have sponsored one whole family to change 180 degrees of their life – a new house. All the achievements above were made possible by the 6 funding sources – ICS Travel Group, Viking Cruises, Studiosus Foundation, US-HTVO presided over by Ms. Patti Baker, LNR Trust and Sim Piseth with his passengers. These 6 sources still continue to support HVTO in 2017. For 2017, A Drop of Life, a Hong Kong based charity, is helping HVTO specifically with clean water projects.