See if you can let it go
Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
If I’ve counted the stamps in my passport right, this is my 11th trip to Cambodia. Each time I leave my children behind, Grady 8 and Shanti 5, I spend the entire flight wondering why I’m doing this. Spending time away from them is painful, but the answer always comes back the same. If I don’t do it who will? Two years ago we launched a new approach to see if we could help the village of Chrauk Tiek make their school sustainable. My hope back then, to be honest, was that self-sustainability might help me let go, and I could walk away like so many other donors of schools in Cambodia.
What we have learned in the past two years is that sustainability requires a community ownership and a systematic approach. Our Education, Leadership, Sustainability program has the power to do just that. I’m not flying over the ocean with the hope of letting go. Instead, I find myself excited about meeting with the people at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) about helping with funding. And I carry the hope that our supporters will take up the torch of sponsoring more schools into the program.
Sustainable Schools International wants to expand it’s program to four more schools in the Aural District of Kampong Speu Province. New school buildings here have shuttered classrooms and absent teachers and vast swaths of the current generation have no opportunity for schooling past fourth grade. I just can’t let it go until I know that the people I’ve come to love and respect have built a RELIABLE education system that will bring them a tangible result for their community. One could have worse work to do in sacrificing time away from her own children.
Over the next two weeks I will write as often as I can from the villages were SSI hopes to expand. I want you to see these people, in all their grace and affliction. We need to strengthen our partnership and become better listeners. Srey Lim was saved from prostitution, shelter is given to a homeless family, schooling opportunities are extended to parentless children. Our community empowerment approach is working!
Come with me…meet them…and see if you can let it go.
