Celebrating Cambodia at Christmastime

In the year and a half since I visited Cambodia, friends, family, colleagues and strangers from around the world have come together to help the ELMA students.

I frequently receive e-mails from strangers who stumbled across this blog, were compelled to help, and ask me how they can contribute.

Every time this happens, I am stunned for about a day while I reflect on the magnitude of people's humanity, compassion and generosity.

While recovering from some small surgeries this past month, I've been under doctor's orders not to lift anything heavy.

This has put a damper on my usual ability to heft around 30-40 pound boxes of books, strap them to luggage wheels, maneuver them onto buses, and wheel them the home stretch to the post office.

Knowing about this temporary setback, my amazing friend, Fran Navarro, offered to pick me up from home and carry the box to the post office.

I have to admit that, usually, I am one of the most independent people around. But the physical limitations of recovery have been humbling and I've had to reflect on the necessity of accepting help while I try to help the ELMA students.

In spite of her overbooked and overstressed schedule as a working mother, Frannie carved out time several weeks ago to come get me and the box.

She and her four-year-old daughter, Bella, visited with me in my apartment as we prepared for the errand.

Bella loves reading, going to the library, and perusing bookstores. She's always amazed at the piles of children's books in my apartment. This visit, she asked me why so many books are here.

I explained that in some other countries, like Cambodia, the libraries don't have as many books as our libraries here in the United States.

Pointing to the box in front of us, I told her that I had filled the box with books from the piles behind her, and that her mommy was kind enough to drive the box to the post office so that we could ship it to Cambodia and help build their libraries.

Bella listened carefully and later reflected to Frannie:

"Some people don't celebrate Christmas, you know? They celebrate Cambodia. I celebrate Cambodia."

Heartfelt thanks to the Philanthropy Mafia that Lauren Patti assembled during my birthday celebration. The first shipment you paid for went out today in the sea of Christmas packages departing the San Francisco US Post Office station.

This shipment included donations from Fran Navarro, The Lyon family: Millie, Larry, Megan, Mason and Logan; Martine Jardel, Jennifer Orlando, Yosh Haggerty, Marcia Lau, Katherine Wong, Louise Roberts, Cathy Lau, Anna Honda, David Klein, and Leah Lau.

Boundless gratitude to these nightingales, Grace Lau, Fran Navarro, Lauren Patti, Anna Shurter, Sheridan Pauker, Windy Borman, Izabela Akerman and Dora Fang, who nursed me back to health with their love and friendship. Those two gifts make anything possible.

Best Birthday Ever Courtesy of the Philanthropy Mafia

For my birthday celebration, my friends, led by Lauren P., Sherry Pauker and Mo DeJong, astounded me with their ingenuity and generosity.

Knowing how much the ELMA students mean to me, Lauren came up with the idea to secretly collect donations to help me with the expensive book-shipping costs.

By passing around a gold box decorated with the story of the ELMA students and personally telling guests about my dedication to them, Lauren and Sherry led the charge in connecting with all of my guests and got amazing participation to help the Cambodian students!

Earlier in the evening, Mo asked me what my favorite moment of the night had been so far. In a night filled with amazing moments with friends, one stood out: seeing my 24 dinner guests come together, meet each other for the first time, and watching the effervescent energy start to percolate.

Friends rallied from so many different times in my life. One of my oldest friends, Drew Byrne, even made it up from Los Angeles!

I had been planning my birthday party for two months and, at the moment that all of my dinner guests were together (and we would be doubling our party afterward for drinks), my work was officially done, and I could just relax and let the alchemy of the evening work its magic.

Little did I know that the surprise they were planning would reach far beyond our humble San Francisco hangouts all the way across the Pacific to help hundreds of Cambodian students!

Lovingly decorated by Lauren, the note on top of the magic gold box read,

"As you likely know, our Leah has been collecting English-language children's books for students of the ELMA school in Cambodia (ages 5-15).

Through selfless and unwavering dedication, she has amassed quite a treasure trove of books over the past several months. Since shipping to Cambodia is quite expensive, Leah limits the mailings to a few times a year.

Currently, the book pile in her San Francisco flat has grown considerably (read: it's out of hand!).Please donate what you can toward the cost of her next mailing so that she can clean out her flat and get a little elbow room to breathe, sleep and apply sparkly make-up products.Simply open the gold box and drop in your support.

