5th Al Murray Golf Classic in aid of CamKids

The 5th Al Murray Golf Classic, to benefit CamKids, will be held at Effingham Golf Club on 15th July 2011. Due to some late cancellations, we have a few team / individual places available, which will be sold on a first come, first served basis. We also have a few tickets for the evening meal and entertainment only. Pictures of last year's event can be seen: Here.

If you are interested in taking part, or would like to register for next year's event, please email: golf@camkids.org.

The Walkers & Talkers - Across the Divide 40K Walk

CamKids would like to say a huge "Thank You" to all of the ladies who participated in the recent Walkers & Talkers - Across the Divide 40K Walk and raised £2,000 for CamKids.

"Yes, we made it, after 7 hours of exhausting walking in very difficult terrain – wooded, hilly, rocky, slippery, hot, sticky, and muddy walking. Worth every penny when we were greeted with our families and friends with champagne and picnics.

AND, it is even more worth while to see that we have raised approximately £6,000 for our three chosen charities: The Cambodian Children’s Charity, Pancreatic Cancer Action and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

We want to say an absolutely huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us through this venture. It is really appreciated.

With lots of love Louise, Lucinda, Davina, Diane, Elizabeth, Jayne, Julie and Maxine."

Donate to CamKids by Text Message

CamKids can now receive donations in the UK by text message thanks to Vodafone's partnership with JustGiving. Vodafone is covering JustGiving's 5% fee on donations for two years and donations can be made by mobile phone from any network. There are no hidden costs and CamKids will receive every penny of your donation. As we have absolutely no administration costs or overheads, this means that 100% of your donation will go directly to helping some of the World's poorest children (125%, if you are a UK taxpayer and agree to the addition of Gift Aid).

To make a donation by text, simply send a text message with CAMB20 plus the donation amount (£5 or £10) to 70070. Eg CAMB20 £10

The donation will be added to your next mobile bill. Follow the text instructions to allow us to claim an additional 25% back from the UK Government in Gift Aid, at no cost to you.

If you have any problems or would like to find out other ways to help CamKids, please EMAIL US.

CamKids on Facebook

Please visit the CamKids Facebook Page for up to date reports, photos and videos from some of our projects.

CamKids is funded entirely by donations from the general public and has absolutely no overhead, marketing or other costs - all of the services we need are provided by the Trustees or friends of the charity. Please spread the word by 'liking' our Page and adding us to your Profile.

Lakeside School at EYC

CamKids has partnered with an organisation named Empowering Youth in Cambodia ("EYC"), and has been providing funding since January 2010 to help build this project and expand their work. EYC has 3 schools in very poor (slum) communities around Phnom Penh which aim to develop strong young people and thereby help them escape the cycle of poverty. These schools have had a huge impact on the communities which they serve and are a great success.

The schools/community centers offer English language, computer skills, leadership, job placement, medical, dental, sport and art activities, as well as intervention to keep kids on track, such as family support and scholarships. In 2010 CamKids also started funding EYC’s medical program which is a great success and has served thousands of poor children and their families - providing much needed medical and dental care, as well as health training. CamKids also funds EYC's Community Organizer, Nareth, to connect the resources of the schools with the student’s families, as well as to build the capacity of their students and staff.

EYC’s founder Drew McDowell comments: "CamKids' help is appreciated in more ways that can be conveyed, since it has done so much good. They came with the intention of real partnership, asking questions, discussing ideas and have been a huge help to shape the organisation to become more effective, as well as connecting us with resources."

In January 2011 CamKids started to provide funding to cover the cost of operations for EYC’s Lakeside School. Located on the shore of a now filled-in lake (to make way for commercial and residential development), Lakeside School has been helping in this shanty-town community since 2008, and now is seeing many of the students through their transition from High School to University. Thanks to a base of talented and hardworking Student Team Leaders, Lakeside School has enjoyed great success with many programs under local leadership.

Lakeside has regular classes for English language and computer skills for their 120 students who live in the community around the school. However, extra-curricular activities are what really make the school special and are essential for building critical thinking and life skills. Lakeside offers training in various topics of leadership, Youth Legal Rights, Community Organizing, Health and Hygiene, IT, Yoga and Art, as well as a football team, a gym and aerobics club and a traditional dance group that performs for parties. The student team leaders volunteer to run the many activities, including the medical clinic on Saturday nights (medical professionals see an average of 40 patients per night) and trips to the dental university (where they receive free treatment thanks to CamKids funding of this project as well).

By creating a school in the heart of a poor community EYC has been on the frontline in the fight for child rights and CamKids is proud to play a key role in building strong and independent young people. EYC’s WEBSITE provides more detail on all of EYC’s programs and some stories about Lakeside School. The School has a very dynamic manager (former student) named Phearith, who has created a blog for the school, which can be viewed HERE.

