Bill Morse:  

An update on our work in Cambodia. In 2003 my wife and I started a charity, the Landmine Relief Fund (LMRF) to help clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia left over from the Vietnam War. Here is what we are doing today: COVID SITUATION IN CAMBODIA The population of Cambodia is 16,000,000; 10,000,000 adults and the rest under 18,. As of this writing the country has vaccinated over 90% of its initial targeted goal of 10,000,000 adults with at least one jab, over 83% have had both jabs. Cambodia began giving jabs to 12-17 last month. It is expected that by 21 September 70% of the entire population, including children will be vaccinated. Cambodia has begun booster jabs for 1st responders and will be giving them to the general public in the coming months. We should receive ours 6-7 months after we got our 2nd jab (4 July for Jill and I). This week the government announced that once the country is vaccinated it will begin moving to some type of new normalcy. Whether this means that the country will re-open to vaccinated visitors, whether the current 14 day quarantine period will be relaxed or eliminated is still to be seen. SCHOOL REOPENINGS The government announced this week that they are looking at reopening schools in provinces that have low rates of Covid infection, specifically rural schools. RSVP schools are rural ones, so we expect that many of our 27 schools may reopen in the next few weeks. Our intern from Northeastern University, Kosta Gouzias, will be visiting each school, along with Thea, the Ops Manager, for RSVP. They will be meeting with teachers and evaluating each school. Schools closed in March 2020, reopened again in December 2020, and closed again in February due to the flareup of Covid cases. Kosta and Thea will be looking to see what school supplies are needed and what repairs need to be done to the buildings, if any. All costs are covered by the Landmine Relief Fund. The LMRF received a very generous donation from Linda Look that will help us cover most of the expected costs. We will post our findings and expected expenses when the evaluation is complete, sometime in the next few weeks. UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS We have 6 students in university at the present time. The Landmine Museum used to cover their costs: tuition, books, uniforms, housing, health care and a small allowance ($2/day). That ended in 2018. At that point RSSO took over the responsibility of managing the scholarships. Tuition, books and uniforms are covered for 2 of our students by the Dith Pran Foundation from the USA. The other 4, along with costs for housing, extra classes, allowance and healthcare are covered by funding from the Landmine Relief Fund. An annual budget is prepared by RSSO, and funded by the LMRF. Our scholarship program is funded through 2022 thanks to the very generous gift from Linda. THE TOGETHER PROJECT Late in 2020 we decided to institute a long term program that would build sustainable farms in rural villages. We have built a HYDROPONIC GREENHOUSE, and a NET GARDEN. The program is being done in partnership with the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh. We have planted various crops to determine what can effectively and efficiently be grown. The market in Siem Reap is chaotic with most of the hotels and restaurants closed. We are currently harvesting weekly and the crops are being sold in Phnom Penh, where there is demand. Our Project Manager, Ms. Nisay Mout, has a degree in agronomy, has managed these programs in the past and is doing a wonderful job getting the program up and running. This week we start building a MUSHROOM TENT. There is a big market here for mushrooms, and we want to be part of the supply chain. We will be building an AQUA POND later this year. The fish will be sold locally and the waste will be turned into fertilizer. FOOD DISTRIBUTION With a grant from the Elsa Miller Foundation we have been able to continue our rice distribution program. We are distributing about 10 metric tons of rice a month (100,000 servings). We are distributing mostly to those in ...Expand for more