Football Fun!

A little while ago one of our Trustees was having a drink with the Coach of the Cambodian National Football team and told him that it would really good if he could visit one of the projects which CamKids supports.

Luckily he liked the idea and the deal was done. The next week, the Coach and 2 assistant coaches went off to the Who Will Children's Orphanage and spent the day training the kids. The kids absolutely loved it and they all recognised him and his 2 assistants, who were both ex National Team players.

As you will see from the photos, boys and girls of all ages took part and they all looked very fetching in their oversized bibs and shirts!

One-2-One Dental Treatment and Health Education for Poor Children

The following is a short report, prepared by one of our Partner Organisations in Cambodia, One-2-One. CamKids is providing all of the funding for this particular project and the impact on the dental health of the children has been remarkable.

Project Goal: Provide basic dental services for children from orphanages and deprived communities in and around Phnom Penh.

Logistics: During January to March, each morning and afternoon, groups of 10-20 children were brought to the International University Dental Clinic for treatment. After an oral health education session, children were examined and a treatment plan made. Some of the children had a mouth full of decay, often with painful abscesses.

Collaborative partners: One-2-One Charitable Trust, Phnom Penh International University and CamKids.

Background information: 6 year olds in Cambodia have an average of 8 decayed teeth! Many children coming to the clinic require extractions, but our focus is on doing what is most important for that particular child, to enhance their long term development and well-being. Our priorities are relief of pain, restoring decayed permanent teeth, and sealing the permanent molar teeth to prevent future decay. Most treatment is carried out using local anaesthesia so that the child does not suffer any pain. In addition, many children receive a fluoride treatment. All children are shown how to brush their teeth. Recently we introduced a new preventive dental product into the clinic – silver diamine fluoride solution. This topical fluoride can be applied directly to the dental decay on primary teeth and has the affect of arresting the decay, so that in many cases a filling can be avoided. We have developed guidelines which indicate when this treatment should be used, and when it should be avoided. Some children require more than one visit to the clinic to carry out the most necessary treatment.

Outcomes: The children accept the treatment well and tears are not common. The dental students who provide the treatment make a lot of effort to talk the children through the procedures and give them a positive experience. The dental students are gaining confidence in treating children, and are even willing to treat the children with HIV. This is excellent training for the students who will be more confident when they graduate. Among the staff supervising the children are two Cambodian paediatric dentists, Dr Sonita and Dr Sopharith.

From January to March, with funding from CamKids, 762 children were treated. Children were seen from 15 orphanages and NGOs.

If you would like to find out more about this or any of our other Medical Programs, please email: medical@camkids.org.

New Virgin Money Giving Site

We are pleased to report that CamKids has signed up to the Virgin Money Giving service, to enable our supporters to set up their own fundraising page for a sponsored event, special day or just as a way of raising money for CamKids. This is similar to the Justgiving service, which CamKids has used for some time, but the fees are much lower and so more of your supporters' money goes to helping the children in our projects and programmes.

CamKids will continue to be available on JustGiving, so that our supporters will have a choice as to which service they would like to use. Both sites also collect the Gift Aid on our behalf, increasing the funds raised by 28%, for donations by UK taxpayers.

If you would like to set up a fundraising page to benefit CamKids, please visit:

Virgin Giving: www.virginmoneygiving.com/charities/camkids

JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/tccc

Our JustGiving page will also give you some ideas of possible events. In the past few months, supporters from around the world have set up pages for the following events:

Marathons

Kick Boxing Event

Bug Eating Competition

Birthdays

Weddings

Paragliding

Skydiving

Kilimanjaro Climb

Ultramarathon

Cycling

10k Run

How about you - why not be the first to se up a fundraising page on our Virgin Finance Giving site? If you need any assistance, please send an email to finance@camkids.org.

CamKids Phonics Workshop

In March we were very lucky to have friend of the charity Andrew Gait (a teacher with 22 years experience) return to Cambodia with a fantastic 29 page phonics teaching workbook that he put together himself.

