We are regularly asked to help fund projects in Cambodia and 2 of our Trustees recently visited a very poor slum community. We have seen many appalling and heart-breaking situations in Cambodia and try not to get emotional at any of the locations we visit, but this stretched their resolve to its limit and we knew straight away that something had to be done to help. This is by far the poorest community CamKids is helping and much more needs to be done.
The community consists of two recycling "villages", where the inhabitants make their money from collecting cans and plastic. At least half of the young children had no clothes at all.
"The sad realisation was that the little ones followed us, talked to us, smiled and laughed with us but the older adolescents and young adults had no hope drive or passion in their eyes - it was devastatingly sad. The young children’s future is unmistakably mapped the same unless something is done".
However, finding the right way to help these people is not at all straightforward. Although these people are living in abject poverty, they are also under threat of eviction, which makes it difficult to put in facilities and resources. We are, again, working with our medical and dental partners, One-2-One and we will take it slowly at first, to ensure that we deal with the issues in the appropriate way. The first step has been to extend our medical programme to provide a regular clinic. As there are no suitable buildings on site, this has involved purchasing tarpaulin, chairs, tables and equipment for a temporary clinic area and also to provide a makeshift classroom, as the education situation is extremely poor. 1hr classes are now a regular event and we hope to be able to extend this in the future, with the cooperation of the community leaders and the Cambodian Authorities.
An extremely generous donor has agreed to fund the cost of purchasing tarpaulin and equipment for the temporary mobile clinic and classroom, but we need more donations to extend our work with this community and regular donors to fund the ongoing cost of the medicines.
If you are able to help in any way - every £1 will make a huge difference - please EMAIL US if you would like to become a regular donor or click on THIS LINK, to make a single donation. Please enter "Canalside" in the project box if you would like your money to be directed solely towards this project.
