I wanted to share some more news coming out of our humanitarian projects in Cambodia.

Firstly, both our primary schools, where in excess of 1200 kids from some of Cambodia's poorest families receive a free education and meals, are back to business almost as usual. We have had to stretch the budget and put on two extra teachers to cope with the Government enforced Covid restrictions on class sizes that has seen the number of kids in each classroom cut from 45 down to around 20. You'll see in the photos that the classrooms are half empty, which I'm sure is making for a harmonious teaching environment, but isn't helping us balance the books.

Strict hygiene practices are being maintained at both schools and the lengths our staff members are going to to ensure the safety of the students and their families is above and beyond and is testament to their dedication.

We are hoping to begin construction of two new classrooms at our remote Oddar Meanchey (OM) school near the Thai border in the coming weeks to cope with the need for extra space to comply with the Covid restrictions.

We've also embarked on a significant infrastructure project at our OM high school boarding house where more than 60 teenagers now reside while they attend the nearby public high school. Because the high school is more than an hour's drive from the homes of most of these kids (and none of the parents have the capacity to transport them anyway) we put them up in what is now referred to as the OM House of Hope. In fact the majority of the parents of these students live most of the year over the border in Thailand where they can access employment, so the house has become a really important constant in the lives of these kids. It's not just a roof over their heads, they receive mentoring, learn life skills normally imparted by their parents and extra tuition that sees our students outperforming most of their middle class peers in high school.

As the number of students living in the house has steadily grown in recent years it has become very apparent that the bathroom facilities were in much need of an upgrade and I'm very pleased to report that thanks to support from one of our valued partners in the US we have been able to commence construction of a brand new bathroom addition that will meet the current needs and give us capacity to expand in years to come. A temporary facility had to be constructed while the existing loo was decommissioned and work is well underway on the new project. It has turned into quite a significant build as the footings have been designed to cater for a second floor above as the anticipated number of students in the house grows in coming years.

On a negative note 12 of our high school students living in the house contracted Covid in recent weeks and had to be transferred to a medical care facility in another province to ensure the safety of the remaining kids. It was identified that the kitchen facilities were a contributing factor to the rapid spread of the disease through the house so we have also now committed to constructing a new kitchen adjacent to the house while we have the contractors onsite working on the bathrooms.

That's probably enough of an update for now. If you've made it this far down the page, thanks for hanging in there and as always please accept my gratitude for your ongoing support and encouragement.