Yun’s family kept borrowing money. More and more money, more and more debt. What could he do? Everyday life simply cost too much. He couldn’t afford the things his family needed to survive.
Yun is a young man of twenty-five years old and lives in Kampong Thom Province in Cambodia.
He and his whole family kept falling ill over and over again. They returned to the hospital over and over again. Every month they needed medical treatment, and the treatments cost a lot.
More bills, more debt.
Yun wanted to earn money through his work as a farmer; but he often felt so physically terrible due to sickness that he couldn’t work very much, and he had no other way to earn more money for his family.
Yun standing with his family next to a CWEF biosand water filter
At home, when Yun and his family wanted to cook dinner or wash clothes, they retrieved water from a well. But they knew that the well water was dirty, and they feared what might happen to them if they drank dirty well water.
So they came up with another idea: collecting rainwater for drinking. The rainwater must be clean, they thought. But still the cycle continued of more illness and less work and more debt.
Thanks to your generosity, Yun’s family eventually received a biosand water filter through CWEF! Yun watched his family closely in the days and weeks after they began drinking the filtered water, and he happily realized that they came down with sicknesses much less often. He also suddenly discovered that he had more free time.
And on top of that, he had more energy. Enough time and energy to farm and earn more money and, even better, start saving money! Best of all, he received fewer and fewer expensive medical bills. Isn’t it amazing what clean water can do?
Now before he goes out into the fields to farm, Yun brings bottles of water from the the biosand water filter. And he will drink multiple glasses of filtered water before he goes out to the river to catch fish. Yun says, “Now, I am very happy after having received a Biosand Filter from Concordia Welfare & Education Foundation (CWEF) in 2019. All of my family members and I are healthy, and I hope that in the future my family’s living condition will be better.”
Yun thanks you for your generous donation and for supporting his living situation!
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Imagine for a minute — it’s the dead of winter. Suddenly the hot water and your shower at home both stop working. How long would you be able to make it?
That scenario is still the daily reality for school children all over rural China, including those in tiny Luoyan township — a small and unknown corner of China’s rural and remote southwest region.
In Luoyan township, there are nine primary schools, and many of the students attending these schools are boarding students. They live in dormitories on the school campus during the week because their families live too far away to be able to conveniently travel back and forth to school every morning and evening.
Thanks to your generous support of CWEF’s HEAL program, two of these schools — Tianjing Primary School and Gonghe Primary School — have became the first in the township to be able to offer warm showers to their students!
Inspecting new solar-heated shower rooms
In October 2022, the transformation of current facilities at the two schools into freshly renovated solar-heated shower rooms was completed, and our CWEF team members, along with local nonprofit, government, and school leaders, visited the Tianjing and Gonghe schools to conduct the official inspection and final acceptance of the project.
Prior to HEAL being launched at these two schools in 2022, none of the primary schools in Luoyan county had shower rooms or proper bathing facilities for the boarding students to use in order to keep clean and healthy while living and studying at school.
In addition to solar-heated shower rooms, your generous donations to the HEAL program also made it possible for both schools to receive much-needed upgrades to their dilapidated toilets and aging sewage systems, as well as 16 drinking water filter units to further ensure good health, sanitation, and hygiene for the students.
The HEAL program — which stands for “Health Education, Advocacy & Literacy” — is not just about buildings and health-related infrastructure like water filters, shower rooms, and sanitary toilets.
In conjunction with these upgrades to infrastructure, the CWEF team and our local partners also made important investments in the schools’ students and teachers themselves through the training of local health advocates and organizing health promotion activities.
Evaluation survey before health training
In November 2022, a health education program was initiated with 426 students and 31 teachers at Tianjing and Gonghe schools. Training sessions, demonstrations, and fun competitions were held to encourage healthy habits like washing hands, washing faces, brushing teeth, and keeping their school and dormitory environment clean and tidy.
Preparing for health training at Tianjing schoolHealth training at Gonghe Primary School
In addition, earlier in the year CWEF and our local partners brought in an experienced facilitator to guide 22 teachers from the two schools through a one-day mental health education workshop. The purpose of this course was to help the teachers understand and strengthen their own mental health, to learn to better understand the inner worlds of their young students, and to train the teachers in simple but effective ways to provide guidance and counseling to their students who may be struggling with poor mental health or challenges at home.
