{"id":1155,"date":"2026-04-28T14:55:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:02:24","slug":"1155","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/1155\/","title":{"rendered":"WAT SEREY OUDOM VISIT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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After having to give up our home at Wat Opot, most of our supporters stopped giving. For health reasons, I returned to the States, believing I could retire, while Dara formed the new NGO, The SAHAKA FOUNDATION, so he could continue working with children being reintegrated into their communities. With limited funds, he was able to keep several of the children in school and find work or trade schools for others. <\/p>\n\n\n

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He also established a day school in Prey Veng, which currently has 53 students and is well integrated into the community. Since my return to health and to Cambodia, we have included more vulnerable families in both Prey Veng and Takeo. <\/p>\n\n\n

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We now provide school supplies and allowances for 43 children, and when funds allow, we also assist their families with other needs. Additionally, SAHAKA supports six university students. <\/p>\n\n\n

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We received a call from a new group interested in visiting our program a few weeks ago. It is always a joyous occasion for our children to have visitors and a psychological boost for the SAHAKA staff to know our work is appreciated..<\/p>\n\n\n

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On April 26, 2026, the Abbot of Wat Serey Oudom in Kampot Province led a charitable mission to donate food, supplies, and financial contributions to the children at the SAHAKA Foundation’s daycare program in Prey Veng. The trip took five hours by bus.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was a great day for the children, and I think the visitors also had a good time, but what few of them realized was that the Abbot was actually a Watopotian from a few years back.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Savanarith (as we know him) lived at Wat Opot for 10 years. After he left, he attended University and just recently received his law degree. He will be going on to get his Master’s soon. He has been a Buddhist Monk for many years and now serves as the Abbot.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Many former Watopotians, like Savanarith, have found significant success in their lives. Some continue striving toward their goals and sometimes require our support. We sincerely appreciate those who assist us and invite anyone interested to become part of our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAHAKA donation page <\/a>is up to date for those who may want to help us in this coming year with a tax-deductible donation. If you live in Cambodia, you can make a QR donation (below) to the SAHAKA FOUNDATION. At this time, we are running on private donations only.<\/p>\n\n\n

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After having to give up our home at Wat Opot, most of our supporters stopped giving. For health reasons, I returned to the States, believing I could retire, while Dara formed the new NGO, The SAHAKA FOUNDATION, so he could continue working with children being reintegrated into their communities. With limited funds, he was able…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watopotians.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}