A Small World

ABCs and Rice relies on volunteers, donors, and visitors to get the supplies and the support they need to keep moving forward with their mission.  The world gets smaller and smaller, as a result of this network of helping-hands.

The kids at ABCs greet visitors the only way they know how!

This week, the world became microscopic for me. I’m from a tiny town in north central Illinois called Oregon.  Janelle Matthews is from a tiny town in north central Illinois called German Valley.  Janelle went to Forreston High School (a rival of Oregon when I was growing up) with a cousin of mine.  My dad, Mike, my uncle Steve, and many other members of my family are also FHS grads.  Not to mention, Janelle's sister is best friends with Cindy, a great friend of mine from back home in Oregon. 

This week, Janelle just so happened to be traveling to Siem Reap, Cambodia on business with her company Genesys Telecommunications. 

After arriving here, I asked Janelle, "How many times do you think two people from two different little towns in north central Illinois who've never met before were simultaneously in Siem Reap, Cambodia?" 

"Probably none," she said. 

Small world.

In the weeks prior to making the 21-hour, two-stop flight to Cambodia, Janelle reached out to me and asked, “Is there anything you all need that I could bring with me from the US? I’m happy to make room.”

This is the kind of helping hand that keeps ABCs afloat! While school supplies are easy to come by, other essentials are overly expensive or impossible to find.  Houk, our Project Manager, and I put together a list.   

As is the case anywhere in the world, the kids at ABCs get sick every day.  Headaches, the flu, earaches, and colds are common-place. In Cambodia, though, children's strength medication just doesn't exist. Nearly 90% of the kids at ABCs and Rice are underweight (some have a BMI under 12.0), so we have to be extra careful dosing medicine to cure what ails them.

I sent Janelle the list, which included children’s-strength medicines for the flu, colds, earaches, etc.  

She didn't just arrive in Siem Reap with some supplies, she cleared the shelves at Walmart and literally filled a suitcase!

On top of the medication, she packed in some other items that are difficult to find in Cambodia: Halloween candy—a nice treat for our celebration with the kids this week—some paper plates and Popsicle sticks for crafts, and some chalkboard paint.

Janelle's week was packed with client meetings, but on Tuesday, she made time to visit us at ABCs and Rice to deliver the goods and see the operation first-hand!

Janelle and a student explode their fist bump!

Of course, after some early morning fun and games, like all visitors and volunteers, we put her to work. Paul from Pack the Essentials, Janelle, and I chopped veggies, mushrooms, and herbs and tossed it all into a hot pot to make Tom Yum soup.

Just as the soup began to boil, the bell rang for recess; the best kind of payment for a morning of hard work.

If you're asked to do this once, you'll be asked to do this again! Rotate the direction each time so you don't get dizzy!

Though "Being a kid IS their job," ABCs isn’t just about play.  Janelle got to take in a few classes, and commented “All of the teachers here are really good!” I agree.

The students at ABCs identify proper nouns from pictures on the board.

At 11 am, the bell rang again, and it was time for lunch, which meant back to work.  Paul, Janelle, our Cook, and I handed out meals to the dozens of hungry children of ABCs. 

Most of the bowls came back empty, so I’d say the soup was a great success!

He might look unsure of the taste, but he ate it all, I swear!

After the kids loaded up on rice, meat, and veggies, Janelle and I took out trays of cut pineapple; a rare dessert for the students at ABCs.

ABCs and Rice would like to thank Janelle for donating and personally delivering much-needed supplies from back home, and most importantly for helping out and spending the day with us!  It's small world stories and small town generosity that make an impact every day around the world. Tuesday was one of those days!

To make more days like this one happen at ABCs and Rice, click here to donate!

Coming to Cambodia and want to volunteer?  Email us at abcandrice@gmail.com

It Takes a Village

Unfortunately, last night, the Chicago Cubs increased their World Series win drought to 1 year.

On the bright side, today, 155 families in rural Siem Reap, Cambodia received 50 kg (110 lb.) bags of rice to feed them for one month.  This was all done thanks to the incredible work of 6 visiting volunteers from southern Australia and the coordination of ABCs and Rice. 