In 2022, your generous support of the HEAL program empowered our CWEF team and local partners to make important upgrades in the health-related infrastructure and external environment at Tianjing and Gonghe schools.
Jenny of CWEF with local partners
More importantly, your partnership has made valuable investments in the long-term physical, mental, and emotional health of the students who live and learn there.
With your help, 2023 will be a healthier and happier year for these special young people who are working hard to build a better future for themselves and their communities.
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p.s. — If you’d like to see an overview of all of CWEF’s work in rural China and Cambodia during 2022, you can watch this 3-minute video. Thank you for helping to make all of this good work possible!
This article was written by Joshua Lange – CWEF Executive Director.
Discover other rural Yunnan health initiatives that your giving makes possible here.
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Ven is a 23-year-old from Kampong Chhnang province in Cambodia.
Like many other young adults, his parents are subsistence farmers. For nearly 30 years, Ven’s father has harvested palm sugar. This low-paying work is extremely dangerous, but was necessary to provide for Ven’s family.
“My father received very little education after the Pol Pot regime; he has few skills other than farming and producing palm sugar,” shares Ven. “For many years he got up at 3 a.m., climbed the palm tree [about 20-25 meters high], harvested the palm tree water, and gave it to my mom for making sugar. The process is not very difficult, but it takes a lot of time to make it.”
Ven with his family
While Ven was in high school, his father suddenly got sick and needed an urgent surgery. His family could not afford the hospital fees, so Ven’s mother decided to sell some of their farmland and cows to pay for the treatment. After his father recovered, the doctor warned him not to climb palm trees or work as hard as before. The situation was dire for Ven’s family.
After Ven graduated from high school, he asked his parents for permission to study in Phnom Penh. At first, they disagreed because they didn’t have any money to pay his school fees. However, they wanted to see Ven have a bright future, so they decided to take out a loan from a neighbor and sell their last cow to pay for the school fees. During his first year, Ven sought a part-time job in construction while studying. As a day laborer, it was difficult for him to find enough work to make ends meet and to pay for his education expenses.
Ven’s father climbs palm trees for work
Ven heard about a scholarship opportunity through his church and made an application to CWEF. With your generous support, he was approved and has been sponsored through the CWEF University Scholarship program since his second year of studying electrical engineering at National Technical Training Institute (NTTI). Ven is now in his final year and will graduate in 2023!
Through the years, Ven has worked hard to show appreciation for his parents’ struggles and out of gratitude for your generous support through CWEF. Because of his humility and good character, he has been able to develop supportive relationships with his classmates and teachers, and he has become an outstanding student.
Ven on site at a construction jobVen at his current job
Your generous support through CWEF has inspired Ven to keep fighting onward.
Ven shares:
“The support from CWEF has helped me a lot—to pay for school fees and housing costs, and also to encourage me when I am discouraged, and to help me focus more on my studies.”
Ven leads prayer at a church near his hometown
Additionally, Ven never forgets to serve at his church in Phnom Penh each weekend. On other weekends, he goes back to visit his family and to serve at the church near his home in Kampong Chhnang province.
Through your generous gift of a university education, Ven has transformed himself from a part-time day laborer to a technical team leader in an engineering company in Phnom Penh.
He is grateful for this job, because it is closely related to what he is studying at university. Ven worked hard to overcome many obstacles the last few years during the pandemic, and he is filled with joy to be serving as a team leader who looks out for his coworkers. Ven was especially pleased that he was able to install many electrical machines at his own university through his company’s projects.
“During COVID, I was in front of the computer, just learning from theory with no practice. But when I started working, I realized that there are many things to learn and keep learning. So now my motto is: to work hard, keep fighting, be honest, and be humble.”
Ven’s ambitions do not end here; he aspires to someday become an electrical engineering lecturer at a university, so he can pass on knowledge to students, teaching not only the theories but also through sharing from his practical experience in the field.
Ven says “thank you”
Ven is filled with gratitude for your support through CWEF, which has given him the opportunity to pursue his dream.
“I would feel regret if I had not decided to come to Phnom Penh to study. I would never know how big the world is, and I don’t know what my life would be like,” shares Ven. “Maybe I would have followed in my father’s footsteps. But – when I chose education, and especially when I received the scholarship from CWEF, my life changed dramatically.”
Thank you for standing by outstanding young people like Ven through your generous support of the CWEF scholarship fund for students in Cambodia! Your gifts are transforming lives!
