Our First Newsletter of 2021
Greetings!

Welcome to Journey's Within Our Community (JWOC)'s first newsletter of 2021 and happy Khmer New Year!

In this newsletter, we are celebrating our achievements over the first 3 months of 2021, and highlighting some of the challenges that COVID19 is having on Cambodian youth as we begin this new year.
COVID19 in Cambodia

2 weeks ago, JWOC closed our Learning Center once again under the guidance of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in Cambodia. 

Until now, the impact of COVID19 has been mostly on the economic health of Cambodia. However, the second wave of the pandemic is much larger than the first, and travel between provinces has been banned. Since we closed our Center, the number of cases has doubled to 4,874 - the economic crisis has now also become a health crisis.

The team continues to provide ongoing support for our students, which remains our number one priority. We moved back to online classes, provided phone top-up cards for accessing the internet, and have counselling, career support and cash transfers available to ensure the wellbeing of our youth.
Updates from our Better Futures Program 

This new year of 2021 from January to March, we have been busy with recruitment of students for our Better Futures Program, and our post-high school students started their classes on 1st March.

Thanks to Sopheaktra, and our alumni Borey and Socheata, for volunteering their time during our recruitment process.
We still need 11 more sponsors to support 25 new high school students who will begin their studies at JWOC in May. Sponsor a student by making a donation here.
Updates from our Scholarship Program

In January, JWOC held a small ceremony for 14 Scholarship students who graduated from their university and our program, which was hosted at the JWOC Learning Center, and certificates of graduation were provided with good memories. 
From the blog:

We are excited to share an update from our alumni Sopheap and current scholarship student Sreykeo, who were selected to join as changemakers with our partner, Phum Impact Siem Reap.

A big congratulation to our 4 current scholarship students and an alumni who were selected by PEPY's Youth Innovator's Space and Incubator to study for 6 to 8 months in 2021. This is a great opportunity to learn to be youth social enterprise leaders in Siem Reap​ who are looking to improve existing businesses or start their own.

Oukdom, the Better Futures Program Officer has been working at JWOC for 3 months now, and you can read more about his 3 months reflection on our website. 
Nip's Meows

We have a great new mews-letter!

Firstly, a big thank you to Jane Price, (JWOC's Board Member and voluntary Executive Director from 2010-2016) for raising $1,300 for her birthday to support our programs!

I would also like to say a big congratulations to Somnang, our Donor Relations Officer, who is going to give birth to her second son at the end of April 2021.
With best wishes,
Konthea (Managing Director) & Keisha (Development Director)
This newsletter was written by Somnang Phalla, Donor Relations Officer at JWOC.

If you enjoyed this update from JWOC, please share it with your friends and family to help us spread the word about our work with Cambodian youth
Journeys Within Our Community | info@jwoc.info | www.jwoc.info