Canalside Project

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.

Donation by Muirkirk Primary School

We recently received a cheque for over £400 from the Headmistress of Muirkirk Primary School, which the children raised during various events in 2010. This is an incredible effort from a school of only 102 pupils in a fairly deprived rural area of Scotland.

This money will be used to fund the teaching and other running costs for one year, at one of the 15 rural schools which CamKids funds and which are run by New Futures Organisation, in Takeo.

The CamKids Trustees would like to thank all of the children and their parents, as well as the headmistress and her teachers for their hard work and generosity. If you would like to help by sponsoring a school, a pupil or a college student or are interested in finding out more about any of our education projects, please email us.

CamKids 2010 Annual Report & Accounts

The Trustees of CamKids - The Cambodian Children's Charity, are pleased to report that the Charity's Annual Report and Accounts for 2010 have been filed with the Charity Commission well ahead of schedule.

A copy of the report and accounts can be downloaded from HERE.

Please direct any questions about these accounts to CamKids Finance

T-34 Featuring Al Murray The Pub Landlord is playing a one-off show in aid of CamKids

Al Murray The Pub Landlord swaps his bar stool for a drum stool to serve up a molotov cocktail of revolutionary jukebox tracks with his band, T-34, in aid of CamKids, The Cambodian Children's Charity.

Armed with an arsenal of killer covers from the 50's, 60's & 70's and fuelled on a diet of black bread, burgers and vodka, T-34's mission is to liberate the masses from the oppressive tyranny of pop fascism with straight ahead, no frills, good time, rock'n'roll.

The evening includes the Air Guitar Hero of the Soviet Union competition and classic rock from DJ Ric Blaxill. Bar until 1am.

To purchase tickets, please visit SeeTickets.

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 or tell your friends the details of your own personal fundraising site and the rest is taken care of, for you. 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).

CamKids has signed up to the popular JustGiving service, as well as the newer Virgin Money Giving and CharityGiving services, where you can also make single or regular donations.

Our JustGiving Page will give you some ideas of possible events. In the past year, 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

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.

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 £400, 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

Charity Giving: www.charitygiving.co.uk/camkids

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

Mobile Clinic goes to Battambang

We have just received the following report from Annie, one of the Directors of One-2-One, which provides free dental and medical treatment to the poor of Cambodia. CamKids is funding the MOBILE Swift projects which travels to remote parts of Cambodia to treat children who would otherwise not have access to any medical or dental care. Annie's report follows:

Thanks to Camkids, the MOBILE Swift went to Battambong from the 13th to the 17th December 2010. The team treated the deaf and blind children of the Krousar Thmey Foundation in the Provincial townships of Battambong and Sisophon.

The team comprised 13 dental students, 5 support staff from One-2-One and 2 dentists from Austalia - Dr Nathan and Dr Shu’an Hu. In total, the team treated 233 children. A typical day was as follows:

8:00AM – 5.00PM. Treated 69 children: 56 extractions, 129 fillings, 39 sealants, 19 Duraphat applications, 10 scaling (by hand), 82 silver fluoride treatments. Dispensed 250 tablets of Paracetamol, 690 tablets of Multivitamins, 135 tablets of Amoxicillin, 10 tablets of Ibuprofen and gave out 69 toothpaste/toothbrushes.

During this visit, One-2-One also ran health education classes for the local community, at the Krousar Thmey School in Battambang.

Classes were held every afternoon from 2pm till 4.30pm and were for teachers and teacher aides - ranging from 12 to 20 students at a time. Basic topics were covered included basic personal hygiene, fever control, control of diarrhoea, treatment of burns and oral hygiene. The teachers were very eager to learn and enjoyed the class discussion. The highlights were the many laughs had when practising basic first aid, wound care and stabilising broken bones.

The school was a very warm and inviting place. As a team we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The children and staff were excited to teach us sign language, they were very patient as we made many mistakes. At the end of our week at Battambang, both students and teachers asked when we would return. The head teacher asked if we could return every 6 months, so they are very keen to have us back. According to the teachers, all of the children were treated for their most urgent dental need. Dr Shu’An and Dr Nathan were both moved by the courage and the resilience of the wonderful children who had put up so much for so long. It is our hope that we will be able to return to focus on prevention care.

Most of the children had not had any dentistry before, due to the significant challenges of distance and their co-morbidity. The smiles on their face said it all. We felt thanked beyond measures. We felt honoured to be able to do what is, in our culture, a relatively simple procedure - yet, until we came, was out of reach. Now the children are pain free, able to concentrate at school, sleep well at night and enjoy their meals.