We'll present our gift to Leah at the end of the evening to top off her birthday with a bit of magic. Thank you!Hop on Pop level donation: $5Superfudge level donation: $10Catcher in the Rye level donation: $20Choose Your Own Adventure level donation: your choice!"
At the end of the night, Lauren rallied the guests and revealed to me what they had been doing. While I was mingling and introducing people to each other, they had raised $500. By morning, it had climbed to $555! (And then $565!)

When the shock passed and the magnitude of my friends' generosity and love registered with me, I started crying tears of joy. How many times in your life does that happen?

When Mo asked again what my favorite moment of the evening was, I replied that not only was it the best moment of the evening, but one of the best moments of my life.

With gratitude and love in my heart for all of my old and new friends who selflessly contributed to help children halfway across the world whom they have never met, I know I am one of the luckiest people alive.

As we prepare the next boxes to ship to the Angkor Hospital for Children, where the nurse Rithy Yam receives them and passes them to Vey Lav, one of the ELMA School's founders, we include the love of my community.

Amazing thanks to: Andrew Chandler, Anna Shurter, Anna Wallace, Anood Taqui, Autumn Engel, Benny Lee, Brian Checkoway, Camille Calichon, Cristina Tejada, Daniel Clemens, Dee Iraca, Dina Mackin, Dominic Lucia, Dora Fang, Drew Byrne, Fran Navarro, Gray Clossman, Ian Locke, Isaac Hill, Izabela Akerman, Jane Kenny, Jen Greene, Jeremy Mulder, Joanna Parks, John Mack, Jon Marr, Jose Portillo, Julie Brown, Justin from New Zealand, Karl Mauks-Koepke, Lara Edge, Lauren Patti, Martin Chai, Mark Berman, Matt Wood, Michael (Anna's guest), Mo DeJong, Michael Michon, Ray Ortigas, Rick Wood, Sadie, Santiago Suarez, Scott Houston, Sean Iraca, Sheridan Pauker, Tim Lang, Tony Brasunas, Torr Melling, Windy Borman, and Yan Liu.

Flooding at the ELMA School

October 2009 update: The floodwaters receded, and all of the students and the books were OK. ~Leah

From: Vey Lav
Date: October 5, 2009 3:52:03 AM PDT
Subject: Flooding

Dear Sheree,

It gets flooded in Siem Reap, as well as Sambour and ELMA school. The terrace in front of the classrooms and library is also still overflooded that students' bike are not able to parked on and it affected the young students too.

Since ELMA school restarted this fall and the same time the bloody rain appeared and getting flooded, we do not get many students come to the classes once the family afraid of the kids getting drowned and it is hard to get through by bike.

It is still containing with almost 0.5 meter on some spot of the road to ELMA school.

You are right Siem Reap gets flooded almost everywhere as we never expected. We were so afraid that the books get wet but all are OK.

This is the horrible flood in Siem Reap as we have never had this for years before. I spoke to the Sambour School principal and Chair of Sambour Commune for Building new Water drainage in front of ELMA School and the house next door for offering the high flowing speed of the water out from our school.

In this case, I need help from local authority and commune as they have supported us in many cases like security and environmental issues up on the request. Don't worry. Water will disappear soon. We may need also higher elevation in front of ELMA classrooms next year just in case more flood in the future.

All very best wishes from ELMA School Cambodia,

Vey

****************
From: Sheree O'Donnell
Date: Sunday, October 4, 2009, 11:30 AM

Dear Vey,

How are you?

I'm not sure if you have received any of my previous messages and I can imagine that given the current flooding situation in Siem Reap that Internet connections are hard to find.

How are you coping with the weather? I've heard from friends that a lot of the town is under 3 meters of water! Old Market area, etc. How has it affected Sambour? How are the children and their families coping?

I am praying for sunshine for you!

Best Wishes,

Sheree

Summertime: Children in Their New Clothes

Vey Lav, one of the ELMA School's founders, sent this delightful photo of the younger students with some of their new clothes.

A million thanks to the Lyon family for their continued kindness and generosity.

Enormous Book Donation From Martine Jardel and Thierry Rosset

Dear Martine and Thierry,

Thank you so much for dropping off the amazing donation of 91 books and 31 pieces of children's clothing.

I am humbled by your generosity and am happy that we could all find an excellent use for the books and clothes.

The books, ranging from the wonderfully educational Eyewitness series to young adult books about teenage life are perfect for the children whose interests vary.

Your philanthropy will benefit the ELMA School and the Cambodian students for many years to come.

