Fundraising For CamKids

These days, raising money for charity doesn't need to involve rattling a can or trawling round your friends asking them for the £5 they promised you months ago. With online fundraising services, you only need to email, Tweet or post the details of your own personal fundraising site on Facebook and the rest is taken care of. These services charge a small fee, but they also reclaim the 28% in Gift Aid for us, which means that, in most cases, we receive around 120% of the amount donated (for UK taxpayers) and involves very little administration work for us.

CamKids has signed up to the popular JustGiving service, as well as Virgin Money Giving, BT's MyDonate and other popular services, where you can also make single or regular donations.

Our JustGiving Page will give you some ideas of possible events. In the past, CamKids supporters from all around the world have set up pages for the following events:

Marathons

Kick Boxing Event

Bug Eating Competition

Birthdays

Weddings

In Memory

Paragliding

Skydiving

Kilimanjaro Climbs

Ultramarathon

Beard Shaving

Cycling across the USA

Fun Runs

Some people also set up fundraising pages before or after a trip to Cambodia, to let their friends know what they are doing, how they have been affected by the country and how they can help the children. If you are thinking of travelling to Cambodia, we can agree on a specific project or programme which you money will fund, so that you can report back to your supporters on how the funds were spent. Remember, CamKids have absolutely no administration or overhead costs and so we can guarantee that 100% of the money you raise will go directly to helping the Cambodian children.

How about you - why not set up a fundraising page today? A few pounds from all of your friends could make a huge difference to the lives of the children who benefit from our programs. £1 will pay for the dental treatment for a child in a rural village, who would not have access to such treatment and can relive them from the pain of tooth decay and infection. If you can raise £450, this will allow us to run a rural school in Takeo for a year.

JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/tccc

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

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

If you need any assistance, or would like some other fundraising target ideas, please email us.

Chbar Chros School Blessing

On 22 March, our new Community School at Chbar Chros, in Kampong Speu Province was officially opened and blessed by monks from the local monastery. This project is part of our MEND (Medical, Education, Nutrition, Development) initiative for the area and will shortly be followed by a pre-school facility and a medical centre. It was a truly memorable day for everyone concerned. We were treated to a series of dances performed by the talented children at HAP orphanage in the beautiful costumes which CamKids' donors funded, as well as 2 songs, specially composed by the children and their teacher in honour of the new school and CamKids and a number of speeches written by the children, the teacher and the elders of the village.

It was a wonderful day and we were delighted to be able to welcome our Patron, Al Murray, as well as Mark Augustyn and Adam Booker, who work tirelessly in supporting Al to raise large amounts of money for CamKids throughout the year. We were also really happy to be able to bring along a bus load of Cambodian and expatriate CamKids supporters from Phnom Penh. Enforcing the 'no drinking before the ceremony' rule on the bus was challenging, but the day went off without any hitches and Dom managed to keep everyone under control. The same cannot be said for the return journey!

On our way to the ceremony, we dropped in on a local government school, where teachers and pupils of Sorell school in Tasmania had raised money to purchase playground equipment for the school. Again, it was wonderful to be able to have long time CamKids supporter, Moya Sharpe, there for the ceremony, where we also donated 40Kg of children's clothes, organised by Gill Fryer in Victoria.

We were all very moved by the reception we received at both schools, the speeches from the local chiefs and elders of the community, the dancing and the songs sung by the children. At last the villagers at Chbar Chros have a school for their children - something that they have never had in this area, even before the Khmer Rouge took over in the mid-1970's. The look of pride on the faces of the elders of the village were all that was needed to assure us that they will continue to work in partnership with CamKids to make the school a success.