EMPOWERING DREAMS
Through your wonderful Uniform Support
Heartfelt Gratitude: A Triumph for Our Uniform Campaign
So happy to have gleaming new uniforms to start the new school year.
We extend our deepest thanks to you our incredibly generous supporters who rallied behind us during a challenging period of lower donations over the last two months. Your kindness has made our Uniform Campaign a resounding success, after all our concerns.
Click this link so you can share in this wonderful day with our students and teachers.
The lead-up to the distribution day involves an extraordinary amount of effort. Our dedicated ODA teachers diligently research families in our school locale, identifying the most needy deserving students for our lists. Leng faced the challenging task of deciding how many sets to order, navigating the uncertainty of fundraising amounts until almost the distribution day—an aspect that always proves to be a difficult decision time, among many others.
On Sunday, December 3rd, the day unfolded with students arriving from 6-6:30 am. The incredible Market Lady, true to her magical touch, miraculously received and packed the 700+ uniforms from the factory despite our late ordering. She then managed the mad frenzy that is size exchanges. With only Name, Age, and Gender. Imagine the feat of guessing sizes and managing 700+ parcels then setting about facilitating exchanges for at least a third of them within a few hours!
Market lady using her magical’ invisible wand’ to manage the countless exchanges
Our ODA teachers manage all the students from their school, from control of opening their packs to successful correct size exchanges etc.
The all-important trying on to ensure correct sizing
A note of reflection: In 2012, Leng and I personally undertook the first complete uniform distribution, gathering names, visiting all schools with samples, determining all students sizes to order, and packing individual bags. While it was an amazing success, we both felt manic about repeating it the next year! Enter the Market Lady, who offered to manage it all with her family, and the rest is history!
This supreme effort from all sides results in a life-changing gift for these children from economically disadvantaged families. Without you, our kind donors' assistance, attending more than a couple of years of schooling would be a distant dream for these kids.
Our wonderful ODA teachers who manage their hordes of students so brilliantly
To those very kind supporters who contributed this year—ODA’s thanks are ‘As Big as a Mountain ( A grateful Khmer cultural saying). And to those who support various other needs at different times, your monthly contributions, though not always as visible as the uniforms, are critical to ODA's operations. Every aspect is important for us to function effectively.
These kids are intelligent and keen, they just need a shred of opportunity to grasp on to and you’ve given them more than that with a gift of another year at school, opening doors to education and a brighter future
Akun Tom Tom – Thank you Big Big, for the important part you play in these
young people's lives.
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