To provide food to rural Cambodian children and their families whilst schools are closed during to the Covid-19 pandemic

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to travel north to an extremely impoverished area in Cambodia with my Texan friend Lori Carlson, one of the most remarkable human beings I have ever met. Years ago, after meeting another phenomenal woman by the name of Ponheary Ly, Lori made the gutsy and radical decision to abandon a 25 year career in publishing and move to Cambodia. Ponheary Ly is a former Cambodian school teacher and survivor of the genocide of the 1970’s. Together, these two women established the Ponheary Ly Foundation, an organisation dedicated to providing meaningful education to the rural children of Cambodia.

Here’s a bit of context: currently, only 40% of children in Cambodia finish primary school, and only 7% of children finish high school in rural areas.

PLF began in one small rural community by supporting the local primary school. Today, PLF works in nine locations and has more than 2700 students in school from kindergarten to university. Children who otherwise would now be toiling in rice fields, found their potential and finished school. Some of them learned trades, some went to College and stepped into middle class incomes pulling their families out of poverty in one generation. Communities have begun to transform. Parents who never went to school themselves now understand the value of education and its relationship to the eradication of poverty and make school a priority for their children.

What really impressed me about this organisation was how holistic the scope of the work that they do is. PLF looks at the whole picture and is not only concerned with teaching children how to read and write. The foundation is heavily involved in providing children with proper nutrition, safe and secure housing, transportation and medical care, so that they may access educational services.

I was profoundly moved and impressed by what I experienced for myself that day I first visited one of the PLF schools in one of the poorest areas of Cambodia. PLF has created miracles…out of NOTHING at all. I witnessed happy, healthy and hopeful children and it filled me with this deep sense of hope for this beautiful country I now call home. Massive healing is taking place. And organisations like PLF are where this healing begins.

I knew that day that I wanted to be part of this healing, and I wanted to do something for this country that has provided me with a beautiful home for the past three years. I planned to lead creative movement trainings with PLF teachers, as I have done before in refugee camps in Thailand and Bangladesh.

But in March, the Cambodian government closed all schools in response to the COVID19 pandemic. The children in these rural areas were sent home and most of them have lost their daily access to basic nutrition, basic healthcare, sanitation and learning. Exacerbating these challenges is the fact that the hot season is upon Cambodia and this year will see record-breaking temperatures and an epic drought. Wells are running dry. Food can’t be grown. Adults have lost their jobs (if they had one), and lost their crops (if they were farming). The situation is dire and the threat of starvation to these children is very real and immediate.

PLF is responding by doing non-contact food drops in these communities every 10 days. Children are dutifully coming to their school in small groups to pick up bundles that contain eggs, fish, fortified soy and fish sauce, noodles, soap and study packs. The organization is currently spending $8,000/month on this Herculean effort.

So how can I help now? And how can YOU help? We can come together online, from our different corners of the world, and we can dance our socks off! Celebrate our lives and our bodies, and dance in gratitude for all that we have….and shift the focus from ourselves to others who are in real danger of being forgotten.

Please dance with me and donate what you can. A little goes a long way in Cambodia. $10 buys 85 eggs or 85 bars of soap. EVEN THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF MONEY HELPS!