WHO WE ARE

We are a non-profit dedicated to ensuring the education, health and safety of at-risk women and children in the developing world.

We are a group of dedicated volunteers joined together to form a non-profit organization devoted to ensuring the education, health, and safety of some of the most marginalized and exploited women and children in Cambodia, primarily through programs in Banteay Meanchey province in Cambodia. The choice of this province was driven in part by the fact that it is one of the poorest areas in the country. This region has been wracked with all types of human trafficking, forced labour, drug addiction, and has a high number of Khmer children working in slavery like conditions.
As an affiliate of Lotus Outreach International (1995), we work with a Cambodian partner, the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre to identify worthy recipients of our funding. Ninety five percent (95%) of funds raised go directly to support these young women and children in the program they are in, thus bringing about positive changes to their lives.

Currently, we support 82 high school scholarship recipients, as well as 54 technical college students, and 33 Gateways students studying at university level (from 1st to 4th year) majoring in many fields such as: economics, accounting, banking, law, community development, and English literature.

  • One of our students recently won a place in a 2 year IT course with Passerelles Numerique.
  • Seven others are in training programs with SalaBai.
  • 24 of the students live in residences.
  • 900kg of rice is being provided to 36 families.


Girls in GATEWAYS are encouraged to ‘give back’ by volunteering in their communities during study breaks.

Our Mission

We are a non-profit dedicated to ensuring the education, health and safety of at-risk women and children in the developing world.

Our Vision

We envision a world where every child has equal access to quality education and healthcare. We envision a world where children of all races and nationalities are free from exploitation, sexual abuse and forced labour. We envision societies that nurture, protect, and educate children, thereby eliminating poverty and its tragic consequences.

Our Guiding Principles

Multi-Dimensional Problems Demand Multi-Dimensional Solutions​

Successful programs embrace the complex nature of the development process, and introduce holistic solutions where possible. For example, our micro finance programs incorporate advocacy on education, sanitation, and human trafficking prevention and our scholarship programs recognize that malnutrition and sickness can interfere with schooling and thus provide food stipends and healthcare. A problem as complicated and complex as poverty demands a similarly complex, thoughtful, and well-planned solution.​

Diverse Communities = Diverse Approaches

Through our nearly 20 years of experience, we have learned that cultural nuance must be a core element of program design. We recognize that values, priorities, and capabilities not only change from one country to another, but also from one village to another. Perhaps, more importantly, we recognize that opportunities vary greatly from one community to the next. Whether our target beneficiary is landed or landless, urban or rural, or young or old will determine the type of services we provide them.

Investing Wisely

Charitable funds are finite – particularly for international organizations – and we owe it to our donors and our target communities to expand our resources carefully and smartly. We believe that investing wisely means supporting projects that will: a) achieve sustainable results for entire communities or b) capitalize on the “multiplier effect” by investing in those who promise to pay forward the skills and knowledge they receive.

Maximize Existing Resources

We believe that we can get a lot more mileage from our investment if we augment what already exists. In the case of our core education programs, for example, this means supplementing (v. replicating) the government education system through transportation programs, scholarships, and tutoring. Unlike some of our counterparts in the charitable sector, we don’t build private schools or fund private scholarships. We must invest in improving the government system rather than turning our backs on it.

OUR TEAM

Khyentse Norbu
Chairman

Khyentse Norbu, also known in the Buddhist world as Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, is trained as a philosophy teacher and attended university in London. He is a student of important Tibetan Buddhi ... [read more]

Julie Chender
President

Julie grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended the University of Colorado and New York University. She worked in event planning in Colorado and, after the family moved from Colorado to Canada i ... [read more]

Jill Baryluk
Treasurer

Jill grew up in Haney in Maple Ridge, B.C.(near Vancouver) and always had a passion to see the world and experience other cultures. In her twenties she had the opportunity to experience working ... [read more]

Aloka McLean
Secretary

Aloka grew up in Vancouver BC, where she attended the University of British Columbia, graduating with an honours degree in Asian Language and Culture, Mandarin Chinese. Aloka has lived in and t ... [read more]

Ella Milligan
Board Director

Ella Milligan was born just outside of Chicago and as a young child emigrated with her family to Nova Scotia, Canada. Over the last twenty years she has worked in the healing arts and lived and ... [read more]

Glenn Fawcett
Project Manger

An Australian native, Glenn came to live in India in 1995 where he worked for almost two years as a volunteer before becoming the Director of the White Lotus Sponsorship Program in 1997. For th ... [read more]

Judy Cheng
Board Member

Judy was born and raised in Taiwan until she moved to the United States to attend University on a foreign student visa. After university Judy immigrated to Canada where she worked for a natural ... [read more]