WAT DAMNAK: Wat Damnak is also home to the Life & Hope Association (LHA), an organization founded & run by two senior monks at Wat Damnak. They undertake a number of charitable projects aimed at bettering the lot of Siem Reap's many homeless & starving children. For example, they run a school for children. Every student gets a pair of slippers & some basic food rations on the first Friday of each month to help the students who are burdened with the task of feeding their families. In return, the parents have to attend a talk on the importance of education & must also sign a consent form agreeing to let their children attend school.

One of their largest projects is the Children's Development Village, a small living-community in a rural commune that provides a loving home for two-dozen orphans. This village has it's own farms, it's own gardens, & several small homes with house-mothers The children who live there are all victims of Cambodia's violent past & the ensuing epidemics of starvation, poverty, & HIV.

The LHA is also involved with the Hôtel de la Paix Sewing Training Centre, a vocational facility which provides skills & training to disadvantaged young Khmer women. It is based at Wat Damnak & overseen by a network of local monks from LHA. During the 6 month course, the students are not only taught sewing skills, but also attend daily English classes & develop basic life skills. During the initial stages of project, the Center soon realized that many students were not able to read & write Khmer script, therefore this subject is now a essential precursor to learning English. At the end of the sewing course, those who come from villages without electricity are given a foot operated sewing machine & a start-up kit of materials so they may return to their village & start their own business. This way, they have a brighter future & can support themselves & their families. The students who come from towns & cities with electricity are trained on the more advanced electric sewing machines which allows them to find employment in workshops & factories making clothes. For the first time, the last batch of 20 students included one young man. The LHA website is here www.watdamnak.org/lha/index.html & the wat web site is here: http://www.watdamnak.org/watdamnak/