Thank you CamKids for making this trip happen.

CamKids and One-2-One are currently seeking donors to help fund the next phase of our rural dental health strategy. This involves equipping 2 nurses to travel to remote locations in order to give primary treatment (focusing on pain relief) to children who would not otherwise have access to any dental services. More serious cases would be reported back for future visits by the MOBILe team. Details of the proposal can be found HERE. The cost of equipment and initial supplies for 2 nurses is approximately £3,000 and the annual salary, travel, accommodation and food costs for both nurses will be approximately £7,000 per annum. The nurses will spend 10 days a month (half their time) in the provinces and the other half working in the Ta Kmao clinic or other community projects which CamKids is funding. It is expected that around 3,000 children in remote locations will be relieved from the terrible agony of dental pain, at a cost of just over £1 per child.

If you are are interested in making a donation to help us extend this extremely valuabe work, if you know any companies or organisations which might be interested or if you have dental or medical skills and are planning a trip to Cambodia and would like to join the team on some of the visits, please email us.

Everyone has seen an advert on a lamppost advertising a scrap car scam, but did you know that there is an ethical and environmental way to get rid of your unwanted car, whilst raising money for charity? CamKids has just partnered with Giveacar to launch an exciting new fundraising initiative that will pick up any vehicle, from anywhere in the UK for free.

If you have an unwanted car, Giveacar arranges for the free pick-up and disposal or auction of your vehicle, and a donation generated from the sale or scrap of the car is then directed to CamKids. Every car that is disposed of through the scheme is recycled to high environmental standards and could raise an average of £80.

Do you have a vehicle, in any condition, taking up space in your garage or drive? If so, why not use it to raise money for CamKids and support us to provide services for children in Cambodia? This month alone, generous donations of unwanted cars from the public will raise over £30,000 for UK charities. By raising awareness of this free and easy car donation service with friends and family, you can help us reach our fundraising goals this year.

To donate your scrap car to CamKids, simply call Giveacar on 020 0011 1664 and quote ‘The Cambodian Children’s Charity’ as your chosen charity. If you have any further questions about CamKids’ Giveacar appeal, please call the Giveacar team or see their website at: www.giveacar.co.uk.

CamKids Winter 2010 Newsletter

In our latest Newsletter we introduce our 2 new Cambodian fieldworkers, Nareth and Vannak, who will be heavily involved in new community development projects by CamKids. Building upon the medical, education and community support programmes which we have already put into place, this new direction for CamKids goes directly to the heart of the problems we see everyday in Cambodia, by helping whole communities to work together to solve their problems. A relatively small injection of funds into this type of project can yield enormous benefits and improve the life chances of the very poorest in Cambodian society.

The Newsletter also includes a roundup of some of our most recent projects and programmes.

To access the Newsletter, please click Here or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail. If you sign up to our Newsletter Here, you will receive your copy by e-mail every 6 months (your details will not be used for commercial or any other purpose).

Thank you once again to all of our donors and supporters, without whom none of this would have been possible.

With Best Wishes for the Holiday Season
The CamKids Trustees

EXTRA DATE - Al Murray Xmas Special "Compete For The Meat" Benefit Show for CamKids

DUE TO HIGH DEMAND FOR THE 8 DECEMBER SHOW - AL WILL BE PUTTING ON AN ADDITIONAL SHOW ON THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER.

CamKids' Patron, Al Murray, has some exciting news for our supporters:

Cheers! It's the Guv'nor here!

I am bringing my sold out, smash hit Edinburgh quiz show, "Compete For The Meat" to London for 2 Xmas Specials in aid of CamKids, at the George IV Pub in Chiswick on 8th & 9th December.

For tickets, please visit: www.seetickets.com/Tour/AL-MURRAY-S-COMPETE-FOR-THE-MEAT-XMAS-SPECIAL

Al Murray Xmas Special "Compete For The Meat" Benefit Show for CamKids

CamKids' Patron, Al Murray, has some exciting news for our supporters:

Cheers! It's the Guv'nor here!

I am bringing my sold out, smash hit Edinburgh quiz show, "Compete For The Meat" to London for an Xmas Special in aid of CamKids, at the George IV Pub in Chiswick on 8th December.

Only 60 tickets up for grabs - limited to two tickets per person, first come, first served!

Grab your tickets right now! Loads of prizes and surprises and a great raffle & auction!

Please contact: Gail Taylor gailt@avalonuk.com, for payment instructions.

Kais Medical Hut

Recently, 2 CamKids' trustees, who are still living in Cambodia, visited Kais Village with some sandpaper, pots of paint, rollers, brushes and 2 volunteers who were part of the original team that built the Medical Hut at the orphanage in 2006.

