Where it began:

After meeting Duncan Bell, our now friend and Co-Founder and Director of Helping Hand Cambodia in 2017 we soon learned he had arrived in Cambodia in 2012 to work in Chhbar Ampov slum, Phnom Penh. Building the charity from the ground up between himself and Chanty both working tirelessly despite humble beginnings, went on to sponsor 26 children to go to school and 13 families supported under the rice sponsorship scheme with numbers rising year on year. Helping Hand is also a registered charity and has been a registered local NGO in Cambodia with The Ministry of Interior since 2017.

We first met ChanVanny at 9 years old living at home with his mother, grandmother, two cousins, and older sister. When visiting the Slum, even through hardships and ever-growing external social issues Vanny's family and the wider Helping Hand community welcome us with open arms to share food, and stories, show us their newly gained knowledge, and local Khmer traditions, and play various board games. It's been a great pleasure to be able to take our family to meet Vanny and his family also when visiting Cambodia.

Where we are now:

Since passing his entrance exam for Beltei school and completing grade 4 all those years ago the support from everyone has changed Vanny's life allowing him to take his future into his own hands! Although his ambitions of being an architect have changed, Vanny still dreams big and is growing up into a brilliantly thoughtful and smart individual who shows dedication to his studying, family, and his fellow peers within his community.

In his last five class gradings, he has come 30th, 18th, 20th, 13th, and 10th out of 43 in his class. He is now 14 years old and has just studied in Grade 7. His favourite subject is Khmer local language and in his spare time, he likes to watch TV and read. In the future, he would like to be a pilot. So now onto Grade 8 at Beltei International School having passed his Grade 7 exam.

And as you can see...... he is getting really tall now!!

The charity now sponsors 41 children from the area, all of who would have had no chance of formal schooling without all of our support and donations.

Myself and Evie could not have done any of this without our wonderful friends and family who have contributed.

So we ask again for any donations, no amount is too little!

What a journey its been and we hope to meet him again once we go back to Cambodia in a few years.

We are on the home stretch now and just need a few more pushes to get him over his school finish line, so this year we are trying to raise the fees for both G8 & G9!

Thanks again for the constant support!