This was 2011 at The Goodwill Center Sihanoukville, Cambodia

First of all, all the staff and children of The Goodwill Center want to wish all our donors and friends a Happy New Year 2012 and a Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon! Thank you for supporting our Goodwill Center with your donations and, some of you, with your time. Without you, The Goodwill Center would not exist and would not be able to operate the way it does.

THANK YOU!

2011 again was a year full of new and exciting activities. Children and staff are all developing and making new experiences. They all are getting more and more creative which is really great to see!

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February: Visit of The Flying Seagulls

These are some of last year’s highlights:

The English circus group The Flying Seagulls (www.flyingseagull.co.uk) came to visit us in February. They gave juggling, spinning plates and music workshops, played funny new cooperative games with the children, and had a marvelous performance at the end of their three days with us.

 

March: Painting of the center

In March, we finally decided that the center needed to be repainted. It is now painted in dark and light blue. At the same time, Markus from Sweden did a great job repainting the slide and the swing. The wall around the yard had been repainted a few months prior, with some really nice pictures being painted on the wall by our neighbour, Choub, so that now the whole compound looks fresh and new.

 

March: Class on healthy nutrition

Also in March, Veronica from Sweden gave a class on healthy nutrition for our group of teenagers. After having explained to them which food items a healthy meal should contain, we divided the teenagers into four groups. Each group got a certain amount of money and were instructed to buy ingredients in the market and cook a healthy meal for four people. When everybody had finished, we met at the center again, each group bringing their dishes with them. It was absolutely amazing to see what these teenagers were able to cook! Some of them have to cook for the family every day but they actually never considered cooking being a skill. It was an eye opener for them that they had a skill that others didn’t – there were some students in the class who had never been to the market to buy food on their own, and who had never cooked a meal. We all enjoyed the most delicious lunch together.

 

April: Introduction into Montessori methods

In April, Sylvia from England volunteered with a few classes on the Montessori approach to music and to teaching the alphabet.

 

April: Khmer New Year

Also in April, we had a wonderful Khmer New Year’s party with lots of games, a dance performance, a theater performance, and dancing around the traditional table with fruits.

 

July: Dancing

In July, three volunteer students from a London dance school worked with us for one week, teaching new dance styles to all ages of children for an hour each morning and afternoon. This was a great opportunity especially for our Khmer dancing teacher Nain, to get lots of new ideas for the dancing class that she is teaching. Nain usually gets her inspiration from Khmer TV which of course is not the same as from someone providing personal tuition. But not only her, the whole staff team had a great time together with the children.