Tough Little Champions

Through a local partnership with One-2-One Cambodia, CamKids funds the children’s aerobics fitness program, TLC (Tough Little Champions).  TLC gathers children from five different orphanages across Phnom Penh and brings them together for bi-weekly sessions of high energy and fun aerobics classes.  The aerobics classes are run by internationally experienced Cambodian instructors, with the aim of improving the children’s physical fitness along with an increased understanding of health and wellbeing. 

One-2-One’s Motion Tuk-Tuks collect the children from their orphanages and deliver them to the Motion Academy of Sport.  Motion is a fully equipped aerobics facility with padded floors, ropes, hoops and wall mirrors for the children to grin into as they twist and bend and jump around. Classes are run by Srorn and Sarith, two very experienced One-2-One aerobics instructors. 

Classes begin with a stretching routine, which is quite difficult and requires the help of the instructors, so that each child is correctly warmed up before training and this helps the children to increase their overall flexibility. 

Then the fun begins with high energy music and the shout of: “Five, Six, Seven, Eight!” and the room comes alive with the children bounding into the air, kicks left and right, out and up.  The routine continues with star jumps and pushups and more challenging stretches.  The older, more experienced students demonstrate the moves for the younger, less experienced children.   Flexibility and strength conditioning are emphasized with the instructors giving individual attention and instruction, ensuring a balance of safety and fun. 

Hot and sweaty, the children’s class comes to an end.  Everyone gathers on the balcony to catch a slight evening breeze, to laugh, joke and drink cups of cold water.  The children are slow to leave, obviously enjoying the interaction and the chance to burn off some energy, but eventually hop into the Tuk-Tuks home knowing they’ll be back in a few days’ time.

Youth School – helping the young urban poor of Phnom Penh

Set along the railroad tracks in Phnom Penh in a shantytown slum community, Youth School is a community centre / school which brings education and health projects to children and young people using a variety of programs and activities. Run by Empowering Youth in Cambodia (EYC) and funded by CamKids, this small school is showing some very effective ways to give young people a hand up and have fun along the way.

Started in October 2009, Youth School’s programs include free English and computer classes, medical and dental care, a library, as well as weekend activities including leadership development and field trips Youth School also runs sports programs including cycling, yoga and an under-14 football team. The school was initially started by student volunteers from EYC’s Lakeside School who wanted to share their experiences and talent in a new community, and over time has incorporated professional teachers as funds became available, thanks to CamKids.

Youth School has approximately 100 students attending daily and is primarily an after-school program since government schools teach only 4 hours each day. During the morning and afternoon sessions, students are primary school age, while in the evening they are in high school and even some university, as well as youth who have dropped out of school and are working, unemployed, or underemployed.

At the heart of the school is some excellent staff including Heab Sokhuoch, the English teacher from 5:30 to 7:30pm (2 different levels), who by day is also the EYC program manager.   He is a graduate of the government university “Institute of Foreign Languages” and has a bachelor’s degree in English Teaching and has a grasp of the English language far beyond most non-native speakers. Sokhuoch has allowed his students to become a part of his life and his work is more than a job. “My students get involved in all the EYC activities, and have the highest participation in the cycling team that I manage” he says with pride. “Youth School is more than a school since it is also a favorite gathering place for young people who are on their way to success. The kids really enjoy going to class. Outside of the school are people drinking and gambling, but inside we always try to provide a positive place for them,” said Sokhuoch.

Other key staff include university students Mr. Khorn Kungkea, the school manager, who lives on site, and Ms. Khom Pheary, the English teacher in the morning and afternoon. Pheary will soon graduate with an English Teaching degree. The school also has 2 assistants to teach ABCs to our youngest students and 3 computer teachers for classes throughout the day. The school provides 8 hours of English and 6 hours of computer lessons each day.

An example of the many activities made available to the youth is a series of training sessions recently  held on Job Hunting Skills, over 6 Sunday mornings, facilitated by EYC’s job placement officer Sor Sophea, and included a speaker from Nokia Corporation who shared what he is looking for in potential job applicants. Graduates all now have their CV’s ready and feel more confident to seek quality work.

