HVTO Newsletter July 2022

HVTO Newsletter July 2022

We are long overdue for an update on the progress of our organization, so please excuse the length of this newsletter. Despite the myriad of challenges that HVTO has faced recently, in our 13th year of operation we have continued to make excellent progress in a growing number of programs. The most important event affecting our programs in the last two and a half years has been the Covid pandemic. This has had a profound effect on the tourism industry, which had a devastating impact on local employment. Tourism is by far the most critical factor to the economic wellbeing of the people within HVTO’s area of activity.

Like the rest of the world, for the last 2 ½ years Cambodia has endured cycles of lock-down followed by various levels of relaxed restrictions. Despite a fatality rate roughly 1/20th that of the United States, this has seen quarantine measures that have closed the public school system multiple times in 2020 and 2021. The HVTO School works under the same system as the public schools, and for that reason we too were closed for roughly 12 months during this period. Monthly stipends were also suspended. The good news is that with an overall vaccination rate of just under 90%, the public and HVTO schools are up and running and the country is for the moment now fully open to foreign tourists. It is impossible to say how long this will last, but for the moment prospects for the economy are improving.

Covid has had a profound impact on tourism in Cambodia, and this is the major employer for the Siem Reap area in which HVTO works. Between 2019 and 2021 tourism income has fallen 97%, to a level not seen since 1994 (see below).

Between 2019 and 2021 Cambodia experienced a 97% drop in tourism

Cambodian Access to Electricity (%)               Cambodian Per Capita Income ($ US)

Keeping this short-term Covid event in perspective, Cambodia as a whole has made tremendous progress over the last twenty years (see above). According to the U.N., during this same period life expectancy has risen from 58 to 70 years. Much of this progress is in no small measure due to the work of organizations like HVTO. However, although the country as a whole still remains on the right track in terms of economic and social progress, the pandemic has certainly delayed this progress.

HVTO now has programs that will augment our signature education and water well initiatives. These include house construction, composting toilets, food aid, and Bio-Sand filters. The loss of Viking River Cruise and Studiosus tourists has hurt our recent sponsorship numbers, but our partnership with A Drop of Life (ADOL) has seen us make tremendous strides in clean water related projects. Through these HVTO’s positive impact on the quality of life of our people has grown tremendously. The table below summarizes the status major HVTO programs.

 Summary of HVTO programs July, 2022

On a personal note, Covid also deprived me of my livelihood as a tour guide for nearly two years. With Viking restarting its Mekong River Cruise in August, hopefully this period of unemployment is over. At this time I would like to recognize the generosity of ADOL who graciously provided me with a monthly stipend. It is only because of this that I have been able to continue to manage the many programs in which HVTO is now engaged. As you read this letter I think you will agree that our future looks very bright.

EDUCATION

Since its inception in 2008 the HVTO Education Program has sponsored 337 students of which 145 are still active in the program (see below). Of these ‘Active’ students 60 are in high school, 41 in grades 6-8, and the remaining 44 in earlier grades. Thus far 67 students have received university degrees, all of whom are now employed. Because of reduced job opportunities resulting from the pandemic many of these have had to accept work in other fields, but we are confident that as the economy re-opens they will find jobs in their chosen area. The 15 students in the ‘Other’ category have either opted to become public school teachers by passing a standardized test administered by the government, or received an outside sponsorship to study elsewhere.

As related in our previous newsletter, almost all of our students lost their jobs during the pandemic and most of these moved back with their parents where they helped in growing rice and vegetables. Although such a situation is not ideal for education, the communal safety net of the village provided for the students until life could get back to normal. Although things are now slowly returning to normal, an unfortunate result of the nearly 2-year hiatus was an acceleration in the number of students dropping from the sponsorship program. In total we have now seen 111 students leave the program (see below). There are many reasons for this, but mostly they revolve around the need to work full-time to help support siblings and parents, and/or the desire to marry and start a family.

It should be noted that Cambodia largely remains a traditional society in which boys are brought up to be breadwinners and girls homemakers. This has been manifested in HVTO’s experience over the last twelve years. Our sponsors historically have shown a marked preference in choosing girls, with girls representing nearly 2/3rds of all sponsorships. However, their drop-rate is almost double that of the boys, who now represent 58% of our graduates.