Love,

Leah

Thank you to the Lyon Family and Fran Navarro

Dearest Lyon family and Fran Navarro,

Thank you so much for your kind and generous donation of 22 pieces of children's clothing, and dozens of pencils, markers and notebooks to the Cambodian students.

The styles of clothing that you've been donating (and the sizes) have been a perfect fit for the students who love all things American!

Know that your thoughtfulness is being felt all the way across the Pacific.

Love,

Leah

A Successful Year! Students' Year-End Exam Results

The students had a very successful 2008-2009 school year!

Total number of students: 273

Students who took the year-end exam: 259

Students who passed: 220

Students who did not pass: 39

Students who missed the test due to work: 14

Amazing thanks to the teachers who make everything possible:

Yeann Doeurn

Thay Chan

Touch Chanthy

Morm Samuth

Por Sophean

Plok Soeurt

Special thanks to Vey Lav, ELMA School principal, for sharing these inspirational results!

Thank You to Katherine Wong and Yosh Haggerty

Dear Dayima and Yosh,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful book donations to the Cambodian students.

Dayima,

The brightly colored primary school picture books are perfect for the younger children. They'll love seeing all of the shapes and alphabet depictions.

Yosh,

The teenage students and teachers will love the gorgeous photo books of North America and mountain ranges. The younger students will love the storybooks.

Love,

Leah

The Ideals of Martin Luther King, Jr.

June 4, 2009

Dear Leah,

I received the new box of books, 10 calculators and school supplies last week from the Angkor Hospital for Children.

How amazed we are. We found other nice picture books, stories and history books in the note.

One book we think is very interesting. It is the book that tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. who had fought for equal rights, and fought racism in the United States.

Please say hi to donors. I will send the pictures of kids with their clothes soon.

All very best from Elma kids,

Vey

Donation Wish List & Volunteer Opportunities

Hi! Many of you have asked for specific direction on what types of books, clothing and school supply donations are most needed. Here's the work-in-progress wish list.

Thanks and gratitude for everyone's generosity and compassion.

Leah

Books
Educational, in English.
Children's picture books and board books at the toddler and elementary school level.
Hardcover books are preferable so that they'll last; paperbacks also welcome.
Easy to understand, simple layout, lots of color, illustrations or photos (for example, the Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness series is the perfect mix of informational text and pictures).
Teenage and adult books about other countries and cultures.
Teenage and adult books about how the world works and what it looks like, for example, atlases, science, photography.
Reference books like dictionaries, especially large print illustrated children's dictionaries.
Teaching manuals.
Grammar and punctuation guides (simple elementary school reading level).

Clothes
New or used in good condition.
All children's and teenager sizes, slim adult sizes.
Lightweight, cotton, colors and lighter hues, quick-drying for the hot and humid climate.

School supplies
Backpacks
Bags to carry schoolbooks
Notepads of binder paper
Pencils
Pens
Erasers
Pencil sharpeners
Dry erase markers for whiteboards

Art supplies
Notepads of blank drawing paper
Crayons
Colored markers
Paints
Brushes
Craft supplies

Games
Educational boardgames
Educational puzzles
Flashcards: alphabet, vocabulary and grammar

Volunteer opportunities
Teach English at the ELMA School near Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Doctors can volunteer at the Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Travelers to Angkor Wat can bring books, school supplies and clothes.

Charles Schwab Foundation Donates Calculators

May 17, 2009

Dear Vey, Rithy and ELMA students,

I hope this shipment finds you well and happy! You are always in my thoughts and in the thoughts of so many kind people around the world.

We have an exciting new type of donation—10 calculators from the Charles Schwab Foundation. Special thanks to Roger Wong for facilitating the donation of the calculators, as well as the Schwab Volunteer Week t-shirts.

May Young, Jennifer Orlando and Rick Yee donated the additional school supplies.

Louise Roberts, Anna Honda, Jennifer Orlando, Allison Lau, David Klein and Leah Lau donated books.

Louise Roberts made the quilt, and Leah donated the additional clothes and alphabet flashcards.

Among the 21 books in this shipment, some of the highlights are:
*The National Geographic National Parks of America
*Frans Lanting Eye to Eye (wildlife portraits of animals)
*Wildlife Photographer of the Year (featuring Thomas Mangelsen)
*biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jacques Cousteau
*Children's Atlas of the World
*First Illustrated Dictionary
*Space Travel
*Antarctica: A Call to Action

Thank you for continuing to tell me how much you and the students are enjoying the educational books that show what the rest of the world looks like. It's so gratifying to see you learn, grow and become stronger in life.