EYC has also had great results in getting kids from the community who had dropped out of the government school to re-enrol, with regular follow up to make sure they stay in school and that public school teachers don’t ask for money from the students. 

Youth School has plenty of challenges to be able to work in the demanding slum environment. In late 2011 the previous landlord decided to cancel the rental contract.  The school scrambled to find a new site and was lucky to have found the current location, which is bigger and actually a better space for a school. The school has regular electrical outages and is near a sewage canal, which creates a bad smell for the children coming and going to the school. A small problem for the school, but a very sad reality for the families who live along it. 

In 2013 Youth School plans to provide additional life skills trainings for our teenaged students to prepare them to navigate the many challenges that come with being a young adult, including relationships, preparation for university, and conflict resolution.

Brighton Marathon April 2013

CamKids has a few remaining places for the 2013 Brighton Marathon. Public places have already sold out and very few charity places are still available. The event will take place on Sunday 14th April 2013.

The minimum sponsorship amount is £500 per runner which will pay for the running costs of one of our rural schools for a year. Why not make it your New Year's resolution to get fit and help the kids at the same time.

Participants will receive a CamKids T-shirt, Running Vest and Charity Wristbands and we will help you set up a fundraising page on JustGiving, to make collecting sponsorship money easy.

There are a limited number of places - if you are interested, please email: events@camkids.org.

Calling all dentists, hygienists, therapists and senior dental students - SEAL CAMBODIA PROJECT NEEDS YOU!

SEAL CAMBODIA is an exciting 3 year project to save children's teeth in Cambodia, where the levels of dental decay are among the highest in the world (8-10 decayed, missing or filled teeth at age 5).

The project is supported by The Cambodian Children's Charity (CamKids), the Global Child Dental Fund (GCDF) and GC (Asia) Company and has the approval of the Cambodian Ministries of Education and Health. It aims to seal the first permanent molars of 60,000 Grade 2 children over the next three years.

Local partners for the project in Cambodia are One-2-One, International University, the Oral Health Office of the Ministry of Health, the Pediatric Clinic of the University of Health Sciences, Cambodia World Family, the Cambodian Dental Association and the Regional Nurses Training Centre in Kampong Cham. They are providing some of their own members and personnel - but we also need your help!

We are seeking self-funded overseas volunteer dentists, hygienists, therapists and senior dental students to come to Cambodia for one to two weeks, to work in primary schools to achieve our goal of sealing 20,000 children per year. We can arrange pick up from the airport, accommodation, local sightseeing, transport to and from the schools, and assistants to work with you. Training on how the program works and the protocols for GIC sealant placement will be given. Instruments and materials needed will be provided.

We know this project will make a huge difference to the dental health of these children - most of whom presently face extraction of many of their teeth by the time they reach high school. For more information please contact the SEAL CAMBODIA team at: sealcambodia@hotmail.com

We look forward to seeing you in Cambodia soon!

The SEAL CAMBODIA Team

Winter 2012 Newsletter

Up to now, all CamKids Newsletters have been written by the trustees, but we thought it was time for us to take a back seat and for you to hear from some of the Cambodians and volunteers working hard for CamKids and the children of Cambodia.  CamKids continues to expand its reach to help more and more disadvantaged children, and the testimonies in our Winter newsletter are written by people helping CamKids to help Cambodians to help themselves.

To access the Newsletter, please click This Link or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail.

THANK YOU for your loyalty, trust and support. From CamKids, and all the children we are able to help support through your ongoing generosity, we wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year.

The CamKids Trustees

EYC Medical Program

Camkids funding medical care for Phnom Penh’s urban poor

As part of the ongoing support from CamKids to Empowering Youth in Cambodia (EYC), funds are provided to cover the medical expenses for EYC’s 4 schools in poor communities, otherwise known as slums (i.e. residents do not hold land titles). Students in the schools are provided a basic but holistic set of health services including regular health and hygiene training, weekly medical clinics at each school, referrals for serious cases that can’t be treated in the clinics and dental care. Additionally, everyone in the community receive health services including family planning training and long term birth control, medical treatment and de-worming treatment every 6 months. 

