At the Teach Them To Fish Foundation, we built our first primary school for 380 orphaned and disadvantaged children who did not have a school to attend and save young girls at risk of human trafficking at Prey Phghues Village in Battambang Province, in rural Cambodia. We inspected the site location to ensure it met our criteria for capital investment. In November 2007, we held our groundbreaking ceremony. The contractor laid the foundation, purchased the building materials, and constructed the school building from November to March. In March 2008, we held our opening ceremony, and we officially opened the school for classes. At the opening ceremony, we turned ownership of the school over to the villagers. Through the Provincial Governor, the Ministry of Education, as authorized by the King of Cambodia, issued a gold medal to Mr. Chase Sizemore, our founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Thus, we began our first path of Building Schools in Cambodia.
We began our second path of ending child hunger and providing disaster relief for children in natural disasters due to an unforeseen incident in July 2008.
In 2008, due to geopolitical issues and the global financial crisis, oil prices soared to $150 a barrel, hurting developing countries the most. As a result, fertilizers and other oil-based products increased in developing countries, including the cost of rice. Rice increased from $300 to nearly $1,000 a metric ton. Thus, families in our schools could not purchase rice and feed their children. Their children were starving.
Chase Sizemore, our Board of Trustee member, flew to Cambodia to deliver an emergency shipment of food, textbooks, school supplies, clothing, and other supplies for the children at Prey Phghues Primary School in rural Cambodia. However, during the Cambodian national elections and because of a dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, Chase diverted his trip due to security concerns and laid over in Ho Chi Minh City (“HCMC”).
While in HCMC, Chase read an article in the VietNam News newspaper. The article described the tragic death of three young boys, aged 11, 12, and 14, who stepped on an American war-era landmine and died in Quang Tri Province nearly 40 years after the war.
After reading the article, Chase contacted the VietNam Newspaper, which connected him to the VietNam Department of Foreign Affairs. With the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Chase began to search for the parents of the boys who died and build a memorial primary school to honor the boys. Unfortunately, while Chase found the parents in the jungles of Quang-Tri Provence, we could not build a school to honor the boys. We did, however, learn practical field lessons that taught us about the particular need to end child hunger and children’s unique needs during natural disasters.
To learn more about how you can help us end child hunger and provide disaster relief for children who are victims of natural disasters, please click the above links and donate now.
Our third path of building schools in Uganda began in Hong Kong, SAR, China, when Chase, after completing his mission in Cambodia, flew to Hong Kong and he learned of the plight of the “Street Children” of Lusaka, Zambia, who suffered, through no fault of their own, as orphans after their parents died of aids. This tragedy immensely impacted Chase, especially when he learned that pedophiles physically and sexually abused these children, and the children often fell victim to human trafficking. Making matters worse, these children’s communities ostracized them and forced them to live on the streets. After conducting due diligence and receiving Chase’s reports, we determined that the tragedies in Lusaka were beyond our capacity to address. Chase then directed our attention to where we could maximize our skill set most effectively — building schools in rural Uganda for disadvantaged and orphaned children who did not have schools to attend while emphasizing the importance of educating girls at risk for trafficking.
We immediately searched for a suitable site to build our first primary school in rural Uganda. Among the many proposals received, we selected Kanyanga Village in Bukedea District, Uganda, on the East African Plateau, near Mt. Elgon, an extinct volcano on the Kenyan border.
We built our first school and held our opening ceremony on October 18, 2010. More than 500 children enrolled. To learn how to help disadvantaged and orphaned children who do not have a school to attend and save girls at risk for human trafficking in rural Uganda, read Building Schools in Uganda and donate now.
Today, the Teach Them To Fish Foundation continues its mission to help orphaned and disadvantaged children who do not have schools to attend and girls at risk of human trafficking by building schools in rural Cambodia and building schools in Uganda. We also assist children displaced during times of natural disasters by providing them with food, water, clothing, emergency medical supplies, and temporary schools. In addition, we work with the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation leaders in South Dakota to offer Native American children suicide prevention programs and educational support and pair students for advanced educational opportunities at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. At Pine Ridge Reservation, we provided textbooks, food, school supplies, clothing, and 4-wheel emergency vehicles, saving over 4,700 children from homelessness, physical abuse, and suicide.
Click on the following link to Get Involved with the Teach Them To Fish Foundation and join with us to make a meaningful global impact for these children, their villages, and future generations to come. Donate now. Thank you.
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