My letter to Ms. Ponheary Ly

Below is my letter to Ms. Ponheary Ly, of the foundation that bears her name. Ponheary is a survivor of the killing fields, and her foundation seeks to give kids at or below the poverty level a fighting chance at a real future by subsidizing their education. The work her foundation does is fantastic, and for $20 you can send a kid to school for a year.

The Wat Bo Primary School, where I am headed in a couple of days, has the highest concentration of PLF-funded kids, but it has many other advantages (see my earlier post). In the letter I post below, I wanted to describe to Ponheary what I was bringing with me in a couple of weeks.

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Ponheary,
I have some exciting news! I am building a computer program that will teach kids how to speak and read English, and it has a special emphasis on those words and phrases common in the hotel and/or tourism industry. I spent 16 hours the last two days making sound recordings, and the result is a very neat, interactive tool.

I still have lots of work to do, but I have a great start to something I think Wat Bo students will get lots of use out of. I call it the Interactive English Learning Lab.

Part of what will make this project a success, though, is I need to provide them the words of the lessons in Khmer script. I will need your help there. I want the students to be able to read the word they know in Khmer, and then see it on the screen written in English and click on it to hear it.

Do you have access to a computer that can type in Khmer? If not, that will be one of the first things I set up for you, because I really think it is important to give them on-screen instruction in Khmer.

When I come, I will bring some scripts that explain about the English language, and I will record you reading them in Khmer. Then, we can provide the students with audio and visual methods for leaning English. Since they are computer programs, the kids can use them any time that there is space in the lab.

Also, I would like to take photos of some sixth graders, and write a small biography of each one. The goal is to get at least 30 students' pictures taken and biographies written. I will, of course, need help talking to them and translating what they say into English. Another MBA student came up with the idea of using the photos and biographies to inspire William & Mary students to "adopt" these kids and sponsor their studies, providing them books, uniforms, bicycles, and possibly a small stipend to go on to secondary school. The thought is that it costs so little, yet makes such a big difference in the Cambodian children's lives.

Can’t wait to see you again!

-Tom