Our village students are so grateful to have these free English classes close to their homes. They don’t lack intelligence, just opportunity.
Tour Companies APT and Travelmarvel Tour became aware of ODA Education activities through Shirley, and old family friend. Interested by what they were hearing they first visited in 2009. Robert McGeary was very impressed by what he saw and so collaborated with a keen passenger who was a member of the Rotary Club of Atherton Tablelands, to partner together to build an ODA school in outlying Run Village. Both continue to support this school yearly and APT have gone on to very kindly support two other ODA schools annually also.
Since Robert’s visit in 2009, the APT and Travelmarvel tours have visited ODA Students Art Gallery in conjunction with their visit to Angkor Wat temple. This support from their passengers has allowed ODA to grow and support some 1450 students in our 7 outlying villages to experience free English kindergarten, primary and secondary classes, plus Introduction to basic PC skills using Word and Excel. Graduating students have improved employment opportunities with these additional language and IT skills. This brings salaries into these villages improving the lives of their families.
ODA is very grateful for the support of APT and Travelmarvel and their kind passengers, helping ODA to offer these life changing education skills to the keen intelligent students, and enable them to break the cycle of subsistence farming. Village and Commune Chiefs tell of the benefits generated by the education and in turn the salaries which flow into the families, really changing lives for the better.
In 2010, AmaWaterways – a global river cruise line based in Los Angeles – was introduced to ODA Director Leng Touch through mutual partners in hopes of supporting a worthy cause in a community near where their Mekong river cruises operated. The owners travelled to Siem Reap where they met with Leng and together they set off to find a suitable piece of land to build a school on which would offer free English and Computer training to the impoverished youngsters of the outlying villages. Land in the Ta Tum Village was selected and Ama went on to fund the building of the school shortly after.
Since the partnership between AmaWaterways and ODA began all those years back, Ama has continued to fund the annual expenses of the school as well as expand on their involvement with Leng and ODA in various ways. One of the favorites is a huge ‘End of the Year’ party which they generously invite all students from the eight ODA schools to join in a celebration. A very happy day - with all the students from relatively close villages enjoying the festivities together.
Ama also went on to fund a room for Khoum, a polio affected young man in a wheelchair, to live in. Khoum was appointed as security and odd maintenance officer for the school. From once thinking he’d never have employment, he’s now a very happy member of the ODA team.
AMA worked with ODA to build this school at Ta Thum Village in 2010
In 2020 ODA was accepted as a partner for Project J1068N with the Global Development Group (ABN: 57 102 400 993), an Australian NGO approved by the Australian Government. Tax deductible receipts for gifts over $2 will be issued by Global Development Group for project J1068N. If funds raised exceed the requirement for this project, funds may be directed to another approved activity. Please note, no non-development (evangelistic, political or welfare) activities are a part of, or funded by GDG projects.
GDG assists in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of our projects to ensure we meet the OAGDS (Overseas Aid Gift Deduction Scheme) standards. This enables the provision of tax-deductible receipts for donations supporting our activities. Partnering with GDG has been very beneficial in ensuring that our work is carried out effectively and efficiently. We welcome their advice and ideas and appreciate the visits from the GDG team.
For more information, please visit www.gdg.org.au