New Project - Who Will Children's Village

The slideshow below shows the construction of the first house at a new Cambodian NGO, Who Will's Children's Village, which is supported by CamKids and which I visited on my recent trip to Cambodia.

The village will ultimately comprise 10 family houses and ancillary accommodation to enable the project to function as any normal local village community. Each house will have three children’s bedrooms, a supervisor’s suite of bedroom and en-suite shower room and a kitchen/living room.

Initially each of these will have a house mother with space for up to 12 children. The house mother will be responsible for bringing up her family as if their true mother. She will buy the food from the market, cook, clean and generally be their mother.

As the project evolves, the house mothers will be replaced by married couples with a maximum of 2 of their own children. They will be offered occupation rights to each house that will be conditional on them agreeing to “foster” up to 8 disadvantaged or orphaned children. These couples will probably be from poor local families so should have good connections in the area. Who Will will retain a supervisory role with a local Village Manager living in the village to ensure that the standard of nutrition, health, education and discipline matches the strict rules/code of conduct that will be established.

Ultimately, the directors of Who Will expect that this village will appear to be just another country village and it will be fully integrated into the community and the children will not carry the unjustified stigma of “coming from an orphanage”. Who Will’s role in the future management will likely entail subsidising food and education costs in addition to its general supervisory position.

CamKids is proud to be supporting this project, which is run by a board of directors in Cambodia, which includes a long-term friend of the charity and former Chairman of Sunrise Orphanage in Phnom Penh.

Mark Purser

CamKids Trustee

CamKids wins funding from Gulf For Good

Gulf for Good (G4G), is a charitable organisation based in Dubai, which organises international challenge events to raise money for worthwhile causes in the area in which the challenge takes place.

CamKids is pleased to announce that it has been selected by G4G as the recipient of the next event, The Great Asian Cycling Challenge, which takes place from 26 March to 4 April 2009 in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Starting at the ancient city of Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon), participants will ride through the heartland of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta on paved, small country roads along the flat river valley of the Co Chien River. More flat roads, with a few short small hills surrounded by shimmering rice paddies will take them to the border with Cambodia, via Temples and Khmer villages to the magnificent ruins of the Angkor Wat Temple complex. The last day will take the participants along an excellent route on dirt and sand tracks and rural paved road through typical Cambodian countryside.

This will be G4G's 24th challenge. The challenges have included trekking, cycling & kayaking adventures in Morocco, Egypt, India, Tanzania, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, the UAE, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Peru. So far, around 400 people of 30 different nationalities have taken part, ranging in age from 15 to 70. Over £700,000 has been raised for charities in the above and neighbouring countries.

For more details about the challenge, please follow THIS LINK.

Al Murray - Benefit for CamKids at The Brewery in London

LAST 50 TICKETS REMAINING @ £95 each plus VAT to CamKids fans and supporters, including food & booze (full price is £150).

Join us and The Pub Landlord – Al Murray for an afternoon of fun and Christmas cheer at the Brewery on Chiswell Street on Friday 5th December. Hosted by Dr Kevin Jones.

There will be a pints for the gents and a glass of white wine for the ladies!

Al's TV show, Happy Hour, has won a British Comedy award and a National Television award.

You and your guests are guaranteed an afternoon of fun and laughter with one of the UKs finest comedians.

We look forward to welcoming you on the day.

ALL HAIL TO THE ALE !

To book: call MBN Promotions on 0161 926 9569 or email sales@mbnpromotions.co.uk. Mention CamKids when you book, to receive the specially discounted price.

New Futures Organisation

During a recent visit to Cambodia, I spent a few days in Takeo, about 2 hours South-West of the capital Phnom Penh, to visit the New Futures Organisation (NFO), which CamKids is now supporting.

NFO consists of an orphanage for 55 children and a nearby Vocational Training and drop-in centre. Some of the children in the orphanage are in their teens and so the aim is to try to equip them with the necessary skills and training to find work when it is time for them to leave. Sponsorship has already been secured to fund the cost of putting some of the children through college, including medical training. However, many more long-term donors are needed to secure the futures of these children.

CamKids is now funding the monthly food costs for all of the children and is also making available our donation collection and payment systems to NFO, to allow them to receive donations in the UK, Australia and the US, without any deductions for administration costs or funds transfer fees. In addition, we have also extended our child sponsorship programme to the younger children at NFO and are helping to find sponsors for those children who are able to secure places at college.

NFO welcomes volunteers from all around the world with particular skills or just the enthusiasm to help with whatever is needed at the time and to help teach English to the children. At the Centre, there are 8 rooms for visitors and volunteers. Guests are charged $5 per night and this helps to cover some of the running costs of the orphanage and the Centre. Alternatively, volunteers can stay at one of the nearby guest houses. Reports from the volunteers have all confirmed what an enjoyable and fulfilling time they have had and many have returned in the following year to stay for longer.

If you would like to volunteer for a day, a week or a year, please contact: neville@newfuturesorganisation.com. If you would like to sponsor a child, a college student or support our work with NFO in any other way, please send an e-mail to sponsorship@camkids.org.

Mark Purser
CamKids Trustee