Operation BreakOut!

The Ponheary Ly Foundation is named after an amazing woman, Ponheary Ly, a Khmer Rouge survivor, who was a teacher before becoming a tour guide to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. Ponheary and her family made it their mission to make sure the poorest of the local children get an education.
You can read much more about foundation at http://www.theplf.org/

Ponheary was also recently named as one of the 32 'CNN Heroes 2010'. More info can be found at http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/ponheary.ly.html

Ponheary Ly Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded by a daughter whose father was a teacher and who strongly believed in education in relieving people from poverty. As such, the foundation serves the Cambodians by providing education for the children who would otherwise simply fall in the vicious cycle of poverty generation after generation.

As Singaporeans, we enjoy a very wonderful education system and the contrast between our two nations' education is huge. Our trip is short, but our aim is to do as much as we can, exposing the Cambodian students to what they can achieve through education, as well as equipping the teachers with what we know so that they can improve as educators. We care because we believe that every one deserves a shot in getting themselves out of poverty, and education is the best option available. Ponheary Ly Foundation's mission and objective is the most effective weapon against poverty and we stand in line with this belief.

We are college students who have benefited from a robust education system in Singapore and will move on to enriching careers after graduation in the medical, finance and engineering sectors. We believe that this organisation acts as a fantastic foundation for the country's education system to improve. We name our project 'Operation BreakOut!' because we believe that education is the way to 'break out' of poverty. We're not ambitious, but we wish to play a part in the development.

Our project consists of 2 weeks teaching both the teachers and students in Cambodia (coming Dec 10) in 2 schools (Tchey and Knar School), with a side project focusing on beautifying the schools' leaning environment. We will also be celebrating Christmas and New Year with the children.

The amount that we're aiming for is a total of $2500 which will fund for the items necessary to beautify the schools, funding field trips to Angkor Wat for the children, providing computer classes for the teachers even after we leave and giving snacks to each and every student during the festive celebrations. (We believe that every one in the world should have the chance to celebrate them together.)

Thanks for making this hope come true!