Our Story
From humble beginnings to holistic education. Learn about Kaleidoscope Child Foundation’s initiatives and evolution over the years.
2025
Screening of our documentary, travel, career day!
In January 2025, our KCF team, accompanied by a film crew, traveled to Cambodia and India to document our schools and programs in those regions. Under the direction of Michael McKinley, who devoted months of dedicated work to the project, the resulting documentary premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 13, 2025. The timing couldn’t have been more meaningful — the very next day marked our 2025 Run/Walk for Education, during which we raised $125,000 to support programming through 2026. In November, our Kaleidoscope team returned to India to visit the schools in Bodhgaya and Lakunphur, where we hosted our first-ever Career Day, an inspiring event focused on expanding career opportunities for women.
2024
An expansive opportunity presented itself, and we said yes!
We set our intention on fundraising outside the realm of our educational programming to finance a documentary about our origin story and our 20-year journey of global education. For an entire year, filmmaker Michael McKinley and his crew became active participants on a year-long journey of documenting and forging new territory to make the seemingly impossible possible. It was the classic up-to-the-last-minute adventure—securing the final financing just hours before many of the board members, the film crew, and a dozen alumni began the journey to Cambodia and India on New Year’s Eve to commence principal shooting for the film Kaleidoscope Child.
2023
Volunteer Travel Is Back
Board members traveled to Guatemala in February. Kaleidoscope is sponsoring 20 scholarship students through our partner organization, FORMA. In October/November, a group of 14 volunteer travelers headed to Cambodia and India. Service projects such as classroom repair and the installation of 18 water wells in Cambodia were just a few of the trip highlights. A computer lab in India will allow the children access to hands-on IT literacy. Our 5th annual Walk For Education in September brought in a record breaking fundraising amount of $120,000!
2022
New Initiatives In the Territories That We Serve
This has been a year for expansion! With a recurring grant, we are supporting Briton School in Nairobi, Kenya. We launched a W.A.S.H. program in the village of Lakhanpur, India, and we are supporting a weekly food program in the village of Nokor Krau, Cambodia. This is often the only hot meal of the day these children receive. Kaleidoscope sponsored educational field trips for unhoused children in Atlanta, Georgia, through Nicholas House.
2021
Tech, Hygiene and Community Outreach
Covid became a great teacher, opening our awareness to critical refinements needed to help us improve our day-to-day structure and long-term vision.
- tech/virtual teaching enhancements.
- continued emphasis on hygiene/latrine and wash programs.
- community outreach and education.
To address these needs, our teachers ventured into the villages and communities to maintain contact with our students and to introduce them to classwork via cell phones. New bathrooms were constructed at our Cambodian campuses, water filtration systems were installed in our India schools, and nutrition programs were offered in the learning centers in Guatemala.
Additionally, a woman’s village program was started in Cambodia to address hygiene and domestic violence issues. This particular initiative was recognized by the Cambodian Ministry of Education as a necessary and cutting-edge approach to meeting a long-neglected need among village women.
2020
The Pandemic: Responding to Communities in Crisis
A group of Kaleidoscope volunteers travelled to Cambodia in the beginning of the year, just weeks before the world was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. We were accompanied by the visiting doctor from our trip to Guatemala who helped set up several WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) demonstrations to the local villagers. Access to Cambodia had already been restricted and we were fortunate to arrive there just before borders were closed.
David formed a partnership Emory School of Public Health working with their master’s degree students. He presented the challenges that the young children of the village of Lakhanpur faced with regards to a sustainable educational track. These students developed the first proposal for a long-term solution to the challenges faced in the Lakhanpur project. We had to work remotely with the other territories, particularly India, in securing funding for food and supplies during the pandemic crisis.
Kaleidoscope was selected to be a client for ProBono Atlanta, a non-profit that arranges free legal guidance and compliance via the support of a consortium of law professionals. Much of 2020 was spent in updating, expanding and securing all our necessary non-profit infrastructure. New strategies to expand the board along with the continuance of our Walk For Education fundraiser happened.
2019
Broadening Our Impact and Understanding
Another banner year of travel to all territories. We were able to not only secure the funds for land in India but to also obtain funding to erect the first school in this territory to serve the children in Lakhanpur.
Thanks to several generous grants, we broke ground in the very hot month of May and completed the work by that Thanksgiving. Two trips to India this year! Extensive travel to the villages of our scholarship students in Guatemala revealed sobering conditions and oppression that these young people endure.
It made the work of providing scholarships to Jabel Tinamit that more vitally important. We launched a Walk for Education in Atlanta as our main fundraiser. This was a departure from previous years attempts at silent auctions, gala type events. The Walk proved to be far more efficient and profitable.
2018
Travel, Travel, Travel!
