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Newsletter Summer 2014 
A Note from Bill and Nancy
Today, September 2, 2014, we celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary and we also celebrate the 8th anniversary of the Cambodian Village Fund. Our work with the rural village in Cambodia is the highlight of our years together and the most important thing we’ve ever done. We are grateful for our years together and thankful for so many who have given their support in changing lives and making the world a little bit better.
Space is Still Available on Our January Cambodia Trips
We have a few spaces available on our 2 trips to Cambodia, scheduled for January 2015. You will see Cambodia's cultural sites and natural wonders (ancient temples, royal palace, mountains, waterfalls, and floating villages), but the best part of the trip is our visit to Kaun Khlong, the village where we've been working since 2006. You'll see the school we built and meet our scholarship girls. You will have an opportunity to spend a day working on a project in the village (for example, distributing water filters, helping with an eye clinic.) We'll have lunch at a local village house. You'll spend time with Sovechea, the monk who helps with our projects, and our university girls. Both trips are almost sold out, so act quickly if you want to go. Click here for more information.

Delivering Water Filters

Temples of Angkor

Along the Sanker River
Reach for the Sky Scholarship Girls
Our Reach for the Sky scholarship program now has 20 students--10 who attend university and 10 in middle and high school.
Rany graduated from high school this year and passed the university entrance exam. This might not seem like a great accomplishment--all of our Reach for the Sky girls who have graduated from high school have passed. But Cambodia tightened standards for the test this year and only 25% of the students passed. But not only did Rany pass, she was one of the top 1,137 students of the 93,000 in the entire Country who took the exam. That means Rany is in the top 1%. Like all of our Reach for the Sky girls, Rany is not only above average, she's awesome.
Chanthy Sovann, one of our college girls, is in her 4th year at the University of Management in Phnom Penh and will graduate next year with a degree in banking and finance. Chanthy is an amazing young woman who is one of the top students in her class, maintaining a B average, while working full time as an accountant at a garment company. She lives in a tiny apartment with 2 other college girls. Chanthy is our first Reach for the Sky girl to attend college. We are very proud of her.
Nine of the scholarship girls live in Battambang where they attend four different universities. They live in a house that we rent for them. They shop and prepare all their meals themselves. Several have part-time jobs--3 are servers at a restaurant and one is a radio announcer. The girls are majoring in a variety of subjects, including banking, marketing, tourism, nursing and agricultural development.
Most of the middle and high school girls live at home with their families, but three of the older girls have moved to Battambang to attend high school, because it is a better school than the village high school. These girls live in the house with our university girls.

Sokhom Preparing Lunch
Sonia Lunceford with University Girls in July


9th Grade Reach for the Sky Girls--Sroem, Seyha, Dany, and Vanna
Sponsor a Scholarship Girl
We need sponsors for our Reach for the Sky program. You can make a huge difference in a girl's life. A donation of $300 per year can fully support a village girl or provide one-fourth of the funds for a university girl. The money pays for school uniforms, books, English lessons and a small allowance. In addition, for the university girls, your donation pays for rent, utilities, groceries, tuition, a laptop computer, and Internet. Most of our university girls have several sponsors who share the cost, each donating $300-$600 per year.

If you choose to sponsor a girl, you will get to know her through email, letters and Facebook. Most sponsors and students share photos and personal information. You will find the personal relationship very rewarding.
University Students Souerth, Sinat, Rosha and Thida
It's easy to become a sponsor. Simply sign up on the Cambodian Village Fund website by making a donation on the Reach for the Sky donation page. You can pay monthly, quarterly or yearly. The easiest way is to sign up for a "Recurring Donation" which will automatically be charged to your credit card each month, quarter or year. A donation of $25 per month will pay the full ongoing costs of a middle or high school girl or one-quarter of the cost of a university girl. A donation of $100 per month will fully support a university girl.
After you sign up, we will send you information about "your" girl, including photos and biographical information. To see our 20 girls, go to the Reach for the Sky page on our website.
New Buildings for the Primary School
Construction is underway on our new 3-classroom building for the Kaun Khlong Primary School. This building will replace an old building that was unsafe and has been torn down. The new building will house the library/media center and language lab. The Bishop's School in La Jolla donated money for books and supplies for the media center. The construction also includes a new toilet building. In addition, we are repairing the floors of the other classrooms that were damaged in last year's floods.

A New 3-Classroom Building

Construction Began in Early August
English Language Program
Our English Language program has grown and we now have three teachers. Two of our teachers teach first through sixth graders at the Kaun Khlong Primary School. 145 primary school children attend our voluntary, after-school classes. In addition we have 25 middle and high school English language students. The middle and high school English classes are taught at a house belonging to Vanna, a primary school administrator.

Rambo--Primary School English Teacher

Sreynoch--Primary School English Teacher

Sinan--Middle and High School English Teacher
Amazon Smile
If you shop at Amazon.com (and who doesn’t) you can support the Cambodian Village Fund, without any additional cost to you. Amazon has started the “AmazonSmile” program. When you make a purchase on Amazon.com, .5% of the eligible purchase amount will go to the Cambodian Village Fund (or another charity of your choice). Click here to get started. After you have designated the Cambodian Village Fund as the charity you wish to support, remember to login to smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com. It will be exactly the same website with the same products and the same prices as Amazon.com. The only difference is that Amazon will give the Cambodian Village Fund an amount equal to .05% of the purchase. It won't cost you anything. This seems to us like an easy way to help children in rural Cambodia. We appreciate your support.

Please Lend Us a Hand

We will happily accept your donations, which you can make on our website or
by sending a check to:

Cambodian Village Fund
c/o Bill and Nancy Bamberger
4376 Argos Dr.
San Diego, CA 92116-2330

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