It’s usually Feed a Kid Friday, but at ABCs and Rice on this Friday, we fed villages.  

A village family receives two 50 kg bags of rice

“Rice Day” is the term applied to the day that the 220 kids at ABCs take home 6 kg of rice to feed their families.  But, today, “Rice Day” was something much greater. Thanks to six amazing people from "Somewhere between Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia" and dozens of families and organizations who funded the project, 155 families from all around the rural areas of Siem Reap will be fed for at least one month.  I was fortunate just to be a part of the delivery team.

This morning, we all piled into the back of the ABCs school bus, or more aptly the Rice Delivery Mobile. Seated comfortably on stacks of rice bags, the Australians, Tammy, Huok, ABCs Project Manager, and I rode out to a village located off the beaten path toward Angkor Wat. Once we arrived, we soon realized the thoroughfare down to the village was too narrow for the school bus. 

We men said, “We got this!” 

Hauling a truck load of 50 kg (110 lb.) sacks of rice down the half-mile stretch of the road sounded easy enough.  Fortunately, we didn’t allow our egos to break our backs. 

As we began unloading the bags of rice, the villagers emerged from the forest wheeling their bicycles and motorbikes right up to the tailgate of the truck.  One by one, we loaded the hefty sacks onto the racks and seats of each bike.  Once they were loaded up, two by two, we wheeled the bikes down the dirt path and through the muddy forest.  

As we passed each little home, we carried the bags of rice through the mud and heaved them onto the front stoop.  It was like Christmas without the chimneys; each sack a gift for those most deserving!

This village was only our first stop, but it isn't just any village.  It is a colony for locals living with HIV and AIDS.  The residents are not only physically unable to work, they are cast out for their illness.  It takes community support like this just for them to survive.

After dropping off rice at several homes, we were all soaked in sweat and covered in mud. The Australians and the ABCs crew gathered in the village center to rest.  Suddenly, a man came down the steps of his home carrying what at first just looked like two pieces of wood. He stepped into our social circle and placed them down on the ground.  He signaled downward with his hands, the universal gesture for "Please, take a seat." He pressed his hands together as if praying, a sign of respect and appreciation in Cambodia, much like bowing in Japan or China. Each of the villagers around us followed suit. As we sat, catching our breath, we returned the humble gesture. 

I was offered a seat. It doesn't take much to show how thankful you are. 

All 165 bags of rice delivered today were donated by organizations, such as Rotary Club, and by dozens of families from around southern Australia.  Each bag came with a hand written message to the family receiving it.  As the families came out to say thank you and pose for photos, Tammy and Houk translated the messages from English to Khmer and delivered photos of the donors to each family. Each donor will get a photo of the family they supported in return. 

At one of the last homes in this village, only one man came out to say thank you and pose for the photo. At first I thought he lived alone, but Houk told me he was actually the father of 8 children.  Houk asked the man, "Can the rest of your family come out for the photo, too?" 

"The rest of my family are too sick from AIDS," the man said. 

After delivering rice to 12 families in that village, 13 families in another, we got back onto the empty truck to head back and reload.   

Over the course of two days, the visitors from Australia and the staff at ABCs and Rice delivered 194 bags of rice to families all around Siem Reap.

After day 2 of delivering almost 200 sacks of rice, which is almost 10 tonnes!

As they say, "It takes a village..." On this special Rice Day, a village of donors from Australia contributed to support 155 families in desperate need. 

Thanks to donations from people in villages around the world, ABCs and Rice feeds 220 children two meals per day, every day. 

To my village of friends and family back home, the cost of two beers at Wrigley Field, $20 (£15), is enough to purchase a 50 kg bag of rice.  This will feed an entire family in need, or 3 students at ABCs and Rice, for one month.  If you have the means, your support is greatly appreciated!

Click Here to Support ABCs and Rice! 

Close Your Eyes and Walk

What does it take to make an impact on the world? For Tammy Pomroy, it took just a few hundred dollars and a lot of hard work.