He was inspired to do this after volunteering at a CamKids funded school where he saw the need for an aid to help with pronunciation and understanding of the English sounds.

CamKids brought together 22 Cambodian English teachers from 5 different Provinces to attend a teaching workshop, and covered all associated costs of all transport, accommodation and food.

It was a full day spent on looking at the phonic sounds, letter blending, basic rules and words that break them and then the afternoon moved on to practical activities to carry out in a classroom situation. CamKids Trustee, Dom Sharpe, helped Andrew with the class and everyone had a fantastic day.

Every teacher left with their own resource book and a certificate to show that they had taken part in the day. It also served as an opportunity for many Cambodian teachers to meet with each other and network. The co-operation, integration and enthusiasm to learn was inspiring. Many of the teachers asked for the opportunity to attend more workshops and with this interest and the feedback we have been receiving since the workshop, it is certainly something CamKids is already considering.

Please click the Play button below to see a short video of the day.

NFO TukTuk Project

Another report from our friends at New Futures Organisation ("NFO"):

Thanks to the generosity of our friends at CamKids, NFO has recently taken delivery of two TukTuks. The TukTuk (a three-wheeled vehicle pulled by a motorcycle with seating for passengers behind) is a common form of transport in Cambodia and can be seen on the streets of most towns and cities - but most are quite basic and painted in dull colours. As you will see from the pictures, the NFO TukTuks, in contrast, are highly visible!

Painted in bright yellow, decorated with the NFO logo and information about the organisation and kitted out with lights, wheel trims, DVD players and speaker systems, these TukTuks will be based in major tourist centres around Cambodia to serve several purposes. Children from the orphanage and vocational training centre have already had a chance to put their mechanical skills to the test by helping to strip down, renovate, repair and decorate the TukTuks. Some of the older kids have really enjoyed getting involved in the project and are now considering careers in engineering or as mechanics. The TukTuks have also proven useful in helping transport volunteers, equipment and NFO staff around Takeo and out to the rural schools in the countryside.

Their other purpose is to act as three-wheeled mobile advertisements for NFO. Tourists and locals who see (and hear!) the brightly coloured vehicles roaring down the street will see the logos and information and learn about the work we’re doing at New Futures – and hopefully decide to visit Takeo and volunteer with us. The DVD players built into the TukTuks show a short film clip produced by volunteers which shows what life is like here at NFO and drivers have leaflets and information sheets to hand out to potential volunteers and supporters. Of course, each TukTuk also provides a livelihood for its driver, giving him a stable job and income and providing increased security for his family, with any surplus income generated being used to support the orphanage

The first NFO TukTuk is already running in Takeo itself, ferrying volunteers around town and the ‘Phnom Penh Express’ and ‘Siem Reap Flyer’ will be hitting the streets of those cities shortly, with another set to run in Sihanoukville later this year. If you’re planning on visiting Cambodia soon, look out for them!

CamKids Funded Building at New Futures Organisation

The following report was received from the director of New Futures Organisation ("NFO"), which is based in Takeo and supported by CamKids. This is one of a number of projects which CamKids has funded at NFO and we will be reporting on more of the projects in the coming weeks.

What happens if you get the fantastic assistance and support from a sensible and knowledgeable funding organisation like CamKids and add it to a wonderful staff team, a group of willing volunteers and 52 kids eager to learn and improve their futures.

Well, in our case, we ended up with a fantastic new education centre that will cover all of our needs for the coming years.

CamKids provided funds and advice, we supplied a willing team construction team and local knowledge, and built in a traditional building style a building which houses the following:-

Multi Purpose Room
A large room which can be used as:

• A classroom (complete with furniture built in the workshop mentioned below) which can hold a class of up to 65 children;
• An activities room for arts and crafts, board games, doing homework etc;
• A TV lounge or for watching on social evenings; or
• A home for the largest Lego set in Cambodia.

