The mission of Wide Open Wings is to help build the capacity of education and empowerment-focused nonprofit organizations serving impoverished communities in Cambodia, with particular interest in programs that eliminate barriers to independence for girls and women.  We do this through hands-on partnerships based on the values of compassion, caring and joyful support.  We aim to do more than tug on old ties that bind communities in hardship: we aim to enable them to break free and soar.

We believe every child has potential regardless of his or her economic status.  We believe girls can rock a better future as competently as boys.  We believe every child should be able to pursue their own curiosities and interests to discover – and then develop – their own passion and skills.

Working with people who share our beliefs, Wide Open Wings supports imaginative education and community empowerment organizations that value and foster both individual freedom and creative collaboration.  We are particularly interested in programs that break free from outdated models of “filling need” and create new paradigms aimed at self determination, genuine well-being and development of and respect for innately unique individual expression.

Wide Open Wings was founded by a group of people who believe in being of service rather than performing services.  We believe that when service comes from the center of our being, it’s no longer an action – it becomes who we are.  Performing any service out of obligation or sense of duty can make the recipient feel small and worthless.  But working with people authentically from the heart uplifts both us and them, and helps elevate the receiver’s self worth.