CCC Staff Annual Retreat 2018

In September, all CamKids teachers and other staff took part in a 5 day trip to sights in some of the North-Western Provinces of Cambodia such as Pursat, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey, Oddor Meanchey, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom. 

The purpose of the trip was to thank the teachers and staff who have been working very hard throughout the year and encourage them to keep up their great work for the children. 

This was the 5th annual trip for the CamKids family and it was such a great adventure for them to explore the historical and tourist sites in Cambodia. They were happy and excited to get to know those places which they only used to hear in songs or history books but could now see with their own eyes. 

The teachers said, without CamKids, they would not have had the opportunity of visiting such places in their lifetime.

You can sponsor a student at CCC from as little as £10 per month, which covers all costs.  Email us or set up a sponsorship through PayPal below:

Sponsorship Options

CCC Friend : £10.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Bronze Friend : £20.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Silver Friend : £50.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Gold Friend : £100.00 GBP - monthly

Gift Aid Eligible?

 

A visit by Liger school students to CCC

The following was written by one of the students at Liger Leadership Academy: 

On August 30th 2018, 18 students from Liger Leadership Academy, Phnom Penh came to visit CamKids’ CCC School. It was a marvelous experience for us to interact with the students at the school. During the first part of the evening, we did some networking to get to know more about each other and share experiences.

The other main purpose was to help improve the students’ English skills. To do that, we shared tips and techniques in the Literacy field. To add more excitement to our activities, we played a game in the second part of the evening. During this part, we had a lot of fun and seemed to get closer to each other. The game that we played is called Charades.  It is a type of game where we act out the words that we see on the paper, and more importantly, we are not allowed to make a sound. During the game, we had a lot of fun and we helped each other. As a result, the students seemed more confident and comfortable working with all of us. That made us extremely satisfied.

We wrapped up the day by having our technology teacher, Cindy, introduce herself and give a brief talk about her college life in America. She talked about studying Computer Science as a female student and the classes she took in college. She also answered questions about Computer Science and technology from CCC students. The CCC students seemed so eager to know us and they asked us a lot of good questions. In conclusion, it was a wonderful opportunity to work with them and it was such a memorable experience.

You can sponsor a student at CCC from as little as £10 per month, which covers all costs.  Email us or set up a sponsorship through PayPal below:

Sponsorship Options

CCC Friend : £10.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Bronze Friend : £20.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Silver Friend : £50.00 GBP - monthly  CCC Gold Friend : £100.00 GBP - monthly

Gift Aid Eligible?

 

Story written by Sandy Flinn - A volunteer from Australia

Volunteering at CamKids’ Community School was an experience beyond expectations. This is where the real culture of Cambodia can be found, untouched by tourism and development. 

CamKids' students are eager to learn English and are very well behaved. I taught English using real objects, drawings, action songs, written and verbal words. 

The students particularly enjoyed learning English through ESL action songs which I played on my phone and Bluetooth speaker. 

I brought other resources along such as photocopies of worksheets that could be transferred to the whiteboard, coloured paper to teach colours, blue tac and small photo albums of family and life in Australia. 

I am not a qualified teacher but have many years experience working as a School Support Teacher and easily transitioned to teaching English mainly because there were no behavioural issues. 

If you have ever considered volunteering, bring a friend and help enhance future prospects of Cambodian children. CamKids’ Community School would really appreciate your assistance.

 

The Village Festival

After the rice harvest finished last week, the villagers of Chbar Chros organized a village festival in order to thank the spirits who took good care of their crops. 

The celebration took place at CCC school and our students were invited to join too. Food such as Cambodian noodles, bread, and soup made of curried chicken was donated by the villagers. 

It was particularly great to see our younger children having fun! I observed that the young children are growing up so well, respecting each other and their parents and teachers and also wanting to help in whatever small way they can in the community. 

Sophak Phorn - Project Manager

 

Phil's Fabulous Ride

We at CamKids are constantly surprised and touched by the kindness and generosity of people. Challenged by his sceptical friends to “get on his bike” Phil Moses did just that – and it wasn’t an easy challenge - cycling some 500 plus miles from Bangkok to Saigon and passing through Cambodia on the way. Phil supported four charities and we were fortunate that he chose CamKids as one of the four. This is his story:

As a 50+ non-cyclist and having decided to join a friend on a cycling trip from Bangkok to Saigon, many of my friends thought I was nuts. So, having been challenged to succeed and expected to fail I made sure I trained well for a few weeks and decided to make my friends put their money where their mouths were! 

I set up a Virgin Giving page for 4 charities including CamKids, which seemed appropriate as a lot of the journey was through Cambodia, a place I had never been. It turned out to be a fabulous adventure and my friend and I were joined by 16 others on the Exodus arranged trip in late February 2018.  

Cambodia was amazing. Temples, Buddhist priests, sad history from the civil war and amazingly friendly people. People were healthy but not well off, and many children were not attending school. Motor cyclists often did not wear helmets and the agricultural output seemed too low for such a fertile and sun blessed place. 

So, the £7,000 support I got for the four charities will enable CamKids to use nearly £2,000 to help support kids who need education to attend school rather than sell postcards to tourists. It's a great cause and I was delighted that my holiday adventure also enabled me to help them. 

A big thank you to Phil and his generous supporters – thanks to his efforts and their generosity the money raised will cover the cost of educating a class of 30 children for six months. Put another way, the money we received will cover the entire seven years of primary education for 14 children! 

Whilst the children CamKids supports have little or no access to tourists due to their rural location, they do face the same financial pressures to help support their families that Phil mentions. By providing a good local school and removing the financial burden we can help to keep these children in education. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a wonderful result and one that will change these children’s lives forever. 

If you feel inspired by Phil’s story – get in touch and we can help you with setting up a charity giving site and provide information for your supporters. It costs just £10 to educate a child for a month and every penny donated is spent directly in helping children in Cambodia. 

JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/tccc

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

MyDonate: www.mydonate.bt.com/charities/camkids