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Published: January 7th 2007
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Have you ever had one of those days that really put things into perspective? Today was that day for me….in a bigger way than I could have ever imagined….
About 3 months ago, I was looking for Siem Reap hotels on the internet and I ran across a place called the “Shinta Mani”. At first glance its simply a very nice boutique type hotel, however, when you start digging deeper through the website, you’ll notice they also run what they call “The Institute of Hospitality”… a school where they pick local Cambodian teenagers from the villages and teach them skills to use in the outside world ..specifically the hotel trade. They teach culinary, maintenance, housekeeping and administrative skills…. All which will be very useful to a young adult in SE Asia trying to make money to help his/her family. Siem Reap has almost doubled its size in the past 10 years and in 3 to 4 years they expect the population to tap the one million mark. A large portion of this growth is the ever growing tourism trade. They estimate over two million tourists will visit the temples at Angkor Wat in 2007, which means the hotel industry is
booming these days.
While reading about the institute, we actually noticed that they also accepted donations that would go straight into items given to village families. Well - reading further, Karl really took the ball and ran with it. He composed a fabulous email we sent out to many friends, family, and co-workers asking for donations to send to the Shinta Mani. Over several months, we were able to collect several thousand dollars. Karl then contacted the Shinta Mani and headed off the donation campaign…..which eventually turned into:
Houses for two families
A months supply of rice for three families
Two sewing machines
Two Bicycles
A water well which will service two families
And my personal favorite - “A Piggy Bank” - two pigs for a family that they are required to use only for breeding. They cannot eat nor sell the original pigs, however, they are allowed to sell the piglets once they are born…. Which, if done right, can lead to a sizeable yearly income for a family who had absolutely no income before the Shinta Mani’s help.
We also donated enough funds to sponsor a student for 1 term (10 months) at the Institute
of Hospitality - covering his uniform, books and supplies for that term.
Well - long story short (yea right).. we were able to go to the Shinta Mani today and meet with the woman heading the program. Her name was Chitra Vincent..she’s originally from Sri Lanka but has lived in Siem Reap for about 6 years now. She sat us down and explained the program to us… how the families that are chosen come from true dire situations.
I could go into the details of the program forever - its sooooo interesting how it works - and IT IS WORKING. The Shinta Mani has now helped several hundred families climb out of the gutter and into new homes with farms and teaching them viable skills they can use to make it in the world today without depending on others for help.
Then Chitra brought out the student we sponsored. His name is Karuna and he’s in his first month of schooling at the Institute where he’s focusing on the housekeeping department as his specialty. He was very shy and quiet, but very thankful to us. He’s only learned a small bit of English but was able to
muster up the words “thank you very much for your help” before he was whisked away back to training.
The best part of the day was when Chitra’s assistant Sowung actually drove us about an hour and ½ out of Siem Reap to the villages where were actually able to meet some of the families we were helping. We got to deliver the rice to three families and also the two pigs to a single mother with 4 children. Although the houses and the well we “donated” had not been finished being built today, we did see the well in progress as well as several examples of the type of “stilt house” our money had bought the two families - a much needed improvement to the lean-to’s the families had been living in.
I cannot mention the villages without talking about the people. The Cambodian people as a whole are so friendly, kind and gracious - but the villagers themselves were the sweetest and most giving people I’ve ever met. They LOVED seeing the Americans climb out of the the van. You should have seen how funny it was to see some of the small children run and
hide when Karl and I climbed out of the van, as they’d rarely seen any people this tall, big and blonde before. Once I took pictures of the kids and showed them their images on the digital camera..they all warmed up really quickly as you can imagine. At one point, Karl and I looked like the Pied Pipers as we had a row of children following us through the gardens from home to home. It was so exciting to talk to some of the older kids who had been going to school and learning English… these kids WANT to go to school.. they WANT to learn… and they WANT to help their families. Its truly an amazing place with incredible people. Again - my words can’t describe the feeling the day brought… simply overwhelming. I could go on forever but I'll wait for the stories in person.
Pub street in Siem Reap didn’t suck this night - but the rest is so amazing I can’t even compare….
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