Love always,

Leah


**********
Inscription in *Wildlife Photographer of the Year

May 2009

Dear ELMA students,

This lovely book of animals and natural landscapes features the winning photos from an annual contest.

The winner from that year, Thomas Mangelsen, is a wildlife biologist who has many photography galleries around the United States.

In the late 1990s, I worked in one of his California galleries, learning how to run a gallery, sell photos, install art exhibits and frame photos.

It was a pivotal year in my development as a photographer.

I hope that you enjoy the images in this book which range from aesthetically beautiful to social commentary about animals being abused in human captivity.

May it help inspire you as it has inspired me.

Love always,

Leah


**********
Inscription in the National Geographic National Parks of America

May 2009

Dear ELMA students,

As part of my love for travel and the nature, I've visited many of the national parks featured in this book. May these beautiful, protected places inspire you to see more of your own country and the world.

Love always,

Leah

ELMA Students With Their New Books

April 16,2009

Photos Sheree sent of ELMA School students in class and reading in the library.

National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World

April 19, 2009

Dear Vey, Rithy & ELMA students,

How are you? I hope this shipment finds you well and happy. Sheree shared so many beautiful photos of you all that brought me so much joy.

My brother, Eric, and I built a blog Web site which features your photos, the ELMA School and your progress. I hope you will have a chance to see it on a computer soon.

In this shipment are books donated by Louise Roberts (who also donated the clothes), Anna Honda, Allison Lau, Eric Lau, Jennifer Orlando, David Klein, Holly Haraguchi and me.

Vey and Sheree have been telling me about what kinds of books you are interested in, especially ones about other countries and the rest of the world.

I was very lucky to find this "National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World," which is filled with gorgeous photos from all seven continents. It is truly a way to have the entire world at your fingertips. Books like this inspire me every day in my life, and I hope that they can do the same in yours.

I also found these other educational books that I hope you enjoy:

"Children's Atlas of the Universe"
"My First Encyclopedia of the Human Body"
Large print thesaurus
Biographies of Neil Armstrong, Anne Frank, George Washington and Matthew Henson.

Love always,

Leah

Window to California; "Night," by Elie Wiesel

February 27, 2009

Building on Sheree's wonderful tip that the older children want to learn more about other countries and the world, the theme for shipment 8 is more sophisticated, including a fine art photography book, "California," by Art Wolfe, "Night," by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel, and English language reference books like a dictionary and thesaurus.

Card in shipment

Dear ELMA students,

I am so thrilled to see Sheree's pictures of you, hear Vey's updates about how much you're learning and see how amazingly the library is developing.

Getting these updates from across the world bring me and the other donors so much joy. I am so grateful to Rithy and Vey for bringing the shipments to you.

Thanks to my friend Jennifer Orlando who used to be an English teacher, a theme in this shipment is English reference and teaching guides.

Books were donated by Jennifer Orlando, Louise Roberts (who also made the quilt), Anna Honda, Ann & Christopher Dowd, David Klein, and me.

Clothes were donated by Fran Navarro and the Lyon family: Millie, Larry, Megan, Mason and Logan.

Special thanks to my Art for AIDS planning committee colleague and friend, Judy Camp, who contributed to the shipping for this box.

Love always,

Leah


Inscription in "Night"

Donated by Jennifer Orlando
A true story about the Holocaust against the Jewish people in Europe

Dear ELMA students,

May this book find you well, happy and full of hope for a brighter present and future.

These are my favorite quotes from this book:

"Help each other. That is the only way to survive."

"Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately."

Love,

Leah


Inscription in "California"

Dear ELMA Students,

I hope this book and shipment find you well and happy. To give you another glimpse at the world, this is a photography book about the state I grew up in and live in, California, which is also known as the "Golden State."

During my travels growing up here and my explorations as a teenager and young person in my 20s, I visited almost every location in this book.

I met the photographer, Art Wolfe, before I went to Antarctica in 2006. He was such a kind man, and so encouraging. Meeting him was a life-changing experience.

May this window into my world help brighten yours.

Love always,

Leah

Sheree's Photos: Art Attack in the Library!

February 6, 2009

E-mail from Sheree O'Donnell

Dear Leah,

Such a fun day! My friend Rachael was visiting for Christmas. Armed with lots of paint and paper, we headed to Elma. The new classroom had been completed meaning the children had the library back, except it did not look much like a library! So our idea was to encourage them to decorate it, to get creative and make their mark, hoping it would give them a real sense of ownership of the space ... and be fun!

