The following was written by Amy Eldridge, the founder of Love Without Boundaries:

When I first visited Cambodia, back in 2016, we walked for miles through ankle-deep mud to reach rural Sokhem Village.

This remote area had served as a dumping ground for people handicapped and maimed during the Khmer Civil War. The tin sheet houses lacked access to water or electricity, and all of the children I met that day were stunted from chronic malnutrition. My heart fell as I learned that kids I thought were preschoolers, due to their tiny size, were instead aged eight or nine. 

Of the 120 children in the village that day, only eight had ever attended any type of school. Parents explained that the presence of traffickers in the region made it too dangerous for kids to make the 10 km walk each day to the closest government facility. Even more tragic, the village leader told us that 23 kids under age five that year had already passed away, from a lack of medical care and nutrition. For children like little Astrid, below, hunger was a daily reality.

Thankfully, the LWB community made it possible for us to build a Believe in Me primary school in the heart of Sokhem Village for kindergarten through grade six. 

The impact of this program has been staggering. In the eight years since LWB committed to helping here, under 5 mortality has been reduced to ZERO, and childhood malnutrition is a thing of the past. The kids of Sokhem Village are healthy and active, enthusiastically attending school and dreaming for the first time of becoming future leaders. Just look at Astrid today, as a happy 4th grade student who continually hears from her teachers that she matters to the world. 

I’ve seen firsthand how much LWB’s holistic education projects have transformed the lives of vulnerable children. 

Amy Eldridge

Foundation and Chief Executive Officer