This article was written by Panhary Port Puth, Education Program Coordination, Cambodia.
Meet another outstanding CWEF scholarship recipient: Bun Leang.
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As a young adult, Weifang is living out the value of “local people serving local people.” She has donated much of her time in recent years to serve others.
“In my spare time, I help the community as a volunteer in the local area, especially through anti-epidemic work…. Social stability is everyone’s responsibility. I am one of them, too!”
What Scholarships Make Possible
When she was younger, Weifang was an academically strong student and received a scholarship from CWEF in 2011 until 2014, when she graduated from high school. The scholarship support, made possible by generous supporters like you, relieved a financial burden to her family.
“I’m grateful for the financial aid from CWEF and the professional guidance I received. It reduced my personal psychological pressure, and I could devote myself to studying with more piece of mind.”
During her high school years, Weifang and other scholarship recipients received resiliency lessons and social/emotional encouragement. These lessons and activities provide additional support to scholarship students. Weifang remembers them fondly:
“I felt hope for the future, love and hard work for my life and study, and I grew self-confidence. I also gained a group of friends who I have maintained deep friendships with to this day.”
Weifang performed well in high school, going on to Guangdong Technical Teachers College to major in accounting. Once she graduated in 2018 she went on to be an accountant before ultimately shifting to be a math teacher in 2021.
She notes that the scholarship program and additional support lessons have had a long-term positive impact in her life:
“I was able to grow and maintain a healthy mental state to face problems I encounter in life and work.”
Choosing to Serve Others
Weifang joined a group of volunteers, comprised of other CWEF high school scholarship program graduates, in a domestic non-profit called Shining Star. As a volunteer, Weifang began teaching left-behind children through Shining Star’s GROW program.
“When I became a teacher of the GROW program (leading resiliency activities and lessons), I liked the feeling of teaching and learning. It’s destiny! I am now in the education profession.”
Supporting left-behind children with Shining StarWith Shining Star volunteer teammates
Inspiring Future Leaders
Sometimes life comes full circle in more ways than one. This former scholarship recipient and accountant is now paying it forward as a teacher. Being a part of Shining Star’s community has introduced Weifang to her love of teaching, as she is now a math teacher.
During 2022’s Spring Festival, Weifang asked some children what they thought of the volunteer work she was involved with, and if they wanted to do it as well when they were older.
Weifang has been doing a great job of paying it forward, because they all said “Yes!”
Your generous giving to the CWEF scholarship fund made it possible for young people like Weifang to focus on their studies, complete high school, learn valuable life skills, and form deep bonds with a supportive community!
Each of these has been a key component in her ultimate success. And more than that, your sacrificial giving empowered and equipped Weifang so that she can pour into and inspire other future leaders.
Thank you for stepping up to help transform the lives of young students in China!
This article was written by Elena Semler, CWEF volunteer.
Meet more inspiring Chinese scholarship recipients! Read Lijuan’s story of transformation here.
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In the tropical country of Cambodia an estimated 2-3 million people get their daily drinking water from unsafe water sources. Rural communities gather water from rainfall, wells, rivers, or standing water. The Cambodian government has set an ambitious goal for 100% of the population to have access to safe drinking water by 2025.
If properly installed and maintained, a BioSand water filter can last up to 25 years! This slow drip system removes 100% of waterborne worms and eggs. Surface water is cleaned in the low-tech device and is easily accessed directly from the filter. When a filter is installed at home, families can conveniently treat water at home to protect against disease.
Playing games with local kids in Ratanakiri
What difference do CWEF’s local partners make?
Pastor John is a farmer and serves a local congregation in his hometown in Ratanakiri province. As a local partner of CWEF, he provides important health training to families in his area who receive gifts of BioSand Water Filters, because of your generous giving.
When a family receives a water filter, they immediately experience many health benefits. Furthermore, local partners like Pastor John also train families in how to properly maintain their water filter, and lessons in sanitation and hygiene practices give families additional tools for preventing disease and improving their overall health.
In 2022 and 2023, CWEF will provide clean and safe drinking water via BioSand Water Filters for over 100 families in two rural communities in Ratanakiri province. The partnership with local Christian pastors like Pastor John, together with their congregation members in the Deh and Chang villages, will make your gift of safe drinking water more powerful and sustainable for the long-term.
What difference are you making by supporting CWEF BioSand Water Filters in Cambodia?
