About One Degree Forward
One Degree Forward is a 501c(3) non-profit organization founded by the father-son team of Tim and Kyle Ellison in the spring of 2011. Throughout their travels, Tim and Kyle have witnessed firsthand children in dire poverty who don’t have the chance for a quality education.
In 2009, after having worked at an orphanage in Cambodia for two weeks, Kyle felt the need to do more than just his two weeks as a volunteer and then move on with his life. Even though just out of college and struggling with his own student loan payments, Kyle and his wife Heather made a commitment to one of the orphanage’s Cambodian volunteers to pay her tuition to college until she graduated.
On a separate visit to Cambodia, Tim was also deeply moved by the poverty and the devastation brought on the people of Cambodia by Pol Pot and 30 years of civil war.
It was from their experiences that Tim and his son Kyle decided to create an organization that would help educate poor, motivated children in Cambodia .
The aim of One Degree Forward is to plant the seed of education within a child in the hope that scholarship recipients may one day serve to help grow Cambodia from within. By educating as many children as possible from the next generation, it is our goal that the rewards will be exponentially compounded, thereby laying a foundation for continued prosperity and growth.
Where We Operate
One Degree Forward is a US based organization operated from the state of Hawaii.
Cambodia History:
When the Khmer Rouge seized power of Cambodia in 1975, under the leadership of Pol Pot nearly every educated individual in the nation was brutally exterminated in the regime’s hopes of creating a completely agrarian society. Teachers, doctors, businessmen, those with command of foreign languages, and even those whose hands lacked the callouses derived from hard labor were maimed, tortured, and killed by the hundreds of thousands.
Ruthless in their conquest, the Khmer Rouge soldiers did not discriminate between men, women, and children when it came to exterminating their own people. Toward the end of the regime as supplies became scarce, infants were simply swung against tree trunks in effort to save ammunition.
What You Can Do to Help
We are currently accepting donations of all amounts, no matter how large or small, that will go toward establishing college or English school scholarships and aid for deserving children in Cambodia.
No money is wasted
Everyone involved in One Degree Forward is a volunteer. There are no salaries, wages or travel expenses. We work with our trusted volunteers in Cambodia, who help select potential students. Either Kyle or Tim works directly with the student, a family member, or a volunteer we trust to help place the student in school. All monies go directly to the school and student to pay for tuition and school supplies.
To give an example of how much difference even the smallest of donations can make, the current tuition at Cambodia’s Build Bright University is only $600/year.
One Degree Forward also hopes to help students with additional costs incurred involved with attending university, such as costs associated with relocating from rural destinations into the city for the purpose of attending classes. If you would like to help give the gift of education to a deserving child in need, please join our growing team of supporters who share our goals of education and progress.
We also work with Beltei International Institute, Paññasastra University, and Australia Centre for Education (ACE) to provide English language courses for students who want to improve their English skills.
We appreciate your support, and thank you for taking the time to read about our quest to do what we can to help make a positive difference in this world.