Cambodian Humanitarian Initiative (2004-2006)

Overview

By Fall 2004, the Tenafly Middle School Landmine Awareness Club decided to expand its focus to include any humanitarian problems impacting Cambodia.  As a consequence, the club changed its name to the Tenafly Middle School Global Care Club and initiated its new global service-learning initiative:  The Cambodian Humanitarian Initiative.  Its educational initiative involved delivering presentations to the Tenafly Middle School student body and a wide range of school and community venues in New Jersey -- including Haworth, Montclair, Morristown and Vernon -- as well as organizing a schedule of classroom speakers and special events.

Click here for a Calendar of Presentations, Speakers and Special Events for the entire three-year initiative.

Click here to learn more about two Special Events:  “Concert for Cambodia” (1/23/06) and “Eye on Cambodia” Youth Leadership Conference (10/26/04).

For its service objectives, based on the feedback from the youth delegation that had toured Cambodia, Global Care decided to focus on funding the educational initiatives of two Cambodian organizations founded by human rights activist and Khmer Rouge genocide survivor, Arn Chorn-Pond:

• Cambodian Master Performers Program (with a mission to revitalize traditional Cambodian arts that were destroyed during the genocide) and,
• Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (with a mission to provide “non-formal” educational opportunities to rural Cambodians).

To achieve these service objectives, Global Care successfully raised:

• $6,000 to sponsor Cambodian Master Ieng Sithul and 50 students participating in the Cambodian Master Performers Program in Phnom Penh;

Click here to read a Sponsorship Report regarding the beneficiaries and the impact of our Master/Class sponsorship.

• $4,200 to sponsor the purchase of 10 computers to teach English and computer literacy to students participating in the non-formal education program in Phnom Penh through Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development.

Click here to read a Student Profile that highlights the impact of our sponsorship of 10 computers for English and computer literacy.