Al Murray CamKids Golf Classic Fooore

On a miserable day in Surrey on the 24th of September, an amazing event occurred. The fourth annual Al Murray CamKids Golf Day was held at Effingham Golf Club. If you were to believe Al’s rhetoric, we had some of the world’s smallest men playing as well as some of the world’s oldest men and even a couple of pickled eggs joined in, one of whom took second place on the day. The entertainment was fantastic and was only matched by the generosity of all who attended a very special day.

In pouring rain, the golfers made their way out to their respective tees in surprisingly high spirits. Even given the weather conditions, the golf was actually, generally of a higher standard than last year. The cold and rain had failed to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm as they returned to the clubhouse eager for a shower and a beer, not necessarily in that order.

There were many financial forfeits incurred throughout the evening for crimes against golf. A memorable one was a golfer fined for, after having three attempts to get out of a bunker, actually picking the ball up and throwing it out! Shameful! Thankfully his teammates were on hand to report the incident and cost him some money.

It was an evening of first class entertainment as Al weaved his usual magic and insulted just about everyone in the room. Several regular teams were unavoidably unable to attend this year but actually sent through donations in their absence, which we greatly appreciate, and those who were able to attend were incredibly generous as Al gently coaxed money from everyone. The end product resulted in an absolutely amazing profit on the day of over £13,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our deepest thanks go out to:

Al, our Patron, for his tireless work on the day and for his invaluable ongoing support

Our volunteers - Gail, Lisa, Adam, Big Bob, Louise, Win, Ruby and Sam.

Steve Hoatson and all the staff at Effingham Golf Club

The golfers and friends of the charity who could not make the day and yet still donated

All our donors – Fullers, Cadburys, Brian May, Nicky Clarke, Phil Collins, Mark Hughes at the Real Wine Company, Warehouse, La Trompette, Conran’s Bluebird Café, Michael Nadra’s restaurant in Chiswick, Theory, Adam Booker, RAF Cranwell, Snappy Snaps Chiswick, Charlottes Bistro, Cote Brasserie, Chiswick Computers, Melbury’s, Maken Bros Chiswick, Big Jim’s Big Trims, Lauren Fleet, Francesca Murray, Pete Kovacs, Craig Birch, Elemis, Ark, Love Film, Space NK, Club Petit Pierrot, Nicolas in Wimbledon, Westwood Rocks Wimbledon, Zecca Chiswick, Emma Bridgewater, Jeanne Clenet, Pop School and Stage Academy, Pilates Life, John Caiger, Richard Collins, Gardenia Wimbledon, Cath Kidson Wimbledon, Joanne Pinkess, Joules Wimbledon, Smith Bros Wimbledon, Lochfyne Fishmongers Wimbledon, Wimbledon Books and Music, who generously gave prizes for the golfers, the raffle and the auction, without which we would not have had the facility to raise the money we did and, finally......

the golfers, without whom there would be no golf day! SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!

The CamKids Trustees

CamKids and One-2-One SMILE Project

CamKids and One-2-One have embarked on another ambitious, but incredibly essential and effective community health development project in Kampong Speu Region. The following short report and accompanying photos were sent to us by one of the directors of One-2-One. Reports of progress on the project will follow as it progresses.

Kampong Speu is the first community for the CamKids SMILe project. We believe this is the first for Cambodia and is another example of successful collaboration between One-2-One and CamKids.

The area is about 1 ½ hours from Phnom Penh and passes through beautiful scenery, which belies the hardship of the people in this community. The nearest Government health clinic is 25 km away, with no public transport and the only moto belongs to the Village Chief. All the villagers we spoke to have never been out of their community. Phnom Penh is another world to them.....

This trip was to gauge community interest and to meet with the Cambodian stakeholders of this community - the Village Chiefs and the local village health care volunteer, as well as villagers themselves, so that we can explain what we hope to do and involve them in the planning of service delivery. In the photos, you can see the One-2-One team lead by Dr Callum explaining and discussing what we hope to do and listening to them, to understand what their needs are and how we achieve the best outcome.

We also set out to have a look at what the dental situation is like and make some friends - show the mums and the children that dentist are friends. For many, seeing foreigners is a first, so it is important for them to see the MOBILE chairs and what the examination and treatment activity may look like when we come back with a larger service delivery team - this created a real buzz in the community. They are excited about the training and the integrated way that we plan to help and work with them. Their faces beamed when we told them that we would run training courses on how to keep healthy - it was a very happy day for all concerned!

We will be back in October for a needs assessment trip and focus group interviews to better understand what the dental and medical needs are and what the pattern of feeding is for the preschoolers, so that we can better educate the mothers and the health care volunteers. This will be a week long visit. During this time our staff will live in the village and be part of village life. In November we will be back with training sessions and in December our service team will commence work with the assistance of the village mums, health care volunteers and community leaders, who we will have trained to work along side us - watch this space.

We are all really proud of this project - a great example of CamKids, One-2-One and our donors working together in partnership for the sake of the children of Cambodia. If you would like to find out more or if you have medical skills and are planning a trip to Cambodia and would like to join the team on some of the visits, please email us.