Just over eight years ago, ABCs and Rice was a bamboo hut offering free English classes to anyone willing to show up.  It is now a school with an annual operating budget of just under $90,000, supported solely on donations from people all over the world.  It has 6 classrooms, a staff of Khmer teachers, cooks, a janitor, and a project manager, a volunteer coordinator from England, a rotation of dedicated volunteers including Tammy herself, and most importantly, 220 incredible children making their own waves in their own way.  “Being the change you want to see in the world,” it turns out, simply requires you to take the first step. ABCs and Rice now provides the skills and the confidence boost for hundreds of children to take their own first step every day.

The ABCs family celebrates longtime Project Manager, Chhut Long

I sat down with Tammy recently and asked her, “If you had to divide the story of ABCs into chapters, what would they be?”

“Chapter one,” she said, “is Close Your Eyes and Walk.”

In 2009, Tammy was traveling and volunteering her way through Southeast Asia. After helping out a few communities in Cambodia, a Khmer woman, who was a local landowner, said, “Tammy, you are helping all of these other neighborhoods, but not this one.”

Tammy always wanted to start a school, but she initially thought it would be a couple of years down the road. “After my trip,” Tammy said to me, “I thought I’d go home, develop a plan, raise money, and find investors first, like any rational person would.”

Everything changed in that village outside of Siem Reap. The Khmer woman said to Tammy, “Sometimes in Cambodia, we just close our eyes and walk.”

Instead of doing the rational thing, Tammy closed her eyes and walked.

With only $300 to her name, she paid $140 to the woman for first and last month’s rent on the property and bought bamboo for the walls and wire to tie it all together. With a grass roof, she had all the makings of a school hut.   

A one room school hut!

She had so little money left over she had to live on ramen noodles. She found a teaching job in town to support herself and her mission, and rallied her Khmer friends to build the first ABCs classroom.  “If I’d had a plan,” she said, “it probably wouldn’t have worked.”

 “Chapter two,” she said, “though it’s kind of cliché, and stolen from somewhere else, is If You Build it, They Will Come.”

The property was rented, the bamboo hut was in place, and the word got out. Nearly 100 adults and children flocked to attend Tammy’s free nightly English lessons. 

English, for Khmer people in Siem Reap, is often the key to good jobs in a tourist economy.  Whether they are a tuk-tuk driver who takes visitors to see the temples of Angkor, a shop or restaurant owner, or a pharmacist, Khmer people find success when they know English.  

Though, for Tammy, it wasn’t just about the kids getting an education. “Seeing animal abuse, garbage everywhere, poor sanitation…There was no safe place to be during the day,” Tammy said. “It was more about getting them into a safe, happy life.” 

With 100 kids attending her classes, she had to build three more bamboo huts.  “Every new paycheck I got from my job, I put it toward more supplies for school in order to keep building.”

Expanding ABCs

Just as quickly as the wave of people flooded into ABCs, people started dropping out, though.  Tammy felt discouraged. Was it the lessons? Was it the location of the school? She went into the village and found some of her students. She spoke to them and their families to try to figure out what was going on.

Everyone had the same response: “We just can’t afford to have our kids studying English.”

“What do you mean,” Tammy asked, “they are free English classes?”

“If the kids are learning,” they said, “then they aren’t working.” 

With an average family income often around $50 per month, the children are integral to the survival of a family, whether they are working around the house doing chores, begging on the street, selling trinkets, or tilling fields. If they are in school, they aren’t contributing to the needs of the family.

“There were points like this,” Tammy told me, “where I thought, what am I doing? I should leave, but you have to be able to roll with the punches, man. It’s never what it’s supposed to be. Just be flexible. What’s that expression? The trees that survive the storm are the ones that are strong enough to bend.”

 

This is when Tammy took the second step. “Maybe the kids weren’t working for the family,” Tammy said, “but being a kid IS their job. I just wanted them to have access to being a kid. I got to be a kid.  I don’t need them to be smart, I don’t need them all to be doctors, but just to be happy in their life.”

Nearly 200 kids employed!

