Poverty-stricken people in developing countries face insurmountable barriers imposed by society, culture, prejudice and corruption that prevent them from ever moving beyond a certain point which isn’t much beyond where they are now.

Through foster parent support at our orphanages and homes for poor children, donors have been providing nourishment so they can attend a State school. We have also provided supplementary English and IT training at one orphanage in order to move some of them to go beyond being common laborers at best when they go out into the world.

We now want to see those who show promise reach their full potential. We would like to support them to be able to finish a top-notch secondary school, study at a university in Cambodia and/or abroad and become thinkers and leaders.

The newly created Bright Future Kids Home welcomes not only orphans but also bright promising children who have parents but are at the lowest poverty level. They will live in a dormitory together with other motivated children and have the opportunity to study at a sophisticated Learning Center replete with a satellite dish linking to the internet. There they will receive English and state-of-the art computer skills training while developing their social and critical thinking skills. The hope is that they will become productive members of society.

The Bright Future Kids Home is ensconced in a beautiful rural setting on the paved road toward Saigon 25 minutes from downtown Phnom Penh. It shares a space with an orphanage and center for children whose mothers are afflicted with AIDS sponsored by a French NGO. The director of both establishments is Mme. Savang Prak, a remarkable, dedicated and popular administrator with more than 30 years' experience in managing one of Cambodia’s major State orphanages in Kandal, which King Sihanouk visited many times. The Bright Future Kids Home is being built on Madame Prak’s land (area of 2,800 square meters) and she will devote herself full-time to it once it is ready to open at the end of 2006.

The first stage of the construction project is to build three facilities: a dormitory, learning center and kitchen/dining area. We are currently talking to sponsors to support the construction. The cost per building is $10,000 to $25,000. These buildings will be named after the donor and displayed on the web pages: www.BrightFutureKidsHome.org and www.TheSkyHasNoLimit.org. One donor, the head of a California winery, together with the DHL Foundation, has already committed to one building.

A dozen among the first group of children selected to enroll in this program are scholarship students from poor rural villages, sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Fred White, who are currently studying at the Ezra Vogel School for Special Skills in Ratanakiri’s provincial capital of Banlung. They are academically at a high level and are receiving English and computer training, which they will not be able to continue after they graduate if they continue on to a rural middle or high school. These students will therefore move into the new dormitory and continue to learn English and computer skills here and at NIDA, (the National Information Communications Technology Development Authority) with highly skilled teachers and native English-speaking teachers while attending top-notch secondary schools in Phnom Penh, moving toward entry to universities. They will be able to e-mail their friends and families as their villages are connected to our Village Internet Motoman system. We will fund visits to their families once or twice a year.

To sponsor a child including his or her tuition and living expenses is $60 a month.
Here are some ways in which donors can support us:

Taxpayers in Japan and the US are able to receive tax deductions for donations to Bright Future Kids Home.

Anyone wishing to contribute to this project may wish to choose from these options and will be acknowledged on our upcoming websites: www.FutureBrightKidsHome.org & www.SkyHasNoLimit.org

Checks can be issued to *American Assistance for Cambodia.* Contributions are tax deductible. AAfC is registered as a non-profit organization in Delaware and recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c) 3 organization for U.S. tax deductions. For information on obtaining a tax deduction in Japan or the U.K. please contact us at: bernie@media.mit.edu

U.S. dollar checks payable to a U.S. bank account can be mailed to:

Bernard Krisher
American Assistance for Cambodia
4-1-7-605 Hiroo
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (150-0012) Japan

Or you may wire the funds to the account of: American Assistance for Cambodia in the Ridgewood Savings Bank, Queens Blvd. and 108 Street, Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375. The account number is: 648899 and the tracking number is 226071033. Add $10 for the bank incoming wire charge. Please advise us by e-mail, fax or mail when you have transferred funds.

In Japan funds in yen can be transferred to:

the "Cambodia Jizen Kikkin" account in the Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, Hiroo Garden Hills Shucchojo, Futsu Yokin # 748327.

Payment can also be made by credit card (VISA, MASTERS) with a 3 percent additional charge, and via Paypal. For details please e-mail to: bernie@media.mit.edu