I would like to introduce our new manager Sarith. He has been working in charities all of his career, and is driven to help attain social equality and opportunities for all. He actually grew up in the Goodwill area and knows teacher Kolab and her family well. He is settling in nicely and the students think he is great. He has so much experience he is sure to be a huge benefit to the centre.
Before this, we had known Sarith as the manager of SHINE, an organisation in the Otres area (operating a very similar programme to ourselves). Sadly, due to lack of funding, SHINE was forced to close in December. However, they have some remaining funds coming in and, knowing that Sarith had ties with the community of Otres, a few of SHINES most staunch supporters requested that a skeleton operation be run out of the Otres centre, co-ordinated through us.
This is now being done, using their (SHINES) remaining funds, with Sarith and the rest of our team helping to oversee it. The main reason they are so desperate to keep SHINE open is its lunch programme. It provides lunch to (30 currently) students, often the only nutritious meal they receive in the whole day. While it means a bit of extra work for us all, the cause is definitely worth it and we are all happy to put in the time.
This has led to a very busy, but very fulfilling new year. Sarith has been getting to grips with our centre while I have been getting to know the Otres one. In fact, I volunteered at SHINE many years ago, and SHINE’s cook and assistant teacher (Molika) was a student of our evening English classes. So, we have many connections already.
We have done some teacher training days all together and everyone seems excited about combining forces. We hope very much by sharing resources and some staff members we can somewhat reduce costs for both centres and manage to keep them both open. This is likely a long shot, but one worth taking.
(If you are a donor to Goodwill please be assured your donation will only be used for our centre and the cause for which they are earmarked).
The Goodwill Center Sihanoukville 