EYC started providing education and leadership development for young people in 2006. The services made a difference and are still much appreciated by the community, but the founder Drew McDowell was constantly confronted with illnesses in the students and their families. For EYC’s first 3 years they were unable to do much beyond taking kids with serious problems to a clinic or hospital, as well as some to a private dentist. “Kids were constantly getting sick, and we weren’t doing much to address it. Our team was good at inspiring and training young people, but when people got sick, and sometimes it was serious, we felt pretty helpless” said Drew. 

As the medical NGO One-2-One started to partner with EYC, they were able to provide a whole new level of support for students and their families. Not surprisingly, the costs to provide health services started to rise, and EYC could not sustain the program if not for the support from CamKids. Once a monthly budget was established, the team in EYC was able to work to support the health programs, establish partnerships, train volunteers from the communities, and the results were impressive. So impressive, it is hard to summarize or understand without seeing it firsthand; sick people being treated, cavities being filled (smiles returned), behaviors changed and hygiene improved.  A new generation that understands reproductive health, woman in control of their bodies and real care being shown to people who are in a tough situation. Each week there is a line of people waiting to see the medical team.  There are tuk tuks full of kids going to the dentist and there are trained young people on the ground to educate and help in all kinds of situations. 

From October 2011 to September 2012 EYC accomplished the following, thanks to the support from CamKids:

2,515 Patient-visits with a doctor. 

1,152 Patient-visits to a dentist. 

73 Women received long term birth control (IUD or implant). 

While the road to improving the health of a community is not an easy one, these results along with a continued health education message will affect long term changes in the communities EYC works with.

NFO Update

The following report and slideshow has just been received from one of the orphanages which CamKids has been supporting for a number of years:

NFO has had a year of great developments, we have not only had many upgrades and maintenance projects take place at the children’s home, but we have also seen an expansion of our community project and village schools too. Thanks to many volunteers, school groups and international organisations such as CamKids, we have seen an extension of our farm, teaching the children about sustainable practices and were able to complete much needed maintenance work on one of our classrooms, the children’s bathrooms and the kitchen. Other important construction projects also took place such as a dance room and a rice store shed and a new playground area. 

The children have also enjoyed a number of excursions; the most exiting of the year was to Phnom Penh for the CamKids cup, in which our talented football stars took first place. The children also visited Kep and Sihanoukville while all the children who have recently turned sixteen went on the annual trip to Angkor Watt. Our volunteers have thoroughly enjoyed their stay at NFO and have bought much benefit to the youth in which we serve, as expressed by a previous volunteer. 

“I feel very grateful and have had a humbling experience to have taught the kids at the orphanage and being able to play some outdoor games with them, teaching English to Monks at the Pagoda and help out at Ben Mao rural School whilst my stay at Takeo. I've also had some time to see other parts of Cambodia and had really cherished every moment of it. You can sure hope to visit a town full of lovely, local people, local traditional markets and many exotic fruits” Tania - June 2012, Student

We have also seen the expansion of our community projects and have extended not only our village school program with the building of a new school, but we now provide free English classes to the local monks and police and are also working with the Takeo provincial hospital on a blood donation program, proving desperately needed blood to those in need. 

NFO have been supported by CamKids for a number of years now through the provision of food for the children, the teachers' salaries and materials for all of our village schools, the building of our vocational training centre and the funding of our Tuk Tuks and other vehicles. Our children are very grateful for the assistance that CamKids provides as you can see by some of the testimonials of our children, such as this short story by Soklina.