Library
A room to house our growing library of book, games, DVDs and a small group of old computers which the children learn computer skills on.

A Beauty Room
This is a room in which we teach hairdressing, beauty, nail care. This has two purposes - firstly to teach the girls life skills and secondly to provide vocational training which may develop into a employable skill at a later date.

A Dressmaking room
This is a room in which we teach dressmaking. Once again to provide life skills and vocational training to help the older children find employment, when they leave the orphanage.

A workshop
This is a fully fitted metal and woodworking facility, designed to enable us to carry out most repairs and maintenance on the premises and equipment. We also manufacture our own furniture needed for the orphanage, and our village schools. This is also the room in which we teach DIY skills, once again for life skills and vocational training (we will be posting a separate news entry on this shortly).

You must be thinking all of this must have cost a king's ransom - but you would be wrong!

Because of the commonsense approach of CamKids to funding, the entire project only cost $3,200 (or just over £2,000). Quite an achievement in this day and age of rising costs and is a wonderful and sensible use of donors contributions.

A big thank you to all of our donors and supporters for making this possible. If you would like to find out more about CamKids or our projects at NFO, please send an email to contact@camkids.org.

Mobile Dental Unit

The following is a report from a recent trip to Kampong Chhnang from 11th to 15th January 2010 by the One-2-One NGO in Cambodia, which provides free dental and medical treatment to poor children and their families. In addition to donating funds to One-2-One for their general work, CamKids is funding the cost of a mobile dental unit to perform regular visits to outlying areas of Cambodia, where the population is too poor, even to travel to the free clinic in Phnom Penh.

During this trip, 351 patients were seen in total, of which 206 were age 18 and under. 201 extractions and 195 fillings took place and 51 scalings were carried out. We had 2-5 dentist for the 5 days and our numbers were boosted towards the afternoon with a dentist coming over from the prison service to help . During this time 1 dentist was unwell for 1 day but recovered after that to continue the excellent work.

The mobile clinic took place in the local community facilities, and community leaders also helped us find the pockets of the most needy children. The team went in high spirits - all keen to help and make a difference. Everyone had a job to do - registration, dental education, treatment, worming, nits treatment, sterilizing of equipment.

Even though, for many, this was the first time they had met a dentist, they were amazingly brave and coped extremely well. We also provided health education for the children - giving tooth brushes and tooth paste and teaching them how to use them.

We also had a great nit busters team, applying shampoo waiting the appropriate time and then off to rinse and dry and a great team out at the back doing the cleaning and sterilizing.

Thank you again to CamKids and all of your donors and supporters for making this possible.


Please also check out the slideshow of the trip below. If you would like to help us fund this fantastic project, please contact: medical@camkids.org or make a single or regular donation from our website and mark the project 'Dental'. Payment can also be made online from the link in the sidebar on the right of our Weblog or HERE.

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.

CamKids Medical Update

CamKids is very pleased to report that the medical hut, built by volunteers in 2006, still has a doctor visiting every week and the general health of the children is unrecognisable from the situation 3 years ago.

As well as paying for the doctor's visit, CamKids covers the cost of necessary medicines and is now paying for a full time nurse to live on site. This will help in the training of the nannies, day to day medical care and aiding the doctor with his visits as well as on going treatment and observation.

Each visit, the doctor sees all the babies and toddlers and all children now have well documented and up to date medical records. Babies are weighed at regular intervals to check growth and development. The doctor also spends half an hour every visit, instructing the nannies on basic first aid and hygiene. CamKids is proud to be able to continue to support such a worthwhile project.

We have been expanding our medical programs to reach more children and details of these projects will follow shortly. However, as we expand such projects (where the benefits to children are obvious and undeniable) our costs also grow. If you feel you could help in any way, please contact medical@camkids.org or make a donation HERE (please insert 'Medical', as the project).

In the slide show below you will see the doctor and the nurse, as well as a number of nannies and the children being treated.