Thus far in 2022 we received an additional 12 sponsorships, 10 from the Cokkonis Estate (LNR Trust Fund), bringing their total to 113 and making them by far our largest sponsor. Since 2013 the Cokkonis Estate has sponsored an average of ten students per year and we are very grateful for its continuous support over the years for our HVTO students.

HVTO has sponsored a total of 337 students since this program’s inception

Sandee Corbett, one of the Friends From Oklahoma, donated her gently used MacBook Pro to the HVTO sponsorship program, with the lucky recipient being none other than our Headmaster, Ine Un, whose laptop has recently died. Access to computer hardware is an ongoing challenge to HVTO staff and university students, so working hand-me-downs of all kinds are gratefully accepted.

Un with his ‘new’ MacBook Pro, courtesy Sandee Corbett

In November five of our supporters from Florida (Patti Baker, Joy Perez, Cece Simon, Julie Zipperer, and Margery De Witt) will be traveling to the HVTO school and bringing along with them 250 pounds of texts and workbooks for our English program. This English as a Second Language (ESL) program titled, “Language! The Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum, was used very successfully by Joy and Margery in Guatemala. Involving reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary grammar and speaking, the ladies will be staying for two weeks to train the HVTO teachers to maximize the effectiveness of the program.

Patti Baker (center) is also the President of Homestay Teachers Volunteer Organization, Inc. This is the 501c3 (charitable) organization that is incorporated in Florida through which contributions are transferred from the United States to HVTO in Cambodia.

Margery DeWitt (standing), Patti Baker, and Joy Perez with a small sample of the materials that they will be bringing to the HVTO School in November

Facilities

After the repairs that were made prior to the Covid closure, the physical facilities of the school have remained in good shape. , Early this month, using mostly funds from Viking River Cruises, HVTO purchased 808 square meters (< ¼ acre) of land adjoining the school grounds. In the near term this will be used as extra playground space, but long-term will be used to build new classrooms in order to address class overcrowding. At this time there are over 450 students regularly attending the HVTO school.

HVTO back in business – students beginning their classes with morning exercise

Meet the HVTO Staff

Our HVTO staff are described below from left to right

Deb Bokun and Choan Serey are our HVTO Community Coordinators. Bokun has many connections with community authorities and Serey is especially adept at communicating with common people. Serey has recently become a member of the Kontreang Commune Council where he will advise the Commune Chief.

Meng Seaknam graduated in 2016 with a degree in Business Management from P.U.C. (Pannasastra University of Cambodia). He was sponsored by the Friends From Oklahoma and has been the General Manager for HVTO for the last ten years. He is responsible for representing HVTO at any event that I cannot attend. He does everything from hauling well and filter equipment, to chairing the monthly HVTO staff meeting.

Piseth Sim is a well-known tour guide in the Siem Reap Angkor Region and founder of HVTO. His work has enabled him to grow personally and has given him the opportunity to pay forward his own good fortune. Sim’s honesty, integrity, and vision has made HVTO a viable reality.

Ine Un has been the school headmaster at HVTO since 2014 when he graduated from Angkor University with a degree in Education. He was sponsored by Simon and Ranjeeta Johnson. Since that time he has coordinated all academic events at the HVTO School, from leading morning exercise to teacher training and evaluation, to teaching English to advanced students. Un also coordinates and acts as translator for expatriate volunteer teachers.

Lourn Phounam graduated with an English degree from Build Bright University in 2019. She was sponsored by Thomas Barkemeier. Married and with one child, Phounam is now in her second year in full-time teaching at HVTO.

Som Somphors is now defending her thesis for her degree in Accounting from USEA. She is the assistant accountant for HVTO and is in charge of keeping all of the financial records as well as disbursing the monthly stipends to the students. Somphors is sponsored by Jeff and Barbara Godfrey Roberts.

