by Lennan MacDonald, CIS Family Build Team -

Imagine being able to give orphans born with HIV the opportunity to go to college, to become doctors and nurses that would treat HIV one day? This was exactly the kind of miracle that the CIS Family Build team went about facilitating this past Easter holiday.

Instead of our traditional house-building venture, this year we focused our efforts on education – the surest path to end cycles of poverty. Eleven CIS families partnered with old friends, John and Kathy Tucker from the New Hope For Cambodian Children (NHCC) at Cambodia’s largest AIDS orphanage, in order to build a science building for their high school.

The building, which was the result of six month’s work in Singapore and Cambodia, surpassed our wildest dreams. The granite counter tops, the sinks and the gas lines were designed to provide a springboard to launch some amazing educational experiences and to ensure science happens at that school every day for many days to come. The smiles on the faces of the students and teachers were rewarding like few other experiences in life can be.

Beyond our building work, this service trip was an excellent opportunity to give children who are literally working themselves out of a dump a better night's sleep to facilitate their educational successes. That was the inspiration behind our donation of new mattresses to many of the boarding students at the People Improvement Organisation (PIO) school. We were proud to contribute to the cause of their inspiring school leader, Phymean Noun, who was recently awarded for the Children's Nobel Price for her remarkable work on leading Cambodian kids out of poverty through education.

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Dear CIS Family Build Team who participated in this inspiring building project, thanks for being a part of this miracle. Any families interested in joining us on next year’s service adventure, please contact me via email.