What can you do when you don’t have much well you can do much. Jenna got the kids to make Read more ...
Open Arms Cambodia
Empowering and Supporting Cambodian People to Reach their God Given Destiny
May Newsletter
Hi folks I hope you’re enjoying the cooler weather it’s around 40 degrees each day here but we are managing to keep cool.
Open Arms is a very busy place these days and we are continually grateful for the input that the young ones have, they make life so much easier.
We have employed two older women to help at Alabaster the young ones find it too distressing I must admit I find it difficult most days , we have four women pregnant at the moment and the sadness is that they are all sex workers and living on the streets but they don’t want to be housed ,I think they are just afraid of the unknown however Open Arms will assist with many things, Medical, Clothing, Toiletries, Formula , Baby bedding and if they decide we will rent rooms for them its such a strange situation a place to stay and they have Alabaster daily.
The children’s school is going extremely well the children are picking English quickly and their habits have changed, we are hoping to start to provide lunch for them daily it will cost $50usd a week so if you would like to invest in this could you let me know on this email address.
The young ones are loving training in the the new look of the restaurant I think its the aircon they like the most , Sreynait is really enjoying training the guys and we have just hired a lady from the slums she’s an older lady in her late forties but shes as keen as mustard . Sreynait is enjoying upgrading her skills I will attach a copy of her latest cake decoration and the cake, business is very slow as its too hot for people to eat but we are sure it will be good soon.
The Salon is losing two of its long time employees they have both been with us six years each Sreyna is so sad as they are friends but we assure her we are trainers and expect them to leave and go ahead them selves, they are both opening their own Salons and they should go very well as they are accomplished beauticians now.. The problem for us at this stage is to get rainers but we trust God in all things.
The training as always is going well we have 15 girls we are taking new girls constantly and i just love it when we drive around in the tuk tuk and Sreyna points out all the owner operated successful Salon that have come out of the training I use all those adjectives because anybody can train but to take in onto the next level is the success story and to think of where they came from what pleasure it is to be able to help these kids and watch them blossom.
The boys who lived with us in the children’s home are constant visitors now most of them have good jobs are married with babies and enjoying life, two of them came for dinner Saturday night and of course out came the photos there was lots of laughter kidding and fun was had by all I just loved it all.
Anyway for you folks who have been serving with us for fourteen years it’s a very good result thank you and to you all lovely faithful people thank you so much for all that you do to keep us going.
Much Love and Many Blessings
Grahame, Sandra and the Open Arms Family
Open Arms is now fully air conditioned.
Hi folks I Thought you might like to see the new look Cafe its was a trial to do it but it came up lovely.
The hope is that we can start to make profit so that we can continue
As usual our team was incredible we just couldn’t do it without them.
Thank you for your love. prayers and support.
Look forward to seeing you here.
Sandra x
Khmer New Year
So today we start our Khmer New Year holiday it’s the only time of the year that Open Arms is closed we close for ten days .
We don’t go away as Phnom Penh will be deserted and it’s beautiful and quiet and easy to get around .
We will go swimming eat watch DVDs and sleep but before we start there is tradition to follow.
First we scrub our home then we decorate it with lots of flowers then we buy food, then we play play play.
These kids are so beautiful willing and so generous they only get such small money to us that is but they insist on putting in money can you believe one of them wanted to start giving pop and $50 a month she gets $250 kids here always help their parents we didn’t take it but how very beautiful and honoring hey.
So anyway pop and I are looking forward to the time with these lovely kids and you guys have a totally blessed week in whatever you d
Alabaster News
To all you wonderful women that brought perfume for the ladies at Alabaster thank you so very much thank you for helping me make these ladies feel very special.
March 2016 Newsletter
Hi folks I hope you are all going well.
Please accept my apology for the delay in sending you a newsletter we have been held up in Australia because of my health but all is right again and we will leave Australia on the 29th March for what we expect will another fruitful time in Cambodia.
As usual the young people hold down the fort beautifully, Skype and social media make it very easy to keep up communications and even though the young ones do a great job we know they are anxious for us to return they say it’s so boring without us haha.
So what will 2016 bring for Open Arms?