To keep the kids in school, learning skills to get out of the cycle of poverty, and have a safe place to spend their day, Tammy had to find a way to get them to stay. “I didn’t want the kids to keep having to lie to their parents about where they were.  There was one boy, who is now in medical school, whose parents didn’t allow him to go to school. He lied to them saying he was out taking care of his cow.”

Tammy’s school was already free.  She couldn’t offer scholarships like universities do to get them the education they so deserve. She began offering a kind of reverse tuition which would benefit the entire family.  What started as ABCs, in a stroke of genius, became ABCs and Rice.  Twice per month, with attendance at ABCs, Tammy sent the kids home with 6 kg of rice to support their families.  Nourishment for the whole family and an incentive to stay in school. 

Students at ABCs on Rice Day!

 “Something About Angels,” Tammy said, when I asked her about Chapter 3.  “That’s a silly title for a chapter, though, man.”

No one builds a non-profit school like ABCs from wire and bamboo without the help of others—something about angels, indeed.  “Even today, ABCs never has more than 2-3 months of operating income to support itself.  In the early days, some volunteers brought money,” Tammy said, “some people taught us curriculum, some taught us to feed the children, how to take care of their wounds…whether they were there for a week, or a month, to me, they are all just one brick.” 

A few volunteers recently gave out toothbrushes and donated rice to ABCs!

Tammy faced many roadblocks along the way, but this brick of volunteers was the capstone that held everything together.  Corruption from the government and a lack of trust in the community were just two of the hurdles to overcome. “Each day I reminded myself,” Tammy said, “that there is good in everything that’s bad, and there’s bad in everything that seems good. You have to be able to lean on people when those shocking realizations hit. There’s lessons to be learned in everything. Life isn’t about you.”

She overcame both of the roadblocks by building trust, supporting the community, and getting the ABCs name out there. “Initially, parents were afraid of sending their kids to ABCs,” Tammy said, "but, man, volunteers and donors brought in more bamboo huts, a toilet, and a water pump, and the community started to see us making real change—and with that came trust. Ultimately, parents started looking to ABCs for advice on parenting." 

Tammy believes one of the most important successes of ABCs is that “culturally, it’s unusual for girls to be educated enough to go after what they want. Girls used to get pulled out of school at 12 or 13, but today, they continue on, some even on to university. At ABCs, they’ve learned that education is important and there are some really confident young girls.”

Tammy takes the girls out for Girls Day

Though ABCs relies on a steady rotation of volunteers and other angels, the majority of the staff are local Khmer people. “ABCs is now about Khmer people helping Khmer people, which is the way it should be," Tammy said. "Crossing the culture gap has built even more trust." 

With trust comes an attitude shift. The same parents who once said that they couldn’t afford to have their children go to school, now look to ABCs for parenting advice and encourage their kids to get an education.  Be the change.

ABCs then and now

Tammy and her husband Charlie work as teachers at schools nearby to support themselves and their three adopted children. Tammy spends all of her time outside of work and family as volunteer Director of ABCs and Rice.  She built a school from the ground up and hasn't earned a dime doing it. "It's awesome to know that I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing," Tammy said.  

I asked Tammy if she were to do it all over again, would she change anything about how she started ABCs and she said, “Probably everything, but really, I just would have given more thanks along the way.”

In just 8 years, ABCs has dozens of former students who are university graduates, currently attending university, or who are working/supporting their families.  EVERY ABCs student has a safe place to be a kid every day, all thanks to one woman's guts to take that first step. 

ABCs requires continued work and support, though.  As Tammy said, at any given time, ABCs only has 2-3 months of operating income. I want to raise $5,000 to support ABCs' projects including getting bicycles to help children get to and from school every day.  

So far, together, we've raised over $1,000! Just $6.80 (£5), will feed a child at ABCs two meals per day for 1 month.  Please help ABCs continue to "be the change" and donate what you can! 

Mobile Donation Link

Computer Donation Link

Learn More about ABCs 

Raining Kindness and Courage

The rain washed away my plans to write Tammy’s story this week. It'll have to wait until next week.