"My names is Sok Lina, I am 12 years old, I have lived at NFO for four years. When I grow up I want to be a doctor. I like NFO because they help me think of my future. I have a lot of friends in NFO, they are so friendly with me, and other children too. At free time we study English with the volunteers in the classroom CamKids made for us. We study Khmer at school with our Khmer teacher. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. We sometime go to the beach and the mountains, we are happy in NFO." Sok Lina - October 2012

SEAL Cambodia Update

Cambodian children have one of the highest dental decay rates around the world. In a remarkable attempt to combat this, CamKids and the Global Child Dental Fund (GCDF) with the Cambodia Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, have partnered to treat 60,000 grade 2 school children initially in Phnom Penh, over the next three years through the SEAL Cambodia program. This is the program’s first year in operation. The program aims to provide protective “fissure sealants” for the permanent molar teeth of Cambodian children. The treatment is very effective at preventing decay by protecting the chewing surfaces and keeping out germs and food, which if left in the pits and fissures, lead to decay.  The program is huge and logistically complex. It needs a large number of staff to achieve the demanding goals, with International volunteers with local Khmer staff working side by side.

We want to share with you a story about a special girl named Phally. Phally is the leader for the One-2-One CAMBODIA Smile Angel dental team (all girl dental team), her team is one of many that have been busy implementing SEAL Cambodia.  Phally, has been working for One-2-One Cambodia (a partner of CamKids and GCDF) since its foundation seven years ago. She leads a team of three who travel to different schools to provide sealants for the targeted kids. Working with children and preventing pain and infection from tooth decay through SEAL Cambodia is a great joy and privilege for Phally, who like many of the kids she treats, grew up in an orphanage.

Throughout her time with One-2-One, Phally has worked on a variety of children’s’ dental programs, Many of the children have never received dental treatment before so her empathy, experience and patience pave the way to successful engagement with them. Since this is such a new experience for the children, she and her team make every effort to ensure the entire visit a fun and pleasant one. Before any sealant is applied Phally and her team provide basic oral health education, teaching kids how to correctly brush their teeth, and which sugary foods and drinks they should avoid. Teaching the children is one of the favourite parts of Phally’s role as she knows that by showing children how to take better care of their teeth, they will have a healthier and happier future.

Phally and the SEAL team would like to thank CamKids and GCDF for their support of SEAL Cambodia, without which the program would be impossible. After working with kids for so many years, Phally has a sympathetic understanding of what happens to kids that have unsealed teeth and the large number of decayed teeth that it will eventually lead to. The children treated in this program have an average of 8-10 decayed primary (baby) teeth – which is why this sealant program to protect the new permanent teeth is so important. With SEAL Cambodia in place Phally looks forward to better dental health for thousands of children across Cambodia and is immensely grateful that she gets to work with Camkids and GCDF on such a great program.

We invite you to join Phally and her team in this fantastic journey of SEAL Cambodia.

International University Dental Clinic

CamKids funds the cost for orphanages and other NGOs to take children to the International University (IU) Dental Clinic, to receive basic dental treatment. The treatment is provided by dental students under the supervision of senior dentists.  For the past three months, only children who actually needed some treatment were brought to the clinic.  A small team of dental students and a dentist were also sent to the orphanage or organization first, to screen the children - so that not all children needed to go to IU.  Dental health education and tooth brushing instruction was also given at the organisations and tooth brushes were given to the children who did not need  to go to the clinic. 

Treatment provided at IU includes: relief from pain and infection (by doing extractions and in some cases basic root canal treatment); prevention (sealing the molar teeth and applying fluoride to prevent decay; restorations (in permanent teeth and also some primary teeth in order to maintain the space for the adult teeth to come through); dental health education (using a dental tooth model and a flip chart to demonstrate correct oral hygiene); and fluoride vanish to strengthen the teeth. In the time we have been running this program, we have seen a great improvement in the oral health of the children

Below is a personal story from one of the children, who goes to school at the Who Will Children's Village school, which was also built by CamKids.

Sreynich’s story: 

My name is Sreynich. I am 11 years old. I am from Kompong Trolarge district, Kompong Chhnang province. I have a young sister and we live with our grandparents because our parents were divorced when I was in grade one. Now I am in grade five and am the number one student in my class. I want to be an English teacher in the future. Everyday I go to study English at the ‘Who Will’ organization because they are near my house and lessons are free. My teeth looked so bad and I was shy to talk to other people or my friends. When I looked in the mirror it made me sad to see my front teeth. Today my teacher brought me to the clinic to get my teeth fixed. I was so happy when they finished the treatment as it looks much better than before. I would like to say thank you to the dentist and to CamKids for treating my teeth and giving me some toothpaste and a toothbrush.

