Fountain of Hope Cambodia

Ripples of God’s Love through the Ministry of Fountain of Hope!

Urgengy
For many people in Cambodia, every day is a challenge to survive. It is only about 40 years since the Khmer Rouge regime killed a quarter of the population, causing chaos and poverty. Even as the economy begins to grow, most of the population lives in poverty and have little hope for the future.

Fountain of Hope is committed to telling underprivileged people in Cambodia about the love of God, with words and actions. Numerous cell churches (house churches) have been founded from which humanitarian projects have been set up. The team consists of local people who know the population well and determine with them what help is needed. The team members work together with volunteers from the cell churches to shape the help needed.

‘The workers in Fountain of Hope are hardworking, diligent, and committed to the vision they carry. We can truly see their consistent work is a great help in the communities in Cambodia.’ – Erik Tronrud, Mission Pastor, New Life Church Alanbang, Manilla, Philippines.

Project
Fountain of Hope believes that the Khmer are best able to help the Khmer. That is why it works with cell churches in rural villages, from which volunteers go to work. Fountain of Hope works in a holistic way, but above all, very sustainably. To meet the demand for help, several projects have been set up that together form a whole. We distinguish the following four programs:

1. Joy of our Children: includes children’s meetings, teenage meetings and the buddy project. Every effort is made to familiarize children with the gospel, teach them to improve their lives and provide security by teaching them to look out for one another.

2. Life of Hope: is about spreading the gospel. Cell churches are founded and cell church members are helped to develop in leadership and service.

3. Life with Value: because every life is precious! This is about addressing issues in a community. Together with village elders, we seek solutions to human trafficking, health care and support for parents. There are support groups for victims of domestic violence and for people affected by HIV/Aids.

4. Our Strong Village: working together to improve the quality of life in a community. Learning to read, growing vegetables together or learning how to care for a cow, goat or chicken. People are helped to get started with resources. They learn to save together so they can invest. The community becomes stronger through more opportunities and livelihood options.

Impact
With a limited budget (about €500,000 per year), Fountain of Hope has been able to achieve a great deal in recent years. The organization works in 168 villages and has nearly 11,000 children and youth in its program. It has also trained 5,350 people in growing vegetables, and raising chickens, goats and cows. And says Joke van Opstal (Founder): ‘that’s just a small sample of everything we’ve seen happen.’ 

In this project, the Love of God and love of people, go hand in hand. Thus, through the projects, people came to know the love of God and were changed as a result. In turn, they pass on that hope, knowledge and experience in their own environment. This invites people to open their hearts to the love of God. In this way, an act of love starts a movement, a ripple effect! In the past 8 years, over 5,500 people have already given their lives to Jesus. Talk about impact..!

Fountain of Hope is a project that continues to expand. Actually, it is not a project, but much more of a movement. Local people are touched, given hope and then take the initiative in their own village! Over the next 3 years, Fountain of Hope plans to expand its work to 35 new villages. On average, a village needs support for up to 10 years to reach the level of financial self-sufficiency.

Project costs
To make the growth possible, Fountain of Hope sought cooperation with MissionInvest. The assessment conducted shows that Fountain of Hope is an excellent fit with MissionInvest’s vision and approach. In 2023, a donation amount of €100,000 is needed. MissionInvest would like to appeal to its network to support this project, choosing from the following options:

• One or more villages (€3,800 per year for each village)
• An entire district (€50,000)
• Joshua Leadership program for future leaders (€30,000)
• Purchase and implementation of a CRM system for FOH Netherlands (€25,000)

Would you like a project with personal involvement? Then this is an excellent project for it. A project visit is well worthwhile!

With your help as a donor, we would like to win the remote rural areas of Cambodia for Christ, and offer people there hope for the future!