Initially they were reluctant, very unsure, but curious! Some of the students told me they had never painted before.

As you can see by the end of the day everyone was involved, including the teachers!

I'm not sure if I have already told you about the boy who was too shy to help, but took some paper and sat in the corner with a reading book. I kept an eye on him and saw that he began to copy a picture from the book. His English is not strong but one of the other children told me that it was his favorite book because he loves the squirrel in it. It was really moving. I gave him a notepad and some pencils to take home and practice his drawing. You can see from the pictures that he's really good!

After Christmas, I returned to find that they had added to the original "abc" painting and drawn some other pictures to hang around the room which I thought was just wonderful! Exactly as we had hoped!

Sheree

Sheree's Photos: Playtime in the Library!

February 6, 2009

E-mail from Sheree O'Donnell

Hi Leah,

These are photographs of the children playing and reading in the library one break time, you can see them racing each other at putting together the alphabet puzzles [that Judy Ahrens sent], and then the winners celebrating! So much fun!

Sheree

Sheree's Photos: ELMA Children

Sheree's photo!

Teaching Materials From Jennifer Orlando

February 4, 2009

A huge thanks to Jen for generously donating English language teaching manuals, dictionaries, a thesaurus and young adult books from her university teaching days!

The Writers, Inc. series books will be a huge boon for the ELMA School teachers, and the donation of award-winning books like "Night" by Elie Wiesel and "The Giver" by Lois Lowry will add to the global and cultural depth of the ELMA library's offerings.

Obama Book Arrives in Cambodia

February 3, 2009

To commemorate President Barack Obama's inauguration day, I shipped a box of donations, including a children's book on his life story. The box also included donations from Louise Roberts, Allison Lau, Eric Lau, Cathy Lau, Fran Navarro and Marcia Lau.

E-mail from Vey Lav

Dear Leah and Donors,

How are you? I hope every thing goes well and smoothly. I have just received the last box of beautiful stuff recently from Angkor Hospital for Children. I would like to double thanks to all of you, your effort and hard work for the children on behalf of Elma foundation Cambodia. Children are really like them.

The children always bring joy and wishes to you, they will also bring the world with positive change, success to global economics, we believe that most become responsible people, we stand up and fight for their hopes. We will be amazed when they graduate and fill up with responsibility.

May this New Year, the year of real change bring you all with luck and success, the god bless you, bless America and the world. Thank you, and thank you so much for keeping kids in your heart.

All very best,

Vey

Book Sort-a-thon | Thank you Eric Lau and Joshua Steinberg

February 1, 2009

Amazing thanks to Eric and Josh who donated several hours of their time to sort and label books. Until you actually step inside the Goodwill holding facility (aka my apartment), it's hard to imagine the magnitude of the project so far.

In addition to good karma, the volunteer work dovetails perfectly with their school's community service goals. Everyone benefits.

Together, they assessed several hundred books for cultural and educational relevance for Cambodia versus locally here in San Francisco. Cambodia is a Buddhist country and I'm maintaining an educational focus for the book donations that I ship to the ELMA School.

No donations are wasted. Some books (for example, Barbie or SpongeBob SquarePants) aren't as relevant for Cambodia but many American children will certainly love them, so I donate them to Compass Community Services, a San Francisco nonprofit organization that provides resources to homeless families.

Keep'em coming, no matter the subject matter!

A Books-and-Clothes Wish List

January 31, 2009

E-mail from Sheree O'Donnell

Dear Leah,

It's hard to describe just how much joy the books bring to the children at Elma. I love to watch them congregate around a book at break time and try to read out loud, or to choose one to read to them.

I love the idea of a "wish list." The children went crazy for the clothes, so that's definitely a great idea. It's heartbreaking to see the condition of the clothes they come to school in sometimes.

In terms of books, the younger children are always drawn to the colorful ABC style books, with lots of pictures. We also use similar style flash cards which are great fun.

The older children love to learn about different countries and I try to pick stories that they may be able to understand or relate to—I know this is a tall order. Again color, illustrations or photographs always pulls them in. Let me have a think about what other items you could add to the list.

One of the things we are working on is to have a health care worker linked to the school to teach the kids about hygiene, disease control, etc. and I should imagine they are in need of basic resources but I would like to investigate this further.