Facebook Updates

Check out the CamKids Facebook Page for photos and videos from some of our projects, including the kids having great fun at the recent christmas party - and much more: www.facebook.com/camkids

New CamKids Newsletter

Our latest Newsletter is now available in a slightly different format than usual. As 2 of our Trustees and their family are currently living (self-funded) in Cambodia for a year, we thought that you might like to hear what we are doing, directly from them. We have also taken this opportunity of providing a summary of what we have achieved in our first 3 years and some of our plans for the future.

The Newsletter also includes an update on our Education projects, including short reports from two of our supporters who were recently in Cambodia.

To access the Newsletter, please click Here or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail. If you sign up to our Newsletter Here, you will receive your copy by e-mail every 6 months (your details will not be used for commercial or any other purpose).

Thank you once again to all of our donors and supporters, without whom none of this would have been possible. Finally, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


With Best Wishes
The CamKids Trustees

New Education Projects - A Personal View

The following report was received from a great supporter of CamKids from Australia, Andrew Gait, giving a a personal insight into two new education initiatives, being funded by CamKids:

My first involvement with CamKids was to take a Hills Hoist (washing line) to the Kais Village Orphanage and install it there. My son Nick lives in Sihnoukville and I’d asked the sister of one of the CamKids Trustees if there was anything I could take out to Cambodia for the charity, when I visited him in Cambodia. While I was at Kais I helped out in the orphanage school. It felt really good so I made the decision to get involved. It was that easy.

Since then I’ve been back to Cambodia several times to visit Nick and his new family. Every time I bring things over from Australia for the charity and I’ve spent time teaching at the Kais Orphanage and at the Rumdoul Thmei School, funded by CamKids.

On my last visit Dom and Benita Sharpe, who work tirelessly for CamKids, introduced me to Drew McDowell and I became involved, along with some with friends and colleagues in Tasmania, with financially supporting the Boeung Kok School and Community Centre project in Lakeside Phonm Penh. In a matter of weeks what was once an almost derelict building had been transformed into a vibrant school and community centre. The building was repainted, lights and fans fitted and student desks and a whiteboard installed. Almost 200 students attend the school daily and the building is being used constantly by the local community for a myriad of purposes. Every cent we send to CamKids goes directly into the school and centre and we are all kept up to date with what is happening by emails and photos supplied by CamKids and Drew.

I was also fortunate to be able to spend time working with teachers in the Takeo area, where CamKids supports a number of village schools. At the moment colleagues in Tasmania and myself are putting together an English As A Second Language resource for Khmer teachers. I hope to present this resource to the teachers in March next year. I will be working closely with the local CamKids Educational Co-ordinator (Ken) in translating and presenting the resource for teachers in the area.

I have felt privileged to have been allowed to play a small part in expanding the skills of the Cambodian educators and helping to developing their infrastructures with CamKids. It’s a small thing to do and I would recommend to anyone else visiting Cambodia to try it, the rewards are huge.

Andrew Gait, CamKids Supporter

Angkor Wat Cycle and Run by CamKids Trustees

Two of our trustees, Dom & Benita, are taking on the Angkor Wat challenge in aid of CamKids. They moved to Cambodia for a year with their 2 children three months ago. They are self funding their trip and are on a very tight budget so when they mentioned the idea to their great friend and CamKids Patron, Al Murray, he immediately said he would pay their costs for entering the race, including the purchase of a bike.

Without his help they would not be able to do it. Please repay his faith in them and their faith in helping Cambodian children by donating what you can. Their children, Jak and Theavy, are both doing the 3km fun run. Benita is doing the 10km run, having never done any running in her life.
Dom is cycling 80km on December 5th and running the half marathon on the following day!

Benita and Dom DO NOT like running but they really want to raise some money for CamKids' projects in Camboda and put your money directly into the hands of those who need it most. That may be in the form of food, education or medicines. You tell us how much we have and we will show you exactly what we can do with it to enhance children's lives.