Who WIll Children's Village Update

We would like to share the  following report and photos from one of the directors of Who Will, with our donors and supporters:

The past year has been as busy as usual and with the completion of our two new houses, we now have what looks more like a village. We have excavated a new pond and used the soil to raise the level of the land in the middle of the six houses and so reduce the risk of flooding.

We plan to construct a gazebo in December to provide the children with another quiet area where they can read, play or just relax away from the more public areas of our village. We are also planning a new market garden to provide sufficient vegetables for our own needs and also have some to sell in the local market. Tree planting projects are also underway, to provide extra nutrition for the children, as well as much needed shade.

One of our children, Noun Dalin, was the first Gifted Child chosen by the newly set up Liger Foundation, and she left us at the beginning of August. She will be educated to international standards up to university entrance level, and will then be sponsored through tertiary education in a university of Liger’s choosing that is suitable to her abilities and chosen vocation. Dalin will return to the Who Will Village for all school holidays, as she has chosen to make it her home. 

We have had a steady stream of international volunteers at the village. Many of them have come through CamKids, and having one of the trustees helping coordinate the volunteer program has been really helpful in establishing this part of the village life. The work done by the volunteers has ensured that the standard of English among our children improves continually. Apart from teaching English, our volunteers have encouraged our children in sports such as soccer, volleyball and badminton. They have also taught them to play the guitar and ukulele, sing and learn craft skills. We are just completing a new volunteer house on site, and this will make the lives of future volunteers easier, as they will no longer be faced with a three kilometre cycle ride to and from the village twice a day. It will also allow the high school children to have English classes after school in the late afternoon since they are at government school all day now.

In addition to our 40 resident children, we also provide free English language classes to around 35 children from the surrounding villages as a part of our policy to integrate with the local population.

Towards the end of 2011, six of our children took part in the 17 kilometre cycle race section of the Angkor Wat Challenge where the boys took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and the girls 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their group. This year we hope to have a team of 12 children, and they have opted to go for the 30 kilometre race this time.

As well as continuing with ongoing support of the village costs, mainly funded through a very successful child sponsorship program, CamKids also paid for a Christmas party last year, and two trips to the water park in Phnom Penh for the children and the staff. We continue to receive free dental treatment at the IU dental hospital thanks to CamKids as they fund free care there for organisations like Who Will, who can’t afford it. 

Our children took part in The CamKids QB soccer tournament in June this year. It involved other Children’s Centres also supported by CamKids from different provinces, and was a huge success. In fact Jakamo Sharpe, the son of 2 of the CamKids Trustees, chose to play in the Who Will team and we were delighted with third place having never played a tournament before!

Photos of the CamKids / One-2-One Medical Team at Canalside

Chbar Chros Community School reopens

Yesterday Chbar Chris school opened again after the holidays. When we first opened the school in March we had 72 children registered. We now have 205 children registered for 2 kindergarten classes, grades 1, 2 and 3.

Who WIll Music Lessons

CamKids friends and supporters, Caryn and her daughters, Annie and Katie, returned to Who Will where they volunteered last year. They brought with them several guitars and ukeleles, together with laminated song and chord sheets and are spending a few days teaching them new songs.

The village children, who attend the school at Who Will, also joined in. It was fantastic, if a little surreal, to hear a room full of Cambodian children singing Mama Mia at the tops of their voices!

Banteay Sleak and Ptesh Leu Teak Slum Communities

During our recent visit to Cambodia, we paid a visit to the very poor slum community of Banteay Sleak, where we fund a weekly clinic operated by our partner organisation One-2-One Cambodia for 250 families.

This was our second visit and there have been huge improvements to the health of the children and adults since I was here in March. We were then taken to an even poorer community the "Village above water".

