LWB Community Blog

All this week, we’ll be introducing you to some of the children living in remote Vithu Village, a region in western Cambodia which just five years ago was littered with landmines. As the explosive devices have been cleared, an increasing number of impoverished families have moved to the village despite it having no electricity, clean water, or school for the children. Of the 90 children who currently live in Vithu Village, most suffer from chronic malnutrition. LWB has set a big goal to start a primary school in the heart of Vithu Village, including a daily hot lunch program, to make sure the children have the opportunity to receive an education and a nutritious meal each day.

For the next six weeks during this special holiday season, we’ll be sharing stories about some of the children whose lives have been truly transformed because of this amazing LWB community. First up today is Sampson. It was exactly four years ago that we met this little boy who lives along the border region of Cambodia and Thailand. At just two years of age, Sampson had already lived through more sorrow than any toddler should have to experience.

In 2012, a shy and serious little boy named Brian Christopher entered our Believe In Me Huainan education program. He did not have the confidence to speak to the teachers and was quite tentative about getting involved in the activities at the preschool.

Meet Tegan, a darling four-year-old from our Rangsei Believe In Me school who is in need of additional sponsors. Tegan attends school with her sister and brother and also has a baby brother who stays home with her mom. During our team’s recent visit to their region of rural Cambodia, we were able to chat with Tegan’s mom. She shared with us more about the daily hardships her family faces as well as their determination to keep their children in school.

Sweet Melissa is four years old and attends our Sibling School, a safe early childhood education center that serves the vulnerable children of Sokhem Village. Thanks to supporters of our Cambodian Education programs, her older sister has been attending our Sokhem Believe in Me School while Melissa has received nurturing care and quality nutrition at the Sibling School.

Bouncing along the dusty dirt road approaching the Believe In Me Sokhem school, I was full of excitement. I first visited LWB’s Education programs in Cambodia last November and was thrilled to be returning just six months later with LWB’s Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships Kelly Wolfe, full of anticipation about what I would find. And wow, what a difference six months can make!

This week, Maria turns 13 years old. In China, this means that she has just one year left to find a family before she is no longer eligible for adoption. To help raise awareness of her situation and the limited time she has left for adoption, LWB is offering a $3,000 Adoption Assistance Grant

Every year we sort through thousands of pictures taken in our programs over the last twelve months to come up with our Top Ten Photos. In today’s blog , we are sharing two photos that we are featuring as honorable mentions and our favorite Photos 5-10. Watch for tomorrow’s blog where we bring you the Top Five!

We wanted to share some photos today from our Sokhem Sibling School in rural Cambodia because we’re so excited by the progress being made with this innovative program. First though, we want to share again just WHY this project is so important and why we believe it’s so critical that the Sibling School continues.

The World Cup generated excitement around the globe for the sport of soccer. The students at our Believe In Me Rangsei school decided to hold a soccer tournament of their own and had a marvelous time.