I'll be in touch soon. Thanks again.

Warm wishes,

Sheree

The Library Takes Shape

January 29, 2009

E-mail from Sheree O'Donnell

Dear Leah,

How are you?

I feel it's a really exciting time at Elma, we are working on lots of ways to improve and move forward and already the library is really started to take shape. Vey and I have brought in new book cases and some mats for the children to use when they are spending time reading.

Before Christmas we all worked on some paintings for the wall and some of the children show real artistic flair! I will send you some photographs. The next step is to introduce a library monitoring system so that the children may take the books home with them, they are all very keen to do this and you can often find them still in the library after class is out!

Love and best wishes,

Sheree

Obamamania in Cambodia

January 22, 2009

E-mail from Vey Lav

Dear Leah,

I am so glad to hear from you and the donors who really like photos. The kids were very joyful with the clothes and books. You and the donors did a great job and are very helpful to Cambodian children at Elma.

All your help is exactly bringing their hopes and bright future. The last box which containing adult clothes arrived, I have been taking my concerning eyes on them, evaluate both the classes and teachers.

It was wonderful evening on Jan 20th. We were watching the inaugural celebration of your new president, Barack Obama. We admire him so much. We feel so excited about seeing him and listening to his speech, promise on CNN, of course, he will bring the positive changes and hope to Americans as well as the people in the rest of the world. Now we have the right person who can positively bring benefit and success in the economy.

I and the Elma students are looking forward to seeing another box and the book about Barack Obama's life.

All the best wishes from Elma Children Cambodia,

Vey

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama

January 20, 2009

Dear Vey and Jacqueline,

How are you? Thank you very much for sending the beautiful photos of the children, and for this update. I forwarded the thank you note to all of the donors who had contributed to those shipments.

Seeing the photos of the children was one of the most touching moments of my week. It is so gratifying for me and for other donors to see them actually getting to enjoy things we've sent. Thank you for taking the effort to send the photos.

I just shipped another box this afternoon (I'm calling it box 7 on the outside for my own record keeping purposes).

Among the donations it includes a special present commemorating that today is Inauguration Day for President Barack Obama. I bought a new children's book about his life story and wrote an inscription. This is such an amazing time of positive change and hope in the United States for this president who we are so excited to see in office.

Thank you for sending updates about the children, and for continuing to communicate when the donations arrive. Closing that communication loop really does make all the difference for the dozens of people who are contributing help.

All my best,

Leah

January 18, 2009

Dear Louise, Fran, Anna, May, Allison, Eric, Cathy, Micaela, Grace, Anthony and Jill:

Thank you so much for all of your warm, kind and generous efforts to help the Cambodian children at the ELMA School. I am including you all on this shortlist because books, clothes or school supplies that you donated made it to Cambodia in a recent shipment (around box 5).

I received this thank you note and recent photos from Vey, one of the school's founders. The children are wearing clothes that you and your families donated. From these photos, I definitely recognize clothing donations from Louise Roberts, Fran Navarro's sister and her family: Millie, Larry, Megan, Mason and Logan Lyon.

I just sent another box today (that I'm calling box 7) that included clothes and books donated by my little siblings, Alliey, Eric and Cathy Lau, and book donations from so many of you.

So much more to come, but I just wanted to send these photos and say a heartfelt thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Frannie, please feel free to forward this e-mail to your sister and her family so that they can see their wonderful donations in action!

Love,

Leah


E-mail from Vey Lav

January 18, 2009

Dear Leah, Jacquie and Donors:

Here are some pictures of Elma kids attached for you. It is impossible to attach more while the system is too slow. Those are the activities in the library and the kids wearing the clothes donated from generous people in America. I have also received another box of books and clothes from you last week. Please let the donors know that everything arrived safely.

Now the students are busy with their written tests in English which identify how they improve in four months. They are satisfied with the test. Their works will tell the progress of Elma.

I was told by a friend who is aware of the U.S. Embassy policy. He said that it is more bureaucratic and less convenient than by the Post. Once you have to contact the Cambodian Embassy or related department in America, either any relevant authority in the U.S. He did not mention the costs.

Rithy helped me contact both the administration and admission center at the Angkor Hospital for Children for Volunteer works. It is possible for your doctor friend to volunteer but she has to inform them the exact time to work and duration. They definitely need her CV in advance. If it is possible she can send the letter of proposal to the Admission directly.

All very best from Elma Cambodia,

Vey, Head of School