Words and pictures cannot adequately describe the living conditions which this community have to endure. The black foetid water runs right under their houses and the smell is the worse we have encountered in 30 years of travelling throughout Asia! We are currently assessing the community of 180 families and will be starting a weekly medical clinic here as well, next month.

Final Places for the 2013 Brighton Marathon

CamKids has been offered some additional places for the 2013 Brighton Marathon. Public places have already sold out and very few charity places are still available. The event will take place on Sunday 14th April 2013.

The minimum sponsorship amount is £500 per runner and we already have a number of runners signed up for the event. As an example of how far this money will go, £500 will pay for the running costs of one of our rural schools for a year.

Participants will receive a CamKids T-shirt, Running Vest and Charity Wristbands and we will help you set up a fundraising page on JustGiving, to make collecting sponsorship money easy.

There are a limited number of places and we have a short deadline to confirm the places with the organisers. If you are interested, please email: events@camkids.org by Sunday 30 September.

Gateways School supports CamKids

Gateways School near Leeds (@gatewaysschool) recently held a Hawaiian Luau Dance Benefit in aid of CamKids and the evening raised over £800 for the charity. The event, which was organised by a group of Year 9 pupils, included dance and music performances by girls from Year 4 upwards and also encouraged audience participation in a hula hooping competition and other games. The whole year group had been very busy in the art department making a cocktail shack and various other colourful Hawaiian-themed decorations, including surfboards, turtles, flip-flop garlands, flowers, etc. During the interval, parents and other guests enjoyed tropical cocktails and Hawaiian-themed snacks in the school grounds as the evening sun added to the holiday atmosphere.

The Luau was the latest in a succession of fundraising activities which have raised a total of over £4,400 for CamKids over the course of the last school year. The whole school has been involved in these fundraising activities ranging from cake sales to a Million Pound Drop Gameshow, from younger pupils setting up their own enterprises selling Christmas-themed products to Zumba classes and non-uniform days. A member of staff ran a marathon to raise funds and a Year 7 pupil walked the Three Peaks, as well as asking her birthday party guests to forgo the usual party bags so that she could donate the money to CamKids instead.

The school chose CamKids as their charity of the year to coincide with an expedition to Cambodia which older pupils completed in July. Throughout the year the work of CamKids was highlighted in school assemblies to enable pupils to better understand the support the charity gives to children in Cambodia.

The Trustees of CamKids would like to send a huge Thank You, on behalf of all of the Cambodian children who benefit from our projects, to all of the children, staff and parents of Gateways School for their wonderful fundraising efforts throughout the year. You have made a difference to so many lives through your generosity and hard work.

EYC Lakeside School

The Lakeside School is a house that has been converted to a school / community centre which brings education and health programs to children and young people in a slum district in Phnom Penh.

Run by Empowering Youth in Cambodia and funded fully by CamKids, the results of this program are clearly having a positive effective on the young people's future prospects and are a daily source of joy. The kids really enjoy going to class and students are regularly rewarded with fun activities. Outside of school, living conditions are tough, with families living in run-down shanty houses where drinking and gambling lead to children being neglected, while inside the school they are cheerful and the staff and volunteers provide positive influences.

Lakeside's programs include free English lessons, medical &, dental, access to the new library, community organising, as well as weekend activities including leadership development, dancing, yoga, and various field trips.

Lakeside School has 120 students attending every day and has an excellent network of supporting partners, including CamKids donors, committed Cambodian staff, international and local volunteers and a student team leader group which volunteers and runs much of the operation of the school.

CamKids Summer 2012 Newsletter

In the West we often take for granted our opportunities to play and get involved in sport. Sport has universal appeal and anywhere you throw a ball, you will soon find children playing with it. Cambodians love sport, but the opportunities for many children are extremely limited, especially the opportunity to take part in some sort of organized competition.

The benefits of sport are of course well documented and wide reaching, ranging from physical development and the endorphins produced through exercise, to life skills of dealing with success and failure, teamwork and communication.

