HOOPS FOR HOPE

Hoops for HOPE is a small step toward healing a nation that is still feeling the ravages of genocide.

Between 1975 and 1979, a brutal communist regime called the Khmer Rouge exterminated an estimated one-and-a-half to two million Cambodians. In a country of between six and seven million people, the devastation was enormous (around one in every four people were killed). The Khmer Rouge had brutalized and slaughtered its people, and had all but exterminated anyone with an education. The vital infrastructure of the already-weak nation was in shambles.

In 1996, visionaries from Japan, Australia, and the United States joined hands to establish the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope (SHCH) in Phnom Penh, which not only provides free care to the neediest Cambodians, but also seeks to train nationals in cutting-edge medicine so that they can be sent to serve in other hospitals across the country and bring healing not just to one city, but to an entire nation. The Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope has since become a leading center of medical training in Cambodia. It is known across Cambodia as the “Angel Hospital.”

2009 was the year that Phil Arsenault, spurred on by the encouragement of Douglas Arthur, created Hoops for HOPE.

What began as something of a pipe dream has since raised well over $800,000 dollars for HOPE worldwide and its hospitals in Cambodia (our dream is to reach $1,000,000)!

We believe that this is only the beginning, and we will continue to strive to do our part in helping to heal a hurting nation. Please join our efforts! Even the smallest gift matters. As Lao Tzu famously said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step