School Begins

This is Nick with 2 of his 3 room mates .  Today they were able to find a reasonably priced apartment to rent close to the University.  These kids were in the preparatory year offered at the American University of Central Asia last year, and are some of the brightest students, so have been given partial scholarships from the University based on their academic excellence.  Finding suitable housing for them had turned into a much more difficult task then we had dreamed of, but today they are in and settled .  On Monday our last two will start their new school and then they will all be settled. A good feeling. 

With the excitement of back to school, there also comes a bit of a dread.  Many of the kids returning to school this week were the principal care giver for younger siblings when the parents were working .  This is leaving basically three options for many of the families in these remote villages. 1. older children simply stay home from school to care for younger siblings,  2. the preschoolers stay home alone unattended or 3. the preschool age kids are sent in to the orphanages for the next 10 months .  I can not see how any of these options are except-able.  

We are so very fortunate to have a local governing body in our region who believes in a fourth option.  Work is under way to open a preschool that would be able to provide a safe positive learning environment for the kids.

  You can read more about it and see more pictures here at this link. 
http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-great-opportunity-to-make-difference.html

We have a target of $10 000 to raise the funds to purchase all the main big ticket items to pull this project together .  The governing body here will be looking to the citizens of the 8 villages surrounding  this 100 child preschool to help meat the additional $5000 to complete the project.

Once the preschool is finished and furnished, other grants and commitments will kick in that will insure the operation of the school for years to come .  

Please take a moment now and consider how you can help.  you can donate right here on the blog.  Some of you may have an idea for other funding that may be available.. different foundations, service clubs, churches of schools that might help us with this .  Please spread the word .  I know it is possible .