Items needed for Container to Cambodia

In Spring 2008, CamKids will be constructing a large Nursery building at the main orphanage which CamKids supports (more important news on this project shortly). In addition, we are in the process of renovating a building to be used as a school for 120 children, who have never received any education (see Weblog Entry) in their lives, as well as a number of other projects.

As some of the materials are not available in Cambodia, we will be sending a container out in January 2008. We will also be taking this opportunity of filling the container with other items which are difficult or expensive to source in Cambodia, such as medical equipment and supplies for the Medical Centre. As the container will be going anyway, any additional items we can cram in, will cost us nothing to transport.

In addition to the things which people might have at home (cotton children’s clothes, durable toys etc), we need some specialist medical / physiotherapy items for the new nursery and items for the new school. If you have any specialist contacts who might be able to assist, we would really appreciate it if you could forward this post to them as well as circulating it to friends / family / contacts / club members etc.

The full list of items required can ge found HERE.

The list is not exhaustive and we have probably left some things off which would be very useful for one of our projects. Please feel free to contact us by e-mail (contact@camkids.org) if you have anything to offer, have any questions or if you would like us to send a ‘formal’ request for items, where this might be required by your company.

As we are all volunteers in full-time work, It would far easier for us if the items could be delivered to us in London or West Sussex, but we could also arrange collection of items in London (easiest), Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire and might be able to arrange collection of large amounts or much needed medical other equipment from elsewhere – please Contact Us.

If you are unable to provide any of the items, but would like to help in other ways, such as making a donation or taking part in a sponsored event to raise money for the charity, please Contact Us for more information.

Recent Trip to Cambodia by Trustees

Trustees Amber and Benita were in Cambodia last month for 10 days to follow up on current and future CamKids projects. This included the signing off of the sustainable, eco farming project at Kais with the Cambodian Rural Development Team and the planning of a new nursery to be built by the British Army in February 2008.

Amber and Benita visited the dentist the children at Kais receive basic free dental treatments from, a children’s surgical centre, a burns rehabilitation centre, an orphanage in Phnom Penh and a number of families living in poor rural areas.

They also managed to fit in four days at Kais Village Orphanage and spent lots of time with the children currently being sponsored there. The children are doing well and are happy and thriving. The babies who were poorly earlier in the year have gained weight and strength and are benefitting from a good ratio of one Nanny to two babies. Lots of new babies have arrived at Kais - many of them are very small and need feeding up and lots of TLC - we are looking forward to seeing great improvements in their health too.

Amber and Benita were delighted to be able to give the children gifts from their sponsors, new pyjamas and games and some much needed terry nappies, bottle sterilisers, blankets and baby grows for the babies. They helped the children write letters and draw pictures for their sponsors, took them swimming, taught them some new games and gave them plenty of cuddles!

Two new Project Trust volunteers had arrived a week before Amber and Benita’s visit. They will be spending a year at Kais teaching the children and local villagers English. The girls have raised funds and volunteered their gap year and will have the experience of their lifetime. The girls were acclimatising to the heat, the Asian diet, the basic living conditions and having to teach children with limited English. CamKids wishes them all the best. They have fantastic shoes to fill as Debbie and Esme, the previous volunteers, did an incredible job last school year and are to be highly commended for their commitment to the children.