• Change One Life


• Change The World

To support Dom & Benita, please go to their Justgiving page: www.justgiving.com/Cambo-Sharpies. Thank You.

STOP PRESS - 8/12/09:
Dom, Benita and their children completed the grueling weekend of sponsored events in Siem Reap at the weekend. Dom cycled 80 km on Saturday in 2 hours 40 mins, followed by a 21 km run on Sunday in 1 hour and 52 minutes. Benita ran 10 km in 1 hour 1½ minutes, whilst their 10 year old son, Jakamo, ran 3km in 16 minutes and their 6 year old daughter, Theavy, ran 3km in 27 minutes – a fantastic effort all round. So far they have raised nearly £1,500 from the event, which will help fund one of our many new projects. If you would like to show your support to the Sharpes and CamKids, please make a donation on their JustGiving fundraising page: www.justgiving.com/Cambo-Sharpies.

New Education Project in Takeo

CamKids' latest education project involves the creation of a chain of schools in the rural villages surrounding Takeo town, which is being established by New Futures Organisation ("NFO"), to teach English to the children. The area around Takeo is overwhelmingly an agricultural region with remote and often quite poor villages scattered among the rice fields. English language ability is of increasing importance in Cambodia, where the tourism and service sectors are growing the fastest and good written and spoken English will be a great advantage when these children are looking for employment.

NFO has recently opened its sixth rural school and work is ongoing to expand the project further into other villages. The whole cost of the project is being funded by CamKids, from public donations and CamKids has initially committed to fund the cost of 15 teachers in 2009, with further expansion expected in 2010.

Why is there a need for rural schools?
Many of the children who live in these villages are unable to attend regular school. Although education in Cambodia is free, it is compulsory for parents to buy uniforms and books, which are often beyond the financial means of rural farming families. In addition, the main schools for the area are located in Takeo town, which is several miles away from the children's home villages, down unpaved dirt roads which can become virtually impassable during the rainy season.

Finally, a combination of necessity and local custom often dictates that children of all ages are required to help out on the family farm, sowing and harvesting rice or looking after livestock. Again, this prevents them from attending regular school classes.

What does the rural schools project provide?
NFO funds teachers - often public school teachers or education students from local universities - to go out into the communities where access to education is limited and provide lessons to children and young people there. The lessons are held in private premises in the village which are loaned or rented to the organisation, and following discussions with parents and village leaders, classes are scheduled for times which are suitable for the children to attend - often at lunchtime, late afternoon or in the evening, when the agricultural work is finished. A typical rural school has anything from 70 to 150 students enrolled, attending whichever class is most convenient for them.

NFO provides exercise books and pencils, and uniforms are not required. In addition to the regular Khmer teachers, NFO volunteers visit the schools to provide students with the opportunity to listen to and talk with a native speaker, which helps to develop both their pronunciation skills and their cultural awareness.

What are the rural schools like?
The schools' locations and premises vary from village to village. At one school, classes are held in a fisherman's hut overlooking a lake. Others take place in village centres and in one village where children study in a cow shed beneath the teacher's house! The common theme which unites all the schools is the eagerness of the children to learn - every class is packed with young people, carefully repeating and noting down the day's lesson taught by a committed and motivated teacher. The rural schools project has so far proven a great success and is bringing education to children who would otherwise miss out on the opportunity.

CamKids is also funding the cost of an education administrator for the project. Their job will be to coordinate teaching, distribute materials to the teachers and students and control finances. Recently, an Australian teacher spent some time at the project and we are delighted that he, together with colleagues back in Tasmania, have committed to putting together an English As A Second Language course for the project. He will also be assisting the project coordinator in improving the skills of the teachers and with fundraising for the project in Tasmania.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project or if you would like to support our work by way of a single or regular donation, please send an email to schools@camkids.org.

Farming Update

CamKids have been committed in trying to help communities establish alternative means of subsistence.

