Granted: It's Not LOTR's Fellowship, But Not Bad Either

Always like posting up on my people and organizations who get rewarded for what they do and their long-term vision:

The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Philippines Foundation announced recently the names of three Filipinos who were given the ACC Philippine Fellowship grants enabling them to conduct research in the United States in the areas of museology, painting/sculpture, and theater. Teresa Rances, ACC country representative, said the grantees are UP Professor Patrick D. Flores (museology), Lyra Teresa Garcellano (painting/sculpture), and Maree Barbara Tan-Tiongco (theater).

Rances also said that the Ma-Yi Theater Company was given the ACC grant/O’Boyle Fellowship to enable Palanca Awardee lawyer Nicholas Pichay to go to New York for a six-month residency with the theater company under the Philippines Fellowship Program. “We are very very proud to have them. We hope to have more in the future,” said Rances, who is also the Cultural Center of the Philippines department manager for administration.

Read it in full here.

The Cambodia Project

I got word sent to me from Yong who's down at the NYCAASC about the Cambodia Project who's starting a new initiative - participating in the Global Open Access Challenge 2009 hosted by Global Giving - and it sounds like a great project.

For the next month (until September 18th) the Cambodia Project is participating in the Global Open Access Challenge 2009 hosted by Global Giving. If we succeed, it will be a crucial stride towards fulfilling our goal and bring a better life to the children of rural Cambodia, With the right support, CPI has the potential to benefit over 100,000 Cambodian children by improving the local economy, creating jobs and ultimately undoing the damages done to the Cambodian education system by the Khmer Rouge.

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

The Cambodian government, NGOs, and UN agencies, while focusing on primary education, do not expend much energy on secondary education. Our programs, with the right support, will directly and indirectly benefit over 100,000 Cambodia children over a 10 year period by improving the local economy, creating jobs and ultimately undoing the damages done to the Cambodian education system by the Khmer Rouge.
Activities

The funds will be used to begin constructing our first school in Kep/Kampot. Part of the funds will help build clinics to provide health-care & regular vaccinations to children/staff. Pilot plan will have 30 students, growing to 980 students in 1yr.

For more information and to donate, see the Global Giving site as well as the Cambodia Project.

See The Video

Asian Americans Giving Back

There's a good story in the LA Times about some great Asian Americans - and specifically Chinese Americans - who are giving back to the communities here and abroad:

Pasadena resident Ming Hsieh made a fortune from fingerprint identification software that helps U.S. authorities catch welfare cheats, guard the border and assist police in cracking cases.

Cyrus Tang built a Las Vegas-based business empire of specialty steel, pharmaceuticals and furniture. And in the heart of Silicon Valley, Jerry Yang developed one of the largest Internet search engines in the world -- Yahoo.

All three wildly successful entrepreneurs are Chinese immigrants, and now they and others like them are giving back to their adopted homeland in a new gold rush of philanthropy that is bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to U.S. universities, think tanks and other nonprofit groups.

Giving is good. Check out more from the article here.