Sinh Bumsong is an HVTO teacher and was sponsored by Stan and Ellie Nice. He completed his degree in English and graduated from USEA in late 2021. One of his major responsibilities is the coordination of all communication between sponsors and pre-university aged students.

Dey Mey is the last of our four full-time HVTO teachers. He was sponsored by the Cokkonis Estate and graduated from USEA with a degree in Education in 2020. Mey has been one of our most active volunteers and has been featured in previous newsletters for his volunteer teaching efforts in villages near the HVTO School.

The only reason that it is possible for HVTO to have 450 students in a school with only four full-time teaching staff is our access to an enormous manpower pool in the form of student teachers. Taken from grades 11-12, as well as university students from Siem Reap, we now have 73 student teachers who volunteer one 8-hour shift per month. The high-school volunteers take the beginning classes with the university students traveling to the village to teach the more advanced English classes. These students prove the adage that – ‘As you teach you learn’.

Student News

Sok Sokong was in his 3rd year of studying bio-engineering at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, when based on standardized test scores he won a five-year scholarship from the Vietnamese government to study computer science in Vietnam. In the first year of this program Sokong will learn Vietnamese. A cooperative agreement between the governments of Cambodia and Vietnam, Sokong will be offered a job in the Cambodian government upon completion of the program. He is sponsored by the Cokkonis Estate.

Sok Sokong in front of his new university in Hanoi

Naem Rotthy, who is sponsored by Brigid Mulloy, is on course to graduate with a degree in Marketing from USEA. Born into an extremely poor family, even by Cambodian standards, Rotthy has shown himself to be a very honest, hard-working student who has become one of the most popular students in the HVTO School. He is a volunteer teacher whose engaging personality has made him one of the top producers at the Seaknam Care cleaning supply company.

Naem Rotthy at work in his job at Seaknam Care

Graduate News

To date HVTO has brought 67 graduates into the workforce in Cambodia, the majority of these into Siem Reap. These students are all employed, but as mentioned previously many are in a holding pattern awaiting the revival of the economy so that they can pursue their area of interest. The graph below summarizes the degrees obtained by HVTO graduates thus far. The ‘Professional’ category here includes Legal, IT, Science and Engineering careers. Few of these students could have reached their educational goals without the moral and financial support of our HVTO sponsors.

A summary of degrees earned by HVTO graduates

The students highlighted represent only a small proportion of those with success stories that we could relate. However, the students listed below are excellent examples of the career paths that many of our HVTO graduates are taking.

You Vakhim (2022), who was sponsored by Cyril William Appel, completed his IT degree from USEA and is now employed as an IT professional for Angkor International Hospital. He also provides invaluable help to HVTO by being our volunteer go-to person for all computer issues, both hardware and software.

Vakim at work

Vakhim helps HVTO with all IT matters – including broken printers

Meng Seaknam (2016), who was sponsored by Friends From Oklahoma, started and is managing a company called Seaknam Care. This business performs janitorial services in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Seaknam and his wife live in Siem Reap with their two children, where in addition to his company responsibilities, Seaknam continues to work for HVTO as its General Manager during his free time.

Meng Seaknam, his wife Leemon and their family seeing the sites in Phnom Penh

The Seaknam Care Store Front in Siem Reap

Kong Kan (2019) was also sponsored by Friends From Oklahoma and was formerly the HVTO coordinator, where he was responsible for sending out information and letters to sponsors. He has moved to Phnom Penh where he is living with his wife and children. Kan is taking advantage of growing electronic connectivity by making YouTube and Facebook videos. These have made him a well-known personality in Cambodia. Kan has also created an online news service called ‘Kong Kan News’.

Kong Kan his wife Noeng Tey and their family

Vean Sokhang (2019), who was sponsored by the Cokkonis Estate, completed her degree in accounting and has moved to the capital, Phnom Penh, where she helps administer the pharmacy at the Preah Ket Mealea hospital.

