Dear partners, supporters, and friends
We are about to celebrate the most important holiday in Cambodia, the New Year from April 14-16. The Year of the Tiger is coming to an end and the Year of the Rabbit will begin. Unlike the West, here in Asia the years are designated with animals. There are twelve of them, every twelve years the cycle repeats.
Now, however, I would like to tell you more about our Learning Program. Until 2014, our Living students attended some tutoring sessions at our partner organization BrightStart outside of our campus. When we were able to move to a new, larger location in the summer of 2014, this allowed us to accommodate more students, we integrated Brightstart’s tutoring classes into our program and the teachers began teaching on our campus.
Since our high school students only attend school in the mornings, it was important to us from the beginning to provide the youth with meaningful recreational activities while teaching them skills that would give them different perspectives. At the same time, we received musical instruments, sewing machines and computers from C4C (Care for Cambodia).
In 2016, as we reflected on our objectives and structured the various activities of Lighthouse Battambang, we were convinced that education should be a central aspect of our work. Lighthouse Learning was born.
My wife Somaly was excited about the idea of opening our tutoring and extra classes to surrounding neighborhoods in Battambang, and took on the role as Learning Program Manager. She recounts: “I was passionate about helping young people, especially girls, on their way to graduating from school by encouraging them and boosting their self-confidence, thereby reducing the number of school dropouts. Since we did not have a trained manager at that time, I saw an opportunity to take over the program myself and at the same time introduce a student who was studying management at the university to the work. This allowed her to gain practical work experience. In the first year, I was the manager and Sochean, the university student, was my assistant. In the second year, I left Sochean in charge and assisted her in an advising position. The Lighthouse Learning program itself was a valuable asset to many young people during their three years of high school.”
Today, Lighthouse Learning has grown into a comprehensive program. It fills me with joy to be part of a movement that gives young people support and security in life. All of you are also part of it, which fills me with even more joy. Thank you so much for your valuable support.
God bless you,
Lukas
