By Jason R. Baron | Founder & Executive Director
To all friends and donors: it was a joy to be able to travel again to Cambodia. Among the highlights of the trip was getting a chance to spend time with with 18 of the 27 Chelly Scholars our charity has provided scholarships to, through GlobalGiving and other donation campaigns.
The young women (and a few young men) who we have supported have been part of a truly remarkable journey from poverty to a life rich with opportunities. Raised in a very poor, rural area of Cambodia, our students who have graduated college are in good starting jobs in pharmaceutical firms, banks, accounting services, hotels and teaching in schools. But for a Chelly Scholarship, it would have been likely that their paths would have led to working (at best) in a factory making shirts, or on a family-owned rice farm.
The students I met, both graduates and those still in school, are just so happy to have had this opportunity of a lifetime for a chance at a good career and a good life. Three of our young women have become married to fellow students at university, and a fourth is now engaged to a fellow Chelly Scholar (a young man). A picture of Sreyrean and Pha Nit standing on either side of me is included here, and I wish them a very happy life ahead.
I was also happy to get a tour of the Harpswell School from one of our scholars. Rina and Jakkrya were invited in successive years to join Harpswell -- each was one of only 20 girls selected from all of Cambodia to attend what is a leadership academy housing students who are in Phnom Penh on scholarships (such as the one we provided). I know that both of them are going to go on to do great things in international relations and law, their chosen fields of interest at present.
In a subsequent report, I will write about my attendance at the dedication of The Chelly School back in Chum Kiri, a primary school for 300 first through fifth graders, constructed entirely with donations to this charity. This wonderful new school will provide the educational foundation that children in Chum Kiri need to end up as the university graduates of tomorrow. That at least is my hope.
Thank you again to all of our donors. We could not have accomplished so much over the past seven years without the generous donations of all of you, and I will always be grateful for your support.
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