The rain also kept the trucks from delivering food to feed the kids breakfast and cut the power to cook what food we had. The flood was deep enough that motorbikes, cars, and buses couldn't pass through without stalling, leaving the young kids to wade through the flood waters on their way to school. On Monday and Tuesday, I had to get off my bike, remove my flip-flops, and slide my feet through the rocky, slippery river bottom—my first time commuting to work by stream. What’s knee-deep water for me, though, is waist deep water for some of the little ones. As of Tuesday afternoon, ABCs made the difficult decision to close until the flood waters retreat. We can't run the risk of a child drowning. 

A few weeks ago, after another heavy rain, the ditches along the road at ABCs flooded.  After school, Long, our former Project Manager, got on his motorbike to head home for the day.  Just up the road from school, he spotted arms flailing and feet kicking in the ditch water.  A three-year-old boy, who often stops by ABCs to see what’s going on, was drowning.  Long jumped off his motorbike and scooped up the boy just in time, saving his life. On average, 6 children die from drowning every day in Cambodia.  In the US, 10 people drown per day, but the US population is 20 times larger than Cambodia.

As I shared last week, ABCs has an impact on the education, nutrition, well-being, and overall future outlook for nearly 200 children every day.  This week, due to the floods, I witnessed just how much they do for the whole community. 

ABCs and Rice Main Building

One of the boys at ABCs and Rice likes to hang out in the main building of the school.  This building serves as a library, playroom, and office for the staff.  He often pops by where I sit and shows me things he’s found in books or stares over my shoulder to see what I’m doing.  

On Monday morning this week, after the first night of heavy rain, he didn’t look like himself.  I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn’t get any sleep.  

“Why not?” I asked.  

“Too much rain,” he said.  

In my first world mind, I assumed he meant that the rain was so loud that he couldn’t fall asleep, or perhaps he was afraid of thunderstorms—something that affected my sleep as a child.  He then reached down and put his hand halfway up his shin and simply said, “Water here.” 

It wasn't the sound of the rain keeping him awake. His house flooded above his sleeping mat and he couldn’t lay down.  He then squatted down just a bit, showing me that he “slept” sitting down with his legs in shin-deep water. 

Many of the children at ABCs live in homes with just three walls made of straw and sheet metal.  Only some of the homes are built up on stilts to keep the floods out. 

The flood affected many people in the ABCs community

I told Tammy the story of the boy when she returned to her desk. As soon as I said the child’s name, she stood up and snapped into action.  Tammy, a volunteer named Nadine, and I walked down to the boy’s house to assess the damage.  To get there, we had to walk back through a quarter mile of the foul, brown water. We turned down the road to his house to find many of the homes had been overtaken by the flood.

We entered the boys home, the sun shining through the straw walls and a few holes in the rusted tin roof.  Through the doorway to the lone bedroom in the house, the mattresses were stacked on the floor, soaked through. Tammy had a conversation with the boy’s mother in Khmer.  The boy and his brother did their best to fill in the communication gaps.  I moved toward the back of the home to find that the home only has three walls.  Instead of a fourth, there was an open air space for the latrine and clothes drying rack. I could see right out into the field behind them. Tammy stepped into the open space and explained in Khmer that ABCs has extra bricks.  She said, "We can build a wall to stop the water coming in from the back of the house." A fourth wall turns a shelter into a home.  

The next day, with even more rain, we decided to close the school until further notice.  Tammy asked Houk, our new Project Manager, to contact the village chief to let the students know that school was closed.  While we won't be offering education and food for a few days, ABCs found another way to provide for the community. Tammy also asked the village chief to spread the word that the classrooms at ABCs are open to the public to get a good, dry night's rest. 

Classrooms built to keep out the floods

Though it might take time to build a new wall for a family in need, ABCs didn't waste any time to make an immediate difference for a community in need. I hope the boy, his family, and many others in the ABCs neighborhood are staying dry and getting some much-needed rest.

To support this great organization, I’ve set up a donation page linked here.  Over the next 6 months, together, I believe we can raise $5,000. We are already on our way with nearly $1,100 (£800) raised in just over one week!  At ABCs and Rice, just $6.80 (£5) feeds a child for a month. If you have the means to help ABCs and Rice continue to change young people’s lives every day, please donate what you can.