THANK YOU ROTARY

On behalf of the families in Chamkar Chek Village in Cambodia, THANK YOU to the Rotary Club of West Seattle for your grant to support the Khmer Village Program.

Report from Peter Royce, Project Manager (volunteer) of the Khmer Village Program.

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Recent activity

Owing in large part to the tire bin donations and clean-up activities, village residents have maintained greater care of the environment to date, keeping areas around their homes mostly clear of litter and natural debris. Congruently, conditions inside homes improved with mosquito free sleeping areas and less intrusive monsoon rains thanks to contribution (from Rotary) of roof panels and treated bed nets. And since our village classes began in January 2011 with Rotary granted school materials, over sixty children have attended, studying English, Khmer, and Math. Every 2 to 4 months, students who attend class regularly enjoy a community day trip to the waterfall, pagoda, beach, cinema, or skating with their teachers and parents, while receiving incentives aligned with project goals such as raincoats, school bags, and badminton sets. In addition to the village classes, five more private school tuition scholarships were recently awarded from donors in the U.S. and Holland, and twelve children unregistered in state school were finally enrolled in October.

Extracurricular activities have included village parents and a local donor developing a now popular soccer field on land adjacent to the village. Skype video sessions with American donors and students, and university students volunteering to teach soccer, badminton, and dance. Last month we hosted two events: we had a village donation and performance event. Children participated in singing, dancing, and musical chairs competitions; then received clothing donated from Kids Without Borders, multivitamins from an individual donor, and school materials from local groups "Khmer For Khmer", University of Management and Ecnomics, and Norkor Khmer School. Back in December, 48 students and 14 volunteers auditioned for our performances at a local school, visited a new beach, then went to dinner.

Peter Royce (center back row) and the children in Cambodia

National Volunteer Week April 15-21, 2012

Kids Without Borders is celebrating National Volunteer Week - April 15-21, 2012. 
You, our volunteers, have helped making a WORLD of DIFFERENCE.
THANK YOU

Meet one of our young volunteer caring for an orphan in the Go Vap Orphanage (Viet Nam).

THANK YOU Volunteers

A Big THANK YOU to volunteers at the Computer Drive benefiting Kids Without Borders on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Special recognition to students from Pine Lake Middle School, Newport High, Eastside Catholic, and Rachael Carson Elementary. And many thanks to the City of Sammamish, our board member Dawn Sanders, and Interconnection.org .

Operation Babylift 37th Anniversary

April 4, 2012
37 years ago on this day, many lives lost and survived after the crash of the first Operation Babylift flight just outside of Saigon (Viet Nam)

Photo of a memorial at the crash site, taken at the 35th

anniversary memorial (April 2010)

Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries (including Australia, France, and Canada) at the end of the Vietnam War, from April 3–26, 1975. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated, although the actual number has been variously reported. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.

A C-5A Galaxy 68-0218 flew the initial mission of Operation Babylift to bring Vietnamese orphans to the US in the few remaining days before the Republic of Vietnam fell. The C-5 departed Saigon-Tan Son Nhat Airport shortly after 4 p.m. on April 4, 1975. Twelve minutes after takeoff, there was what seemed to be an explosion as the lower rear fuselage was torn apart. The locks of the rear loading ramp had failed, causing the door to open and separate. A rapid decompression occurred. Control and trim cables to the rudder and elevators were severed, leaving only one aileron and wing spoilers operating. Two of the four hydraulic systems were out. The crew wrestled at the controls, managing to keep control of the plane with changes in power settings by using the one working aileron and wing spoilers.The crew descended to an altitude of 4,000 feet on a heading of 310 degrees in preparation for landing on Tan Son Nhut's runway 25L. About halfway through a turn to final approach, the rate of descent increased rapidly. Seeing they couldn't make the runway, full power was applied to bring the nose up. The C-5 touched down in a rice paddy. Skidding for a quarter of a mile, the aircraft again became airborne for a half mile before hitting a dike and breaking into four parts, some of which caught fire. 138 people were killed in the crash, including 78 children and 35 Defense Attaché Office Saigon personnel.

Some of the returning adoptees from around the world

(April 2010, 35th anniversary reunion in Saigon)