Globally, diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in children under five years of age. Water-borne illnesses are preventable with the use of proper water treatment, such as the BioSand Water Filters you are supporting in Cambodia. Access to clean water, coupled with handwashing and other healthy hygiene habits, can bring a life-changing renewal of health to whole families. In particular, more children and their families in Deh and Chang villages in Ratanakiri will enjoy full health without the threat of malnutrition, dehydration, or death from diarrhea.
This past October, CWEF highlighted the importance of WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), in connection with Global Handwashing Day on October 15.
Don’t forget — the next time you wash your hands or drink from an indoor faucet, you also can remember the gift of health that you have provided to families in rural Cambodia. Because of your generosity, they too can enjoy the immense gift of drinking water at home, and the improved health it brings.
Thank you for your partnership!
This article was written by Karin Semler, CWEF Board Member
That’s what some of the schoolchildren in rural Yunnan see every day. Blurry teachers. Blurry math equations. Blurry characters. If all a child knows is a blurry world, then she might not know it’s possible to see more clearly. Or that simply having clearer vision could make school so much easier!
Because of you and your generosity, 47 primary school students at two different schools in rural Yunnan, China, underwent vision screening this summer. And 27 of those students received a pair of eyeglasses for free! Those conducting the eye screening discovered several children with eye diseases and referred them to local hospitals for follow up care.
Along with the screening, students also discussed this question: How do you love and protect your eyes? Volunteer teachers taught students and their parents to spend less time on electronic devices and more time playing outdoors. They also learned exercises for their eyes including habitually alternating between looking at objects that are nearby and objects that are far away. In addition, students learned the importance of wearing eyeglasses regularly if they have vision problems.
Thank you for giving a brighter clearer world to these youngest of students! Now able to see the world in focus, they have the opportunity to excel in all their pursuits more than ever before!
Your generosity not only supports eye screening and education for these precious students, but your gifts also support all CWEF’s HEAL (Health Education and Literacy) initiatives for children in rural China. Through HEAL your donations empower local people to create solutions for local health problems that particularly matter to them. Thank you for your generosity and support!
*What other community health initiatives are CWEF and its local partners undertaking in China? Read Xingqi’s story here!
*In order to continue partnering with rural Chinese communities through health screenings and health education, we need your support! The donations we receive in one year are used for the next year’s initiatives, and we are currently fundraising. Will you consider increasing your giving and/or becoming a CWEF monthly donor for the first time today?
*This article was written by April Chiasson, Communications Manager with field data gathered and reported by Jenny Chu, Senior Program Director in Yunnan. This article was translated into Mandarin by Qian Qian Long, Mandarin Translation Volunteer.
Bun Leang is a bright young man who believed his God-given potential could only be achieved by furthering his education at university. But how could he attend when his family stood deep in medical debt?
Bun Leang grew up in the countryside of western Cambodia in a Christian family. His father worked faithfully for many years as a construction worker to support his wife and six children. But eventually, as his body grew slower and weaker with old age, he could no longer continue this physically intensive labor. Some time later, Bun Leang’s mother also accidentally fell. The fall broke her hip. She needed surgery, but the doctor refused to operate because she had diabetes. Caring for their mother by providing necessary medical care drove Bun Leang’s family deep into financial debt.
Bun Leang participating in worship team!
During this time of Bun Leang’s childhood and adolescence, Bun Leang enjoyed playing music. He performed musically and shared the gospel in surrounding villages. When Bun Leang was nearing university age, CWEF heard about both his academic potential and the financial hardships his family faces. So CWEF donors like you came together and awarded Bun Leang an academic scholarship, making it possible for him to attend university.
Bun Leang embraced the opportunity by first pursuing an associate degree in his hometown. Later he took an even bigger leap and transferred to a university in Phnom Penh, far away from his family and everything familiar, to study engineering. Bun Leang studied hard. During his classes, he most enjoyed listening to professors who shared stories from their on-the-job engineering experiences.
One of the schools Bun Leang attended
But Bun Leang also struggled to adjust to life in the big city. He felt lonely. All his family and friends lived back in his hometown, and he knew no one else in Phnom Penh. Once, he even regretted coming to the big city and wished he had stayed in his hometown. Also, he felt very stressed. He knew that his family needed more money to pay for his mother’s medical debts, but he didn’t have a job and couldn’t help.