Sport fits neatly into our MEND (Medical, Education, Nutrition, Development) Initiative, under the Development banner and most of this Newsletter is dedicated to showing how many children are benefitting from "Sport & Fitness With CamKids".

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 below, you will receive future copies 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. If you would like to find out how to support our work, please Contact Us.

The CamKids Trustees

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Thames Path Challenge - Places still available

Places are still available for the Thames Path Challenge on 29/30th September, which starts close to Putney Bridge and follows the unique Thames Path National Trail. Take on the epic endurance walk against the clock on the 100km route to Henley and attempt to complete the challenge within 24hrs – or take on the 50km option with a target time of under 12hrs.

Be part of the challenge which will see hundreds of walkers attempt the course and fundraise for CamKids and other charities. Sign up in teams of friends, colleagues or join as an individual and meet fellow trekkers along the way. It will be a weekend to remember!

Challenge Details:

• The ultimate 100km challenge - target time under 24hrs!
• 50km daylight challenge - target of 12hrs!
• Assemble your own team - tackle the course together
• Join as an individual - and we'll support you all the way!
• Replenishment checkpoints along the way
• Hot food stops @ 50km, 75km, and 100km
• Fully supported with pace walkers, medics, physios
• Participant area with training and fundraising resource
• 50km walk - £50 registration fee + £200 minimum sponsorship
• 100km walk - £75 to register + £300 minimum sponsorship

Full details of the challenge can be found HERE or email us for more information.

If you would like to take up the challenge and raise money for CamKids, please follow THIS LINK. Collecting your sponsorship money is easy, by setting up your own JustGiving Page HERE.

Krousar Thmey Centres for Deaf and Blind Children

Children the world over are gorgeous - and none more so than the deaf and blind children of Krousar Thmey. There are 16 Krousar Thmey Centers throughout Cambodia. The One-2-One / CamKids mobile dental team visits these underserved centres to provide much needed dental treatment to the children, most of whom have never seen a dentist. For some, even brushing their teeth is a new experience.

On our most recent visit to the Krousar Thmey School in Battambang Province, our team was most warmly welcomed by the staff and children. Shyness soon gave way to curiosity and excited chatter as they flashed huge smiles, crowded around, and were eager to help in what ever way they could.

Over the course of 5 days, the dental team, composed of overseas dental volunteers and local dental professionals, checked many and treated 196 Krousar Thmey children, completing over 300 fillings and pulling out over 100 rotten painful teeth! They also placed many fissure sealants and fluoride varnish, to help protect the teeth against further decay. Although the conditions were challenging, with temperatures well over 30 degrees, with so many children needing help, our team stepped up to the task, without complaint. The children were fantastic - sometimes waiting a long time for treatment, and very brave in the face of having several teeth treated at a single visit. Our team kept the children happy with big smiles and small rewards at the end - receiving a new toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste in Cambodia is a big deal! The children were hugely grateful to our team, and most were happy to come back for a second and even a third visit.

It is not easy being a blind or a deaf child in Cambodia. Many are abandoned by their parents. The volunteers were constantly blown away by the children's courage, their resilience, and their gratefulness for the simple things most people in the western world take completely for granted. Despite some of the difficulties in communicating (how do you prepare someone who can't see or hear for an injection?), every day the children won the hearts of the volunteers through their acceptance, friendliness and courage. They even helped our volunteers learn some sign language and songs. Teaching children how to brush their teeth with their very first toothbrush was a rewarding experience - broad foamy smiles on their faces, laughter from their friends at their efforts, and seeing the obvious pride and gratefulness they all had at being given their very first toothbrush.

The deaf and blind children of Krousar Thmey School in Battambang City did not have any material things that they could give the dental team to thank them for their help, but they gave what they could, by putting on a special "Thank you" concert. Those who could sing, sang; those who could perform magic tricks wowed the audience with their magical prowess; and those with acrobatic skills said thanks by performing acrobatic tricks - leaving the dental team feeling like, in the end, they were the ones who had the most to be thankful for.

For more information or to support this project, please Email Us.