I want to introduce to you a modern day hero. Like any other superheroes, she hides her real identity and face, but the good she does has a tremendous effect on a village in Cambodia.
Ayn, as she calls herself in the social media, decided to move to Cambodia from Istanbul, upon an article she read about a village located not far from the capital, Phnom Penh three years ago. The article was about how people there were trying to survive on an average 5 USD income per month. 1,5 months after reading this article, she has opened Aynebilim Soup Kitchen and started distributing food to the villagers. Then, thanks to kind donations she was able to open a school, a health cabinet, butterfly park and handicraft workshops for women. As she continues working there, she is changing the destinies of many children who didn’t have many options in life before. Whenever I feel down, I look at her posts, and in a few seconds, my faith in humanity gets renewed.
More info: aynsoupkitchen.com
Her very first post about the soup kitchen. It is from the opening day and she wrote “May Your Dreams Come True.” with the happiness of making her dream true
Kids taking the food containers to their homes
Everybody has something to learn from each other. Here, the kids are teaching Ayn how to do a handspring. She calls this lovely girl “Çakıl” meaning “Pepples” inspired from the Flintstones.
Kids enjoying their picnic with the food they got from the soup kitchen. Is there a more beautiful picture than this?
She wrote “I wish I had more hands”
One day, she feels that just providing food is not enough and rents the lot just across the infamous Killing Fillings to open “the Living Fields”
She built a school, a health cabinet, a butterfly park and starts workshops for women, to be able to provide an income for the villagers along with food.
Both the kids and the cats are very happy
The kids who have been to swimming pool for the very first time couldn’t wait while Ayn was paying the entrance fee and jumped to the pool with their clothes on. Later on, it was Ayn who had to take them off, hang to dry and re-dressed the kids.
2016 was the first time the kids ever celebrated the new year.
Kids decorating their first Christmas tree
For the New Year’s Eve party, Ayn asked the kids to wear their best clothes. More than half of them showed up in their school uniforms. She recalls that day as “the best and worst day of my life.” Because whenever she thinks about that day, she thinks about the kids whose best clothes are their school uniforms .
Kids having their own little party
By hiring some villagers to help with cooking and distributing the food, Ayn also created new jobs
Donations help to cover the health expenses of the villagers too. This man’s foot was saved from being amputated by getting the treatment on time.
A volunteer MD has examined the kids in the health cabinet and said all were very healthy. They are getting healthy nutrition after all.
The infants get health scans regularly.
Now, Living Fields has also a football team.
People from neighbouring villages seek help from the Soup Kitchen too. The mother of these twins took refuge there when her husband left them. They have been living there for the past 1,5 years.
Women who completed the workshop for making ornaments. They will start earning money by selling them.
As the state school in the village doesn’t teach Latin alphabet, Ayn decided to open a school for free English classes for the kids. The expenses of the school is paid by “pavement stone” donations.
The daily food cost of the village is 75 USD. People can donate this amount and be the benefactor of that day.
Every day, either chicken, meat or fish is served to provide a healthy diet
Colourful houses are built instead of the ones who collapsed due to heavy tropic storms. There are about 40 more houses in the village needing to be renewed. One house costs 1500 USD to build.
The donations for the houses often made in the memory of the loved ones and sometimes the families themselves visit the village to put the name plates
Ayn keeps changing the world one child at a time.
Aynebilim Soup Kitchen
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