We are lucky to have some amazing donors to allow us to help our students and families during these difficult times with multiple food distributions over the past few months. Covid-19 not only threatens the health of our students, but also the livelihood of their families—causing a struggle to bring food to the table. Through the help of several of our donors, we have been able to provide basic food items to at least 185 families. Each family received a 25/kg bag of rice, and various other items including eggs, noodles and cooking oils. We are especially grateful to Edward and Penny Flahive, John Pinette and Richard Tan, whose generous donations allowed us to continue this program after our initial distribution.
As Covid-19 still lingers, our schools remain closed for traditional classes. However, during this period our great teachers and staff are doing all they can to help as many students as possible. Some students have access to cell phones and can engage in remote learning, and many parents and students come to the school to meet with teachers and pick up assignments to work on at home. We hope to be able to return to a normal school schedule at the beginning of the new school year in November.
Spitler School Foundation continues to provide salaries to our full-time staff and salary supplements to our government-employed teachers, thanks to your donations. Although our school director, Chea Sarin, reports that some families have moved away from our villages in efforts to find employment due to the Covid-19 crisis, we will continue to do all that we can to maintain education and stability during this time.
To all the loyal subscribers to Global ADE: We are excited for you to join us as we continue the great work of Global ADE now under the Spitler School Foundation.
The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives in the past two months, and that has certainly been the case for our staff and students at Spitler School and Stephen Mazujian Middle School. Not only are our students being deprived of their regular learning opportunities, but many of their families have also been unable to work. In the small villages surrounding our schools, even without this pandemic, most families barely earn enough money to feed their families. So, as you can imagine, this pandemic is much more than just an inconvenience to these families.
But, with the help of our partner, Kids Play International, we purchased $3,000 of food to help over 75 families in the villages surrounding our schools. Each family received a 50-pound bag of rice, a bottle of soy sauce, a bottle of fish sauce, 10 eggs, sugar, salt, mash and two bars of soap.
Many villagers told our staff: “Thank you for being so thoughtful and helping us through this very difficult time.”
Although our regular funding is focused on education, we believe in the importance of helping our students and their families where we can during this unprecedented event.
If you would like to support this effort or the continued education for our students, click the Donate button below.
We hope to be sharing news of our schools reopening in the very near future.
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