Vean Sokhang in the Preah Ket Mealea hospital pharmacy that she administers

CLEAN WATER PROJECT

In order to identify the poorest people in their society and to provide services accordingly the Cambodian government has set up a national poverty identification system called IDPoor. In this system, based on regular home visits by administrators, families are assigned an IDPoor rating which determines the level of assistance required. Those with an IDPoor-1 rating are considered extremely poor, IDPoor-2 moderately poor, and ‘Other’ still poor, but relatively better off. All of HVTO’s non-educational assistance is guided by these governmental lists, such that when drilling teams begin work in a new village, they start with IDPoor-1 families and move through higher levels until every family has a new well.

A Drop of Life (ADOL) has been working with HVTO since 2016, and has been our partner ever since. They support all of our clean water projects, including wells, water filters, toilets, and even food aid. Established in 1998, A Drop of Life is a Hong Kong registered NGO that strives to ensure the access to clean water and sanitation for the needy. ADOL funds clean water projects in Cambodia, China, Nepal and Hong Kong. For more information on ADOL please visit their website at: Home – A Drop of Life

ADOL, through HVTO, has been especially helpful during the Covid pandemic and the associated unemployment that this has brought on. For the last seven years we have provided jobs for dozens of workers in the HVTO area. We are now employing five water well drilling teams with 35 men and five additional men installing the associated Bio Sand Filters (BSF). The subcontractors responsible for toilet construction employ roughly 30 additional men, and house construction adds even more. Taking into account the people and supply chains associated with all of the various projects in which HVTO is now engaged, it is safe to say that hundreds of families have benefited through HVTO and the generosity of ADOL.

Water Wells

Thus far this year HVTO has completed of 413 wells, 400 of these funded by ADOL, bringing our overall total to 6,924 over the past fourteen years. HVTO drillers continue to work some distance from our core area (see map below), and to date have now drilled over 167 kilometers. These wells have brought clean water to nearly 34,000 people in rural Cambodia that would otherwise have little or no access. Special mention must continue to be given to one of HVTO’s most stalwart supporters in the drilling of water wells – Rosemere High School in Quebec, Canada. Led by Deborah Adams and Wendy Haas and their predecessors, since 2013 they have funded the drilling of 93 wells, 10 of these in 2022.

Map showing numbers of HVTO water wells drilled by District

HVTO annual water well drilling – ADOL has taken our effort to another level !

ADOL has committed to drilling a total of 1,200 wells in 2022, so we have an additional 800 to drill to meet our goal. However, never forget, HVTO remains committed to drilling water wells for smaller sponsors as we always have in the past. So, if you would like to donate funds for the drilling of water wells, please do not let the magnitude of the ADOL project dissuade you.

Loeum Leak (foreground) and Nhiem Nhy drilling a well in West Sreth Village

HVTO has been able to drill so many wells in so short a time because the area in which we have worked thus far is underlain by unconsolidated sediments deposited by the ancient Tonle Sap River. This has permitted us to drill wells by pumping water through a simple nozzle on the end of a drill pipe that is hand-rotated using a T-bar (see above). This river-deposited aquifer sand is an excellent source of fresh water and should have no trouble recharging given an annual rainfall in the 1–2-meter range. As the area of HVTO water well drilling expands, we may find that we need to adapt our drilling practices as the local geology changes.

Huon Doeun in Knar Village is the recipient of this ADOL water pump

Water Filtration – Bio Sand Filter (BSF):

Prior to the work of HVTO, much of the water consumed in our area of activity came from pits dug in the earth’s surface that collected rainwater runoff. With both human and animal waste collecting at the surface this created a horrendous water quality issue, affecting everything from general health to infant mortality. A huge step in addressing this has come with the drilling of water wells, which uses the natural filtering system of the earth itself to filter out the vast majority of pathogens. The Bio-Sand Filter, or BSF, uses microbes living in the top 2 cm of a column of sand to consume any of the remaining pathogens. A side benefit is its ability to remove iron, which although not dangerous, is seen in high concentrations in some parts of the area in which we drill. Thus far HVTO has installed more than 755 Bio Sand Filters.