For the next few months our discipleship classes will focus on Who We are In Christ these classes are held daily and equip the young ones not only in their own lives but they all have the opportunity to share the Gospel with customers and the people at Alabaster.
One of our focuses will be to help the leaders in their written communication skills, we will be helping them to do reports for Global Development and other reports when necessary, this will take them another step closer to be able to totally take the reins of Open Arms.
Jenna , Chiva and Lita will be attending University, Lita is doing Accounting , Jenna teaching and Chiva will do Computer engineering ( it’s a new name for IT ) these young one still hold down a position in Open Arms and Sreyna and Sreynait will continue to manage the businesses .
Salon and Beauty School
We are expecting more teams than usual this year, the first starting in April with a hairdresser coming from Australia to help train she is also assisting us in getting training manual set up.
In June we will start networking with a group from Japan the connection came through World Vision Japan the Japanese group will work through World Vision Cambodia and will sponsor ten girls a year to be trained by Open Arms they will also provide Open Arms with products from France we will sell these to help generate funds, the hairdressers will also come to assist the training it’s very exciting.
In July our friends from Texas will come again to train this will be their fourth year they have been a great benefit to the training of the girls and an encouragement to Grahame and I.
It has been such an honor for us all at Open Arms to be able to be a part of reintegrating these beautiful young people back into a good life and good employment there are over 200 young people come through then program over the last six years.
Restaurants / Hospitality and Catering Training.
There will be some changes made in the restaurant after receiving some good advice we will glass off an area so that we can air-condition a portion of the area, to be competitive in this area we have to provide a cool place for people to eat.
The catering continues to be a good source of funding for the restaurant, the training is exceptional the young are really very good in all areas, cooking, presenting the food, table waiting and there wouldn’t be a cleaner restaurant in the world haha.
Alabaster.
I have to say honestly just to say the name sometimes makes me sad it truly it’s a tragic area but in saying that there have been successes.
Here is a testimony from two of the ladies that come daily
Chantha and Rorn say they are happy when they came in to Alabaster to rest through the day. Alabaster make them felt like a warm loving home because of the care they are getting from the staff. They got everything they need for themselves and for their babies. Since Alabaster was open there are hardly any women slept on the street anymore and they appreciated the help that they got very much. Alabaster is like a safe place where they can go to and forget all of their problems on the street.
We have felt that this year we would like to do more towards equipping these women to get employment this is a very difficult area as they can’t afford to stop working to train so we will be believing to able to give them a stipend.
So I am very excited about our decision, we will start a cooking school at Alabaster I’m not sure how this will look yet as we have to get back to see if there is a premises available or how we could fit it into the area we have.
Our idea is to use the great people we have at Open Arms.
Sreynait the head cook will come across a couple of days a week to train, her skill level I so high she needs to use it to equip others now.
Chontoo who is probably one of the best little waitresses I have seen will train in table waiting, table setting and customer service.
Socheat our assistant cook will train on how to keep a restaurant clean.
We will do market shopping, ordering a and all things that we hope will equip these women to be able to get good employment.
As the women progress we hope to find outlets for these cooking but until then we will set up a little shop at Alabaster front door and sell cupcake sand muffins, it will generate a little cash for the girls.
If you feel you would like to donate to the setting up of the school please let me know.
Alabaster Children.
We hope to find new premises for the children school it has become disruptive with all the comings and goings as the women have to walk through the school to get to Alabaster.
The children are a delight as are all children they have grown so much in all areas, Jenna attending university will help her so much in teaching these kids.
It has been hard to get some of them to commit so if they attend every day that week they receive a reward e.g. soap shampoo etc etc it seems to be working.
They pray each morning they do a memory verse then into study or craft, one little girl won’t go to school she is twelve so Jenna is giving her private study and its really helping her.
We will hope to get the boys started in some sort of sport this year but we are not sure yet which way that will go.
Well folks that’s a big newsletter I hope you enjoy reading it and I hope you will pray for us to have wisdom as we make the steps of improvement that we would lie to make.
Thank you for your love and support for another year it’s hard to believe this is our 14th year and most of you have been with us most of the time thank you again we love and appreciate you.
Grahame, Sandra and the Open Arms Family