Bun Leang working with his technical teamVisiting a work site
Later on, while still in school, he did successfully find a job as part of a technical team. Bun Leang explains, “(At first), I didn’t understand a single word of the technical English terms used on engineering sites, but that is a good starting point for me to work harder. It took me two years and a lot of effort to learn how to be skilled at my job, but now I’ve been working for three years and am the Senior Technical Project Manager.”
Bun Leang on his last day of engineering school!
This year Bun Leang will graduate with a degree in engineering! He says,
“…if I continued to live in my hometown without furthering my studies, I really can’t imagine what my life would be like. But now I have a job, and I dream that I can support myself and give back to my family.”
Throughout this year, Bun Leang has described his life as a blessing, and CWEF has been a big part of that: providing support and encouragement. Bun Leang says: “CWEF has provided support such as: school fees, some living costs before I was strong enough to seek a job, housing fees, and another extra course…CWEF takes good care of me… I am so grateful for your support.”
Bun Leang surely will not stop here. He has more goals he wants to achieve in the coming years. He shares,
“Education has played a big role in transforming my life. First, I’ve become knowledgeable, and it opens my vision to see the next plan for what I want to achieve more, for example, in 5 years or 10 years.”
Eating a meal with family!
Bun Leang is so grateful to God for blessing him in every way, and he is thankful to everyone at CWEF for providing him with a scholarship and a chance to pursue higher education! Through this opportunity, he was able to make his dream come true, and now he looks forward to pouring into his church and community in the future!
Want to help more students like Bun Leang fulfill their potential? Donate here!
Meet more students like Bun Leang and read their stories here.
This report was written by Panhary, Education Program Coordinator in Cambodia; translated from English into Mandarin by Qian Qian, CWEF volunteer; and edited in English by April Chiasson, CWEF Communications Manager.
John, a farmer from a remote mountain village in Cambodia, along with his wife and children always drank from the village well. Many times a year they would all fall ill with stomach aches and diarrhea as well as frequently experience other health complications like lower back pain and eye problems.
John filling up on clean water from the biosand water filter!
John is descended from an ancient Cambodian ethnic group. Because he lives in the remote mountains, it is very difficult to travel outside of his own village. John attended school until fifth grade and can speak two languages: Khmer and Jarai. In 1998 during the Pol Pot regime, he married his wife in Vietnam near the Khmer border. They had six children together; but sadly, in 2001, one of their daughters died from leukemia.
Now John owns 10 hectares of land where he works hard morning until evening six days a week with his wife to farm cassava and cashews. Despite all of their faithful hard work, for a long time John and his wife could not afford enough food or medical care for their family.
In 2010, a CWEF team – together with a partner organization – visited John’s village. They shared the gospel with John and his family and also taught them how to eat healthy, how to wash their hands with proper technique, and how to boil water in order to make it safe for drinking. After CWEF’s first visit, John began to serve his local church, study the Bible outside of his village, and share the gospel with other people in his own community. Because he speaks both languages, John also assists with translating the Bible from the Khmer language into the Jarai language so that people in his community can better understand God’s Word.
In 2014, a few years after CWEF’s first visit, John requested a biosand water filter from CWEF. Unfortunately, the materials for the filter could not be transported over the terrible village roads. But recently with improved roads, CWEF was finally able to fulfill John’s request and delivered thirty biosand water filters to John’s community! In 2023, with your generous support, we plan to provide clean and safe drinking water via biosand water filters to many more in John’s community and the surrounding area.
John with his children and a few nieces/nephews.
Today John says:
“My community is so blessed by God through receiving Biosand Filters from the CWEF organization. Now we do not spend a lot of time boiling drinking water, and we feel comfortable after we get safe drinking water at home. Thank you CWEF for continuing to work in my community and encouraging us so much in the name of God.”
John and his wife have also now achieved better production on their farm and are able to provide enough food and medical care for their family.
Thank you for your generous support of the HEAL (Health Education, Advocacy, and Literacy) program, facilitate by CWEF! You make it possible for families like John’s to not only hear about the goodness and generosity of God, but also to experience it through clean water, health education, and improved sanitation. Your generosity is transforming lives!
Want to help more families like John’s? Join the CWEF Community and become a monthly donor today!
This story was written by Kanhchana, CWEF Director of Cambodia, and edited by April Chiasson, CWEF Communications Manager. This story was translated into Mandarin by Qian Qian, CWEF Volunteer.