Diagram of a Bio-Sand Water Filter

Prom Brem in East Sreth Village with her new Bio-Sand Filter

Sanitation – Toilet Project:

This project is seen as a water project as it is part of a long-term solution to the rampant surface water contamination that the country endures today. ADOL has funded the majority of all of the toilets constructed thus far, and this is another large organizational task for the HVTO Team. Here we are using a subcontractor to employ more than 30 men working in four teams to perform this work. To date we have installed over 670 toilets.

Simplified diagram of a composting toilet

Proeung Prorn and family in Pong To Village with their new composting toilet

Food Aid:

The HVTO food aid program, which began with ADOL in June 2020, has since been joined by many HVTO donors (see graph below) and augments the government assistance package for the IDPoor-1 rated families in our area of activity.  To date we have distributed food to about 3,500 people in 750 families. The list of items included in a standard $65 food package is shown below.

1.      50kg jasmine rice

2.      1 small case of instant noodles

3.      1kg salt

4.      1kg garlic

5.      1kg MSG

6.      12 cans of fish

7.      6 bottles of fish sauce

8.      6 bottles of soy sauce

9.      4 cakes of soap

10.  10 facemasks

11.  $2.50 in cash

Srey Leak and family in Sophy village receiving an HVTO food package

Home Building:

Four master builders who use an all-volunteer labor force can complete a house in about two weeks, weather permitting. Because the structures are all the same, the free labor from community members allows the family to build a basic wooden house for only about $2,800. Many of the families have no resources, but for those that are able they can contribute small amounts of cash, often from the sale of pigs or other livestock, in order to have a slightly larger house.

HVTO has now secured funds for the building of 30 houses for homeless and poorly-housed families since 2016. Over half of these have been funded by the tremendous generosity of Kathrine J. Burns who began her donations last year. To expand this effort we are now raising additional funds through social media, both from sponsors and the local community.

The widow Ham Sal with her children in front of their previous residence

Sal and her family in front of their new house, courtesy of Katherine J. Burns

SUPPORT

Having seen our work first-hand, Viking and Studiosus tour groups are HVTO’s main source of support. Thank you Studiosus and Viking Cruises for your unflagging support in maintaining our core programs.

Living all over the world, with the aid of modern technology, former guests not only help financially, but also provide administrative assistance. All that’s required is a computer and access to the internet. Tourists returning to take part in teaching at the HVTO School bring a perspective of the outside world that our students can get in no other way. So we encourage all of our supporters to consider becoming one of our volunteer teachers.

Patti Baker, a former Viking guest, is the President of Homestay Teachers Volunteer Organization, Inc., a 501c3 (charitable) organization incorporated in Florida to provide tax relief to US citizens that fund HVTO in Cambodia. This NGO simplifies money transfers and provides a vehicle for access to larger grants that can have a major impact on reaching goals. To learn more please visit the website at: http://www.hvto.org/about-us/hvto-contacts-in-usa.html or call Patti directly at 239-682-0067.

We are continually updating our newsletter and e-mail distribution, so if you have any friends or family that would like to be included in our distribution list, please let us know. Unfortunately, newsletters sometimes end up going into Spam folders, so if you know of someone that has not been receiving these, please have them check this.

If you would like to provide HVTO with financial help, here is a brief cost summary:

Sponsorships:

Below are the all-inclusive costs for student sponsorship.

Grades 1-12:           $400 per year                   ($30 monthly stipend – uniforms, supplies, etc.)

University:              $780 per year                  (Tuition, fees, and books)

Water wells:

$240 (A plaque is an additional $30)

Donors receive a photograph of the completed well with information on the name, size and location of the family for whom the well was drilled.

Water Filters:

The cost for a Bio-Sand Filter water filter is $60

Toilets

The cost for a composting toilet is $400

House Building

The cost for a standard new home for a needy family is $2,800

Food Aid

The cost of a standard food package is $65

Phann Makara is learning English in Grade-4 at the HVTO School

Thank you for reading about our continuing story and we hope that you share our sense of accomplishment in HVTO’s continued progress. The last two years have been challenging, but we see a very bright future ahead.

Sim Piseth

HVTO Founder

Tel: +855974506969

Email: sim@hvto.org | sim2piseth@gmail.com

Facebook Profile: https://web.facebook.com/sim.pisith