Our most active year to date - traveling to all territories. We witnessed amazing progress in the educational pilot programs in Bodhgaya and also extended to the village of Lakhanpur. Board members witnessed extraordinary cognitive ability and enthusiasm in both teachers and students.
We knew it was a perfect fit. We hosted a medical clinic in Guatemala with a visiting doctor on our tour and helped restore a learning center. We arranged for a coding clinic to take place in Cambodia for anyone interested to begin the process of data skill. We searched for opportunities locally in the US that were in alignment with our mission and decided to partner with Nicholas House, an Atlanta based transitional housing facility for families experiencing homelessness.
Our goal was to provide summer educational field trips to the children of these families as well as begin a back to school backpack campaign that assured they would have all the supplies necessary to start a new school year. We also began to raise funds to purchase land to build a school facility in the village of Lakhanpur, India.
2017
Meeting Candelaria and Gregorio, Panajachel, Guatemala
Cambodia’s Voluntour travels were continuing strong. New explorations in water purification were explored. The old models were not as effective in providing optimum contaminant free drinking water. Volunteers toured the Water for Cambodia labs in Siem Reap and decided to try their purification systems. The drawback was the labor intensive instructions that were needed to insure optimum purification.
Board members traveled in the summer to Panajachel, Guatemala on the urging of Randy Stephenson who had been working in this part of Central America for several years through a US non-profit. We met Candelaria and Gregorio, the co-founders of Jabel Tinamit, a prominent language school in Guatemala. We decided to arrive with the gift of water filters to address the overwhelming need for fresh water in Central America. We used GoFundMe and created the 100 filters for 100 families campaign. We traveled throughout the surrounding territories/villages near Panajachel and assembled and distributed the filters with great success. We found the work at Jabel Tinamit inspiring and added Guatemala to the list of our educational expansion projects.
2016
A Computer Lab and a New Set of Skills
Through donor support, Kaleidoscope purchased a school van, completed the additional classroom space in the village of Nokor Krau, and funded a board member to spend a month setting up a computer training lab in the Siem Reap campus. This computer lab was funded by the organization Together We Can Change The World and an agreement with AutoCAD developers was made to bring trainings to Siem Reap students to learn architectural engineering. The traditional Voluntour group arrived building more wells, engaging with the children in the classrooms, teaching hygiene lessons.
David traveled to India to scope out possibilities to replicate the systems that were working in Cambodia. He found a promising possibility in the town of Bodhgaya in the state of Bihar. An introductory agreement was arranged with Nandlal “Nandu” Kumar to arrange classes for some of the local children there.
2015
Classrooms for Cambodia
The first two classroom buildings in the neighboring village of Nokor Krau were completed thanks to the support of global education groups in Australia. This territory, about 35 kilometers outside of Siem Reap was chosen due to its lack of sufficient educational offerings in the rural territories outside of the heavily trafficked tourist areas.
A large voluntour group arrived that January and February and more than 100 bicycles were distributed to the children in the Nokor Krau territory. Plans were made for Kaleidoscope to begin fundraising for additional classroom space in the village. One tour member was a music educator and brought hundreds of child-sized instruments. Music instruction that incorporated social skill building was a big part of this tour. It was a beautiful and joyous time watching hundreds of children engaged in the art of music making.
2014
Sustainable Progress
Another magical Voluntour group of 16 arrived at the end of January, more wells dug, distributing vegetable seeds for community gardens and of course, quality in depth time with the children in the Siem Reap school.
David and board member Victoria LaFortune, returned in November to host a sustainability training in tandem with Pannasastra University, Cambodia’s leading English influenced University. We began focusing on leadership skills, team building and goal setting with our teachers. We started offering continuing education opportunities for our staff to study through an established Memorandum of Understanding with the University. The aim was to invest in their skills and strengthen their use of English so that the mission of Kaleidoscope remained true to providing a quality educational experience.
2013
Medicine and Technology
David returns with another 14 travelers and combines with a separate group of 25 from Seattle, WA who joined in some of the activities hosted at the school. The grounds of the school were used for a province wide free medical day for villagers in need. Aid for water wells continued and the group helped break ground for what would become our two-story classroom and IT facility.
We turned a small storage building into a makeshift IT room and began offering basic beginner computer classes. Regular donors plus a growing social media presence helped to expand the awareness of Kaleidoscope Child Foundation.
2012
Bring on the Volunteers!
The annual Voluntour groups began. That January, 16 people traveled to Siem Reap, helped break ground for the new sewing and music building, ventured into villages and joined in digging wells and school cleaning along with touring the temples and bringing much love and attentiveness to the children. The sewing and music building is completed.
2011
KCF and FKC
Theany and David began their full time alliance with Kaleidoscope Child Foundation and Future Khmer Child. A second outdoor pavilion was constructed and a rotation of classes – morning and afternoon began. The number of children served was around 150 children.