The Medical Hut is used daily by the now on site nurse and used by the doctor who still visits once a week to check on the babies, toddlers and older children. Whilst the inside of the Medical Hut has still retained the beautiful smell of freshly varnished timber, the outside had taken a battering over the years from the harsh weather conditions. The Directors of Kais asked that, if we could possibly find time to rejuvenate the tired exterior, they would greatly appreciate it. Sunny, one of the Directors of Kais, also mentioned that the Ministry of Health love the little Medical Hut and wanted to know where they could get one. Since it was imported from Estonia to London to Ipswich to Cambodia, it’s not that likely, which makes the maintenance even more imperative.

Moya and Lois, 2 volunteers who were here in 2006 helping with the original project, happened to be back in Cambodia for a month, bringing donations for CamKids projects and teaching at one of the centres CamKids helps to support. In fact, all paint and materials were bought with some of the money the ladies had brought from generous donors in Australia.

When Moya and Lois were told of the plan, they jumped at the idea of not only seeing the children again, but getting their hands dirty on some practical level.

The kids from Kais joined in and it was a great weekend, with the end result being a newly invigorated Medical hut. We hope it will serve Kais and its children for many years to come. Enjoy the photos.

NFO Farm Project

In January 2010 a small farm was started at NFO with money donated by Sorell school in Tasmania, Australia. Moya Sharpe a teacher at the school and supporter of CamKids has been working with the Sorell children to raise money for disadvantaged children in Cambodia.

The space available for farming at NFO is not large and so it had to be cleverly planned to make the most of the space available. There is now large chicken coup situated over one side of the existing pond. This houses a mixture of chickens in three separate areas - those for consumption and egg laying chickens. The excrement from the chickens that drops through the bamboo flooring gives nutrients to the pond below.

The pond is regularly pumped to oxygenate the water. (Pump also supplied through CamKids from another generous Australian donor). This involves running a pipe to the middle of the pond from another existing pond on adjacent land. There are now many more healthy fish in the pond.

A small pigsty has been added to the area. This is home to a sow donated by Kais Kids in Kampong Speu which CamKids helps support, and two more small sows.

A small vegetable garden has been put in place which grows all sorts of things from local herbs to morning glory and there are even a few banana trees.

The ultimate aim of the farm is to help NFO become more self sustainable. The farm won’t necessarily lower the cost of the food bill but is intended to supply better nutrition for the children and will provide invaluable vocational training for many at the Centre.

We think that the secret aim for Neville the director of the centre is to provide himself with a full English breakfast!

Bacon, eggs, tomatoes - not sure about growing baked beans though – good luck Nev!!

New School Building at Who Will Children's Village

In the summer of 2010 CamKids, along with a Hong Kong based charity called the Sakka Foundation, completed the building of a school, office, and toilet block at Who Will Village.

Who-Will Village is set up as a group of houses with 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen/dining/living area in each house. As the children have been learning English now for the past year it became clear that the lessons couldn’t continue in the common area of one of the houses, as it was too disruptive to the house and also too tight for space. Who-Will were also keen to involve the local community in the classes and this could obviously not be done in their homes. Also there was nowhere for the new village director Saroeun to do his work and keep all the files etc.

Therefore it was decided that a new school building was necessary, as it would not only be invaluable for Who-Will, but also the wider community. The school is situated away from the children’s homes and alongside the school is a football pitch (donated by CamKids' supporters Chris Dobson and Silje Hoyden), where the village children and children from the centre can play together. CamKids made a donation of $25,000 for the school building and the Sakka Foundation donated $5,000. The schoolhouse now consists of two large classrooms, one of which will eventually become a computer lab, a large office, storeroom and bathroom, which will also be a facility for a visiting doctor to treat the children.

Who-Will are absolutely delighted with the new building and the children can’t wait to get to their extra classes once Khmer School in the local village is finished. Half of the children attend Khmer School in the morning and half in the afternoon, so English classes are held in both a morning and afternoon session. Who-Will have a fabulous Cambodian lady to teach English and she is now supported by a growing number of visiting volunteers (one month minimum stay required).

The first classroom and the office were furnished with a generous donation from Tom Gillespie, a CamKids donor, a large water tank was donated by Swiss XI directly to WW and funds for the Pagoda over the adjacent fishpond, where the village kids can keep out of the sun while waiting for classes, was donated by Elizabeth Scott, Mika Street and their friends.

The school was blessed by the local monks in a ceremony in June, just after the building was completed and we are pleased to see that a few monks now attend the English classes, as do many of the local village children. Free English classes are always very popular here in Cambodia!

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.