In 2007 CamKids was instrumental in contracting the CRDT – The Cambodian Rural Development Team – to establish a working farm at Kais Village Orphanage. CamKids donated over $21,000 to the project in the first year and when the CRDT left in 2008 there were chickens, pigs, fruit and vegetables. They had also installed a bio digester, a means of harnessing the methane gas from the cow and pig manure for cooking. The bio digester has cut the cost of gas for cooking by half.

As with any project of this nature in a country such as Cambodia, there have been new challenges and set backs as well as successes. However, the directors of Kais have found a new farm manager who has transformed the farm in under two months. He has ingeniously and cheaply found a way to aerate the water in the pond that has, up until now, provided no real advantage to the orphanage, but now he has begun to breed fish with the expectation of having fish on the table for the children within six months.

The bio digester remains a huge success and can be seen in the photos. The fruit trees, vegetable gardens and chickens are all thriving. It is hoped that in twelve months the project will be self sufficient, supplying most of the orphanage food and paying for the farmers to work the land by growing and selling off season fruit. For example 1kg of mangoes in season fetches 500 riel, out of season 3000 riel. This is already underway and fruit, which normally appears in December, is already on the trees . Growing out of season also ensures the orphanage farm is not competing with local farmers.CamKids is proud in still helping to support this farm and is always looking for new projects of this nature and new funding to help cover the cost.

If you are interested or can help in any way please contact farming@camkids.org.

Fishery Project by Who Will NGO

In 2008, CamKids was approached by a potential donor who wanted to invest in a project in Cambodia. After introducing him to the directors of Who Will, it was agreed that he would fund the cost of a sustainable fishery project. The project is now underway and the directors of Who Will have provided us with the following report:

On one of our trips to look at children needing a home, we saw many children running around and we asked the villagers why the children weren’t going to school. No money! The village is extremely poor – family income is $8 - $12 per month. However, the village is on the banks of the river. Fifteen years ago an NGO had started a fishing project in the village but had given them no back-up. The fish had died from lack of food and the villagers had lost money.

A prospective donor came to visit and we mentioned this to him and a new project was born – small scale fishing to generate income so the children can go to school and the whole community will benefit.

Four dams were pinpointed and the farmers were taken through the steps of how the funding will be done – no cash, only product in the form of fuel, pump hire, fish feed, fingerlings and anything else that may be required. The farmers have the money on loan and it must be repaid at the end of the fishing season (approximately 4 months). They also have to hold back enough money to supply their new season.

Three weeks ago 44,000 fingerlings were purchased and to date only 78 have died – a mortality rate of 0.17%! The fish are doing well and growing fast – their progress being measured according to the circumference of the specific farmer’s big toe or middle finger!

This is a great example of a self-sustaining micro-finance project and, if successful, can be rolled out at hundreds of locations throughout rural Cambodia. The total cost of the project is around £1,500, but this 'seed capital' could be enough to create a new project at a different location every year. If you are interested in finding out more, please send an email to farming@camkids.org.

CamKids 2008 Annual Report & Accounts

The Trustees of CamKids - The Cambodian Children's Charity, are pleased to report that the Charity's Annual Report and Accounts for 2008 have been filed with the Charity Commission ahead of schedule. A copy of the report and accounts can be downloaded from HERE.

The Trustees of CamKids are committed to open and full disclosure of its activities and, although not a requirement, the Charity has opted to make additional voluntary disclosures in line with best practice for large charities.

Please direct any questions about these accounts to finance@camkids.org.

Gulf 4 Good Challenge - Raising Money for Who Will Children's Village

As reported in an earlier post, CamKids was selected by Gulf for Good as the recipient of funds raised from their Great Asian Cycling Challenge, which took place from 26 March to 4 April 2009 in Vietnam and Cambodia. CamKids nominated the Who Will NGO as the beneficiary and the directors have just sent in this update:

On 1st April, the Gulf for Good challenge participants visited the site of the children’s home, planted trees and had the opportunity to meet the children and some of the villagers. Many photos were taken and, to our absolute delight, Brian Wilkie, chairman of Gulf for Good, announced that $27,000 had been raised for Who Will – enough to complete another home in the children’s village in Kampong Tralach !

