New Start School

New Start Program
Commenced 19th February 2007
The New Start Program came about in direct response to the needs of a small group of street kids that live in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. With sponsorship, these children stand a real chance in life. Previously their days were spent wandering the streets of Kampong Cham foraging in rubbish bins for cans and plastic bottles to sell.
Their circumstances are best summed up by the words of a 13-year-old girl, Srey-Vy:
"I walk everywhere in town to collect cans and plastic bottles each day. My mother doesn't have enough money to feed the family. She loaned somebody's money to open a little shop in front of where we live. But the money she makes can't help us to live a better life. She has to pay the interest everyday.
"I want to go back to study also. I want to study Khmer and English but when I go to school lots of kids at school mocked me. They criticised me and looked down at me. They called me the rubbish girl. They said it's a sham to be friends with me. Nobody wants me, but I want to be a teacher in the future."
Because these children are so ostracised by their classmates and society they are not being enrolled in the state school system but attend classes at the local church. A teacher and cook have been employed to look after both the educational and nutritional needs of these precious children. With your support these child's circumstances can do a complete turn around. They are wanted, they are loved. The New Start Program run by Heartland Community Church in Kampong Cham will see to that.
On behalf of a group of young people you may never meet, thank you for caring. Sponsorship of $30 per month gives a brand new start in life, ensuring they receive hot nutritious meals and schooling five days a week. In addition to this, sponsorship now makes them one of the well-dressed children of Kampong Cham, an experience that is totally foreign to them all.
Please contact Andrew Cook if you have any interest in the New Start Program.
Phone 0422 175 873 or email office@heartlandinternational.org.au