Programs
Today Mekong Plus operates in about 500 villages, of them 40 in Cambodia. The direct benefiters are an estimated 170 000 people. This includes school children, very poor families, micro credit, quilting women and so on. Mekong Plus has many different programs, among others the tooth brushing program for school children and micro credit. Mekong Plus is also working on a farming program. Usually a relatively better off “model family” is selected to test out the project first. In Cambodia water pumps are often partly provided (Mekong Plus will cover 2/3 of the expenses) when the lack of water is a big problem in the countryside. Techniques like digging dikes and let the water flow by itself instead of carrying the water by hand is also taught. If a pilot project like this is successful they hold a seminar where people from the community around are invited to see and learn. Based on the seminar the attending families can decide if this is something they would like to try as well.
Another program carried out in the Svai Rieng province in Cambodia is the latrine program. Bad hygienic conditions are big problems in many areas in Cambodia. Building hygienic latrines is one of the things Mekong Plus is working on. The families contribute a bit themselves, by paying for the materials for the toilet building.
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Famous quotes containing the word programs:
“Although good early childhood programs can benefit all children, they are not a quick fix for all of society’s ills—from crime in the streets to adolescent pregnancy, from school failure to unemployment. We must emphasize that good quality early childhood programs can help change the social and educational outcomes for many children, but they are not a panacea; they cannot ameliorate the effects of all harmful social and psychological environments.”
—Barbara Bowman (20th century)
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“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)