Frequently Asked Questions

What are the specific programs that are most in need of funding?

The highest priority depends on who you ask: In the villages, it is often WATER, as access to healthy well water changes everything. Wells are expensive, but through the Village Gifts program you can contribute either an entire well (with irrigation as well) for $1,000, or you can contribute a portion of a well. For many families, school & education are the next highest priority, and you can sponsor a child for either home-life or school-life. For families who already have access to water, the highest priority is often food production (gardens and pass-on farm animals), or income generation (micro-loans through our Village Sustainability program). Behind every Sustainable Cambodia program lies the core concept of Empowerment... helping the village families to change the quality of life around them.

Is a contribution to Sustainable Cambodia deductible in a country other than the U.S.?

The laws on tax deductibility vary from country to country. The only two countries in which SC is formally registered as a nonprofit are the US and Cambodia, simply because it usually costs money to be registered and we have our pledge of putting 100% of sponsorship contributions to work in the rural programs. Some countries have tax rules that dovetail with other countries and some accept donations to international nonprofits that are registered in the US. If there is a question in a specific country concerning the deductibility of a contribution to SC, our complete financial statements might be helpful, as they show how small our administrative expenses are and show that no officers, directors or non-Cambodians receive any money from the organization. Those complete official U.S. nonprofit annual reports are posted in full under the Finances button at the top of our website.

What is the origin of the name Sustainable Cambodia?

We wanted to convey instantly the idea of a sustainable model of development. By sustainable, we mean something that takes on momentum of its own. Because participants are empowered to make their own decisions and to wisely invest in education and infrastructure, the program naturally continues after our assistance is gone. The participants learn good decision making processes and develop the initiative for implementing plans. We also include self-replicating elements in the program, including the pass-on programs, which teach about community service and the power of helping others. The result is that after donor aid is withdrawn the participants are able to function independently.

May I send letters & photos to my sponsored child?

Yes, you can send direct letters or photos to your sponsored student. And you may also periodically receive translated letters from your student in response. A few sponsors send the letters directly to our Phnom Penh address, and have them transported to Pursat and the school, but it is much easier, faster and more dependable to send them by email. Correspondence by email with attached low-res (internet is slow & spotty there) photos of the family make an excellent way to forge a connection. Our teaching staff and older student volunteers will help translate the message for the younger children, and will be sure the messages get to the sponsored child. You can send these emails and photos to usoffice@sustainablecambodia.org. Please ask us to confirm that we received the email, as we are all volunteers and sometimes get a bit backed up.

May I send gifts and supplies to my student?

As far gifts and supplies for an individual child, the cost of shipping goods to Cambodia can be expensive, and in fact we’ve found that even when the very high cost of shipping is paid, the parcel often does not arrive (lost or stolen in the international mail). We try to send a message to sponsors in advance when we know that a director or volunteer is traveling to Cambodia (all trips are paid for personally by the directors and volunteers), and sometimes sponsors send small gifts to carry in the luggage of the directors and other volunteers. Please feel free to ask us when the next trip is planned, by emailing us at usoffice@sustainablecambodia.org. And if a sponsor would like to fund specific special supplies or materials (like art materials or special books or supplies) to the whole class or grade or a large group of students, on behalf of their sponsored child, we can help with that, too.

How do I sign up to sponsor a child?

You can sponsor by going to Contributions & Sponsorship on this website. You will make a huge and lasting change in a child's life when you do!

Will I receive a monthly statement?

No, as an all-volunteer organization (we pay no salaries for administration), we simply have no way to arrange monthly payments. We take credit cards or checks, but ask for annual sponsorship contributions. If you simply cannot afford the annual rate, we can arrange bi-annual. Either way, you will receive an update by email and regular mail when your sponsorship period is about to renew.

How many children are enrolled now?

Currently we have approximately 300 children enrolled in the first school (the Silvia Lasky Memorial School), and there are another 100-200 younger children (ages 3-8) in several village preschools, and another several hundred students are enrolled in expansion school programs in remote Kravanh District. But there are more than 10,000 village men, women and children in our program's outreach footprint. These people are all benefitting from our village development programs and wells.

What percentage of the sponsorship donations are used for the programs?

100% of your sponsorship funds and program contributions go directly for support of school programs and village development programs. We have no paid staff other than native Cambodians, and therefore we have incredibly modest administrative costs (mostly just postage and credit card processing fees). The founders and a few special contributors pay for 100% of these modest administrative expenses, so every cent of your contribution goes to the programs. That's our promise.

Does Sustainable Cambodia or any affiliated group have a religious association or message?

No, there is no religious association or message. The directors and volunteers of Sustainable Cambodia communicate with respect for the cultural paths of the families in Cambodia, which are historically Buddhist.

What are the biggest challenges for the program so far?

The biggest challenge now is simply funding. Our model is extremely effective and extremely efficient. By using only Cambodians for all paid positions, we gain huge financial leverage. And having built our whole system on the most effective development models in the world (like Grameen Bank, Heifer International and Care) we are amazingly efficient. And the village empowerment model we employ, combined with the constant training of more Cambodian staff, means the model is expandable and almost self-replicating. Unbelievably, it takes under $25 per year over a 3-year period, spread over every man, woman and child in an area, to completely transform the community. Every child sponsorship actually helps several children. Every home-life sponsorship will benefit a whole family. And every well will benefit numerous families for years to come. We are very efficient and very effective, but funding is now the critical need.