Among the Most Important Opportunities a Child can Have

The chance to go to school—to get an education: it’s among the most important opportunities a child can have. Such a simple gift breaks poverty, protects from exploitation—gives bright hope for the future in Jesus’ Name.

This year, you can help 1,000 young students in Cambodia get this chance—one schoolbook and one lesson at a time.

• $10 Provides a storybook to give one child the chance to read
• $25 Contributes to literacy kits for a class
• $50 Gives a student resources for math and science

“My parents live in poverty, I live in poverty, and my boys live in poverty… education is the only answer.” – Chea*, mom of two boys in Cambodia

The We Can Read and Write project, new to Samaritan’s Purse Canada in 2021, is coming alongside rural schools in some of Cambodia’s most impoverished districts. The schools have few teaching materials. For the students who are able to attend, the dropout rates are high.

By providing essential learning items like storybooks in the Khmer language, literacy resources, and numeracy tool kits, you help children become strong readers, writers, and skilled in math and science. This is vital to help them overcome the poverty they have known their entire lives.

“So my boy can have a better future”

Samay* had just started grade one—at eight years old. His parents couldn’t enroll him earlier because they had nothing. Like many Cambodian families, they went to Thailand in search of jobs, but Samay and his brother couldn’t go to school.

His mom, Chea*, worried. She knew every year missed meant a little less hope: “My parents live in poverty, I live in poverty, and my boys live in poverty…education is the only answer.”

Samay and Chea working hard on Samay’s reading and writing.

So, Chea and her husband decided that the family needed to separate. He would stay in Thailand to support his family; Chea would take the boys home for school. But Samay was already far behind his new classmates. He was the oldest, but he struggled to read, write, and learn.

There wouldn’t normally be resources to help students like Samay, but there can be through your partnership. Samaritan’s Purse is coming alongside Samay’s school and others in impoverished areas with support, like hundreds of books, to help give students education—especially in reading, writing, science, and math. This is vital for them to escape a life of poverty. Students like Samay also have an opportunity to receive and hear God’s Word.

Our team is walking alongside Chea, too: “I’m really happy that Samaritan’s Purse staff are helping me and other parents help our children. I will invest everything into Samay’s learning so my boy can have a better future.”

This year, you can help reach more than 1,000 Cambodian students and their families, like Samay and Chea.

Your prayers and gifts give hope for the future in Jesus’ Name.

“For I know the plans I have for you… to give you a future and a hope.”
—Jeremiah 29:11, HCSB

Help through the Pandemic

Amid COVID-19, this project has also helped schools access protective supplies to keep students safe and provided food to families struggling during lockdowns. Samaritan’s Purse is also working to ensure students have safe water, latrines, and handwashing stations while at school.

*Names changed to protect privacy.