Vandy lives in the Slorkram Commune near Siem Reap. She attends Hun Sen High School and is currently in the 8th grade. She lives with only her mother as her father has passed away and she is an only child. Despite it being just the two of them in the family they still had a low standard of living. Her mother works as a seamstress but is limited to how much she can do due to her being HIV+.
Thankfully the Lily Foundation found Vandy support in the shape of a monthly donor who now has being paying for her school fees for two years. This was a welcome relief to both Vandy and her mother as it meant they no longer had the worry about school fees.
Bunheng grew up in the Chong Kneas commune near Siem Reap. He is one of five children with two brothers and two sisters. In his early education he did very well and continued on to the 10th grade happily. Unfortunately his parents could no longer afford to fund him attending school (uniform, books) as they have a very basic income from catching and selling fish. They did want him to attend but they had no choice. His school fee’s only cost $30 a month but it was just too expensive for the family.
Luckily the Lily Foundation heard Bunheng’s story and they found him a monthly sponsorship that meant he could continue attending school and guarantee himself a better future.
Sothorng lives in the Chong Kneas Village near Siem Reap and attends Wat Sway high school. He is one of 9 children with three sisters and five brothers. Unfortunately his mother passed away so his single father was trying to provide for the entire family on a fisherman’s wage.
Despite being a very poor family Sothorng pushed on and studied hard so he could provide him and his family with a better life in the future. Now through the partnership provided by the Lily Foundation Sothorng no longer has to worry about buying his schoolbooks and uniform and can concentrate on his studying. He often writes to his “sister” to show his gratitude.
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My family and I believe that tourism sometimes creates and destroys at the same time. In many parts of the world everybody may have seen the erosion of a culture. Here in my country for instance, we saw big hotels being built where once small communities in bamboo hut dwellings existed. We feel that as members of our community, we must be responsible for what we bring. Over the years, we have worked very hard in keeping our small family businesses thriving and feel the need that as we grow, the other members of our community also grow with us.
Here is how it all started…
The entire time I have been working in the tourism industry which is over a decade now, I have always found it important to give people a special gift. I thought that if people wanted to visit Angkor Wat, they could go with any of the many other tour agencies which could do the same job, same itineraries, same roads, same places. However, I wanted to do things differently and make it special for each of our patrons. I wanted to give my heart in every tour, every guest, every itinerary. Something different, something special in each and every tour. And for many years, my husband and partner in all these (Andre) and I have welcomed so many good people who had loved the tours and travels with our team which more often than not made them sad to leave Cambodia. Almost all of our guests from every corner of the world became our friends. We keep in touch, most of them keep coming back for a different tour or just to visit.
Because of the success and happiness of gaining new friends and new endeavors we celebrate, no matter how small, and try to give back to the community. For many years we have been helping local organizations in all sorts of ways. And we love what we do helping other less fortunate folks. It is also a joy to see that when we organize activities to reach out to people in need, members of the local community whether expatriates and locals alike are happy to become part of these somehow. We will continue to do our best in contributing something to improve the livelihood of these people we reach out to.
Over the years, we have seen a lot of children who were part of our free learning programs growing up to become successful individuals. We have seen the smiles on many faces of families who have seemed to never in their wildest dreams receive kindness from a fellow human being.
And we enjoy giving where so many others have taken. We will keep on giving through Lily Foundation and with the help of our kind and generous friends, family, and anyone who wish to be part of what we do.
