Raksmey will be attending college in Cambodia. Credit Betsy Levinson
Big Happenings continue in our small town, and this week we have the added bonus of exciting things happening abroad as well.
Concord residents Alan and Jean Lightman and Lisa Gutwillig continue to reach out to those in need around the world.
The Lightmans are the founders of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides the housing and other foundations needed for young Cambodian women to receive their college degrees.
Ms. Gutwillig and her family tap other baseball enthusiasts for much needed equipment for baseball enthusiasts to play the game in impoverished Nicaragua.
In 2006, the Lightmans opened the Harpswell Foundation Dormitory and Leadership Center in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, as a long-overdue resource for young Cambodian women seeking a college education. The Harpswell Foundation Dormitory and Leadership Center provides free housing as well as partial and full tuition, classes in English, computers, current events and leadership skills for young women who otherwise would lose out on a college education.
The women, who attend the Royal University of Phnom Penh, The National University of Management and the Royal University of Law and Economics, to mention three of the eight schools, are selected after careful consideration of their academic records, exam scores, interviews and a desire to give back to their communities.
The colleges and universities in Cambodia do provide student housing, but only for men. Therefore, women in the poorest of the Southeast Asian country could only attend university if they lived nearby or lived with a relative or friend who did. That left the majority of women of the provinces without hope for receiving a college degree and with an excellent chance of continuing the cycle of poverty.
Cambodia is a country of 1.5 million and yet only one percent of that population has a college degree. Only 25 percent of that group is women. Cambodia, a land rich in ancient temples and culture, wasn't always this way. Khmer Rouge, the followers of the Communist Party Kampuchea, wiped out nearly all of Cambodia's educated population from 1975 to 1979. The country is trying to come back from the genocide by educating its citizens.
Alan Lightman, a physicist and author his artist wife Jean, are spearheading college opportunities for women. Thanks to the Lightmans' continued efforts in maintaining the heralded facility, the first group of young women received their college degrees, and some will be traveling to the United States later this summer to begin master degree programs at major universities.
If you would like to learn more about the Harpswell Foundation, go to: www.harpswellfoundation.org.
Equipment gets extra innings
You know you have them either in the back of a closet, taking up space in the mudroom, under the couch, near the spare time in the trunk. Just about any place you look, or haven't looked for years, you are bound to find perfectly good cleats, baseball gloves, uniforms etc., that were once the lifeline for your baseball-diamond loving children. If you are not going to use these again, clean them up a bit and bring these gently used items to Lisa Gutwillig.
Lisa, who can often be found on the sidelines of any baseball diamond in the Dual County League cheering on her boys, is collecting baseball equipment to bring to San Marcos, Nicaragua.
Lisa travels to the Central American city every few summers with much needed sports equipment, which is joyfully received by the baseball-diamond loving children there.
So please forward your equipment to Lisa, who you can contact at lisab@trinethealth.com. Duffle bags and suitcases are also appreciated. Lisa and her family will be sorting and lugging your donations, so we must be considerate of their time and generosity. Please look over your gifts carefully. If something is too worn out or broken to be used here, it will also be useless there.
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