The home is nearing completion; the roof is on, tiling is being done, the outside has been painted and within the next three to four weeks, the children will move in.

CamKids and Who Will would like to thank Gulf for Good, the challenge participants and all of their sponsors and supporters for this fantastic achievement.

3rd Al Murray CamKids Golf Classic

On Friday June 12th, the now legendary Al Murray CamKids Golf Classic hit the fairways, greens and roughs of the magnificent Effingham Golf Club. A very challenging course saw some much improved golf but with some veterans of the event clinging doggedly on to their hacker status.

Al Murray once again delivered liquid refreshments to all golfers, helping to revive flagging spirits as the course challenged every shot. The weather remained dry, which can’t be said of the 72 golfers.

In the evening, 94 guests sat down to a wonderful 3 course dinner, astonishing close up magic by Sav (sav@deceptionist.co.uk), prize giving, entertainment, raffle and auction all presided over by Al Murray who was on absolute top form.

In these times of credit crunch and recession, the golf day made a brilliant profit, in excess of £12,000 which is a testament to everyone involved; from Al, to all our sponsors and donors, golfers, volunteers and the friendly, professional and helpful staff at Effingham Golf Club.

Special thanks to:

• Our patron, Al Murray, for his relentless efforts throughout the entire day and evening.
  Steve Hoatson, for all his help in making the day run so smoothly and relieving us of much of the stress.
• Gail Taylor, for all her organisational efforts over the many months running up to the event and for her help on the day.
• Dan Jones, for recommending the course and doing all the initial legwork in securing it for the day and for his continued and valued support of CamKids.
• Pete Kovacs, for once again doing so much to help make the day a resounding success.
• All our very generous donors and sponsors for supplying us with fabulous prizes and gifts.
• Our volunteers, Big Bob and Anne, Lisa, Win, Tim, Cat and Rebecca for their tireless work throughout the day.
• All the golfers and evening guests enjoyed an unforgettable day and the feedback has been amazing with the general consensus being, it was the best golf day so far…….until next year!!!!

THANK YOU ALL

CamKids Trustees

Craig & John's Jurassic Walk

Last week, Craig Birch and John Caiger walked 96 miles from Exmouth to Poole, along the Jurassic Coast Path and raised over £2,000 for CamKids. The Path rises and falls over 34,000 feet along the route - more than the height of Everest! The walk, which was fuelled mainly by beer and curry, took 4 days and was extremely gruelling. The CamKids Trustees would like to thank Craig and John for their outstanding efforts.

The money will pay for the full annual running costs of 4 of the 15 outreach schools being opened by New Futures Organisation and which are being entirely funded by CamKids.

The schools will provide education to children who would otherwise miss schooling because of personal / family circumstances. Primary and secondary education is free in Cambodia and public schools are available in most areas. However, there are various factors that prevent children attending school, particularly in the rural/agricultural villages surrounding Takeo, including:
1. Family cannot afford school clothing.
2. Local government school is not located within easy travelling distance
3. Child is working on family farm at school opening times.
4. Family cannot afford books/pens

If you would like to find out more, or are interested in supporting this project, please contact us at schools@camkids.org.

A Trip To The Dentist

Karen Butler, a director of Kais Village Orphanage wrote:
In early March we took 14 children to the dentist. This included some children from the local village who needed some urgent treatment. It took most of the day in surgery (everyone had a nice lunch during the noon break). After treatment the children came back to our house for snacks and drinks and to play until dark.

The children visit the dentist every 6 months for check ups (the work is carried out free of charge). CamKids supports these visits by paying for the transport as the surgery is some 2 hours drive away in Phnom Penh. CamKids also pay for emergency unscheduled visits to the dentist.

If you would like to help support one of our medical or dental projects, please contact us at medical@camkids.org.