Phola and Chie start University

We were so proud and excited to see Phola and Chie move to Phnom Penh to study pediatric
medicine in September. This was made possible by two very special sponsors. The boys have
settled in well and are learning how to cope own their own in a big city. They are both very
dedicated to their studies and are great role models for all the children.

Our First Birthday!

We survived our first year in September! Thank you to everyone who supported us through our
first year. I have seen a huge difference in the boys; they have grown up, are more independent
and happy. A special thank you to our sponsors, and to my parents, Geoff & Di Holman and my
sister, Corrin Kelly.

Clare Holman's Trivia Night

Raising some much needed funds to help Clare stay in Cambodia and continue her work with “Chres Village Orphanage” and “Stepping Out Cambodia.”

When :  7pm Saturday 18^th August 2012.

Where : Wellington Soldiers Memorial Club

Cost: $ 15 per person. (Tables of 8 – 10)

Guests are asked to bring a plate of nibblies to share with their table.

 To book a table, please contact Kate on 0427 466217.

Visitors from April-July 2012

 

Geoff and Diane Holman

Geoff with his three sponsor sons Chet, Visal and Pises.

Corrin Kelly with her sponsor children, Phola and Sokchea.

Debra and Jack Morgan, and Stacey, Amelia and Victoria Bruggy

Pictured with Corrin Kelly, Geoff and Diane Holman,

 and Victoria and Amelia Bruggy.

Amelia and Jack teaching Phos

and Sombo how to play Monopoly.

Amelia, Victoria and Jack

with some of the girls at the orphanage.

Ross, Sue and Sam Hobson

Pictured with the Chairman of the orphanage and Bun Lu.

Gary and Joy Giddings

Pictured at a Cambodian wedding with the Chairman 

of the orphanage's family.

Jeff, Nadine, Emily and Amy Tinsley

Pictured with their sponsor daughters, Sokha and Toeum.

Asher Milgate and Emma Grindley

Emma teaching some children a dance routine.

Australian visit

For those of you who haven't heard yet, I will be bringing three of the orphans (Phola, So and Saray) to Australia in August for three weeks. We will be spending most of the time in Wellington, also visiting Sydney, Canberra and Nowra. Thank you to their amazing sponsors for making the boys dreams come true! The boys are so excited and counting down the days but are not so keen on experiencing the cold weather!
We will be at the Trivia Night (Saturday 18th Aug) in Wellington and will organise a get-together in Nowra (Monday 20th Aug) and Sydney (Saturday 11th Aug) to try to catch up with everyone.
We are now waiting to hear if the boys Australian Visa's have been accepted

Building a new house for fire victims

The boys have been busy over the last few months building a new house for a young family (Phos' sister) after their house was destroyed by fire in February.
Thank you to the generous people who donated money towards building the house, it is now finally finished!!
The boys spent most of their school holidays and weekends helping build the house. I am very proud of the time and effort they put into helping this family.
I am trying to teach the boys to help others, which they are keen to do anyways.

The family have written a letter to the people who donated money to build their lovely new house, which they love. (Translated from Khmer into English by Phos)

Dear kind friends,

When I saw our house on fire, I was very shocked and devastated that we had lost everything. I was sad that we lost our family house and all our property. I didn’t know how I was going to fix our problem, I was trying to think how can I get money quickly. I felt very helpless and worried all the time about my wife and sons. There was no way I could help them myself and this made me very scared.

In my life I have never felt like this before, I felt I lost everything. I can’t describe the feeling I felt. We lost everything from the small things to important things like farming equipment, important papers and money. We had nothing.

I didn’t know how I was going to earn money and to feed my family. I am not an educated man.

I would like to say thank you very much. I want to thank you more and more all the time. You are all generous people to help my family have a new house and make everything a house, and new machine. Now I know our life will be ok because of you all.

Thank you to Teacher Clare very much for finding people to help my family. You make us have everything good now. In my life I don’t know how to repay you and your friends. I can only say thank you to you all and hope you understand how much I thank you. Thank you for looking after my family when they were sick.

Finally, I wish all our generous ‘friends’ good luck and everything good for you because you are so kind to my family. You don’t know us but helped us, I am very surprised when I heard we will get a new house. I love our house, all my family do.

From Seng Soeuy and Phy Meas

June 2012

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we have all been very busy the last few months and haven't had time to update the blog. I am hoping now to keep it up to date for you all.

The boys are all going well and settled into their busy schedules. They have their moments like most teenagers but that is to be expected.

The boys were lucky enough to have Teacher Sue volunteer with us for one month to teach the boys English each night. The boys learned a lot and enjoyed Sue's classes. Now I have taken over teaching the boys English three nights a week. I included life skills in their lessons as well.

                                                 Thank you Teacher Sue!

The boys have now started learning Japanese at the house. I have employed a teacher for 5 days a week. All the members of Stepping Out join the class, even Tokla.

Phola's Birthday- we all went out for dinner to celebrate Phola's birthday. He was very surprised when we brought out his cake and all the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to him.

Fui

We have a member at Stepping Out- Fui Fui (name given by my father and sister- not me!). This is the boys first pet they have ever had. Saray has taken over looking after Fui and feeding him. The boys enjoy playing with him and taking him for walks. He is very spoilt and gets into EVERYTHING! But we still love him.

 

 

Road Safety

While my parents were visiting, they bought each of the boys a motorbike helmet. I am trying to teach the boys more on road safety and the importance of wearing a helmet (not just so the Police don't charge you money!) The boys were also given the option of getting a bicycle helmet.

I am proud of the boys wearing their helmets all the time, now I don't have to yell at them as much to remind them to wear their helmets.

Thank you Mum and Dad for our helmets!!

Fire Safety

Thank you to Wellington Rotary Club for their donations of fire alarms and fire blankets. Our house is now equipped with the correct fire safety equipment. 

Thank you also to Mum and Dad for providing the house with fire extinguishers. We are also hoping to get fire safety training for the boys at the house as well as the children at the orphanage.