2009-2010 ANNUAL FUND DRIVE

LOCK FINGERS
The way children make a promise in Cambodia is to lock little fingers with a friend and say, “I promise.” We promised education to 150 students. As we project $150,000 support required for 2010, every dollar received will be an expression of supreme trust in this sacred outreach.

November 2009

Dear Friend,

One searing hot day in a remote village in Cambodia, a poor girl waited to be interviewed for a chance to attend school. She stood nervously at the end of a line with sparkling tears in her eyes. She whispered to me, “Please, just write my name down, so you know I exist.”

I have been struggling to find one word or phrase that describes the foreboding life of many Cambodian girls and young women. Many of our students have known years of trying to find their voice over the din of poverty, the threat of sexual abuse, and the tyranny of being treated as second class citizens. They suffered the plight of not being heard. They knew speaking up often meant not being taken seriously.

What remains then is the stammering of the human spirit of girls seeking someplace safe, someplace to be a girl AND someway to be educated.

My epiphany came one morning like the rising sun in remembering William Wordsworth’s line from Tintern Abbey written in 1798: “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of my thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still sad music of humanity.”

The Cambodian Arts and Scholarship Foundation’s mission remains in the dawning of our ninth year to not only listen to the still, small voice, but to provide the resources and personal support so a girl can not only feel safe and BE a girl, but also follow the rainbow of education.

Your contribution for our 2010 Annual Fund helps make the education of poor and at-risk girls possible. While their collective voice is fragile and generally unheard in the world, every dollar assists in freeing young women from the verdict of poverty. Every dollar wisely spent is a deterrent to sex trafficking, poor health, gender inequality and the inability to read and write.

Please, join us with your donation to help the poor village girl at the end of the line go first along with others like her to find her voice and realize her dreams through education.

Sincerely,

Frederick Lipp, President/Founder CASF