This past month saw Drama Outreach Project (DO Project) reaching the end of its first year of operations, a year more successful than its members’ expectations.
The NGO was set up with the aim of offering underprivileged children in developing countries the chance to learn drama and English through music, dance, art and drama with the acclaimed Helen O’Grady Academy.
With Cambodia the focus of their first project – entitled DO Cambodia – a team of accredited teachers and carers travelled there in August to work with orphans and street children in the capital city, Phnom Penh. The team worked closely with a number of voluntary organisations on the ground that assisted in ensuring the project’s success.
Inspired by their experience, DO Project embarked upon a sponsorship programme on their return to Malta. Through their website and social media, DO Project created awareness about the children of Cambodia and their difficult living conditions.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of myriad sponsors who responded enthusiastically with €13,500, the group obtained sponsorships for over 50 children. These children now attend school and spend much less time fending for themselves on the streets.
During a recent Skype call with LRDE, a kitchen outfit that offers a meal and hygiene facilities to between 250 and 300 street children on a daily basis, DO Project learned that many of the children who could barely read or write are doing exceptionally well at school, with some at the top of their class.
To close off 2013, DO Project co-ordinated the collection of €1,000 from those sponsors keen to send gifts to the children. The funds were spent on clothes, books, toys, bicycles – often the only mode of transport to get to school – and a Christmas party.
DO Project plans to continue its DO Cambodia campaign during 2014. The team will be returning to Phnom Penh in August with a more developed curriculum that will enable the children to acquire new skills to assist them at school and in their everyday life.
www.dramaoutreachproject.org