Rumdoul School Visit by CamKids Supporters

The following report was recently received from one of our longest running supporters, following his visit to Rumdoul Thmei School, which was acquired and is funded entirely by CamKids, with the help of Mark & Lynne and their extended family and other donors:

In mid December my wife, Lynne, son Harley and I were able to combine a cycle trip through Western Cambodia with the chance to see first hand some of the work that CamKids is funding. After a week on the bikes we met up with 2 of the CamKids Trustees, Dom and Benita Sharpe, in Phnom Penh. We had been in contact via email for a number of weeks so it was great to finally put faces to the names and catch up on all the current projects they are overseeing in and around the capital, during their year long stay in Cambodia, en route to Australia.

We headed south for a day to Kais Village Orphanage and then on the school at Rumdoul Thmei. The staff and kids at Kais were very welcoming and only too willing to show us around. We spent most of our time in the new nursery, with any number of kids toddling up to us to be picked up and carried around. We also checked out the mango orchard and Dom’s pride and joy - the methane collector from the pig sty that helps fuel the stoves in the kitchen – pure genius we reckon! The compact little medical centre was also very impressive. It was a wonderful visit, made all the more touching by the warm welcome that everyone gave us.

The Rumdoul Thmei school has been important to our extended family for the past three years. After our friend, Amber Murray, got us involved in CamKids we got together and decided that since we have a number of teachers in the family we would like to support a school. At the time, Rumdoul was just starting up so everything fell into place. Our visit in December was therefore very special to us. On the first afternoon we met the staff and some of the students, but many had gone home for the day. So we returned the next morning and were introduced to each class. It was both inspiring and thought provoking to see the amount of work that had been done to establish the school in such a short space of time but also to realise how rudimentary the facilities were and how much better resourced they could be. What was most obvious though was the the great enthusiasm the kids had for learning and how excited they were to be given the opportunity. I wish that every class I taught back in my well resourced school in Australia was filled with the same thirst for knowledge and sheer exuberance we saw in faces of the children at Rumdoul.

We would very much like to thank Benita and Dom for taking time out of their heavy schedule to take us to visit these two projects. And we urge everyone to continue to give generously to support Camkids. To see the work they are doing first hand was a privilege and an experience that our family will never forget.

MARK SMITH

If you would like to support this or any of our other education projects, please send an email to schools@camkids.org.