CamKids News Weblog

CCC Staff Annual Retreat 2018

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 11:00:00 +0000

In September, all CamKids teachers and other staff took part in a 5 day trip to sights in some of the North-Western Provinces of Cambodia such as Pursat, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey, Oddor Meanchey, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom.

The purpose of the trip was to thank the teachers and staff who have been working very hard throughout the year and encourage them to keep up their great work for the children.

This was the 5th annual trip for the CamKids family and it was such a great adventure for them to explore the historical and tourist sites in Cambodia. They were happy and excited to get to know those places which they only used to hear in songs or history books but could now see with their own eyes.

The teachers said, without CamKids, they would not have had the opportunity of visiting such places in their lifetime.

You can sponsor a student at CCC from as little as £10 per month, which covers all costs. Email us or set up a sponsorship through PayPal below:

Sponsorship Options

Gift Aid Eligible?

A visit by Liger school students to CCC

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:40:00 +0000

The following was written by one of the students at Liger Leadership Academy:

On August 30th 2018, 18 students from Liger Leadership Academy, Phnom Penh came to visit CamKids’ CCC School. It was a marvelous experience for us to interact with the students at the school. During the first part of the evening, we did some networking to get to know more about each other and share experiences.

The other main purpose was to help improve the students’ English skills. To do that, we shared tips and techniques in the Literacy field. To add more excitement to our activities, we played a game in the second part of the evening. During this part, we had a lot of fun and seemed to get closer to each other. The game that we played is called Charades. It is a type of game where we act out the words that we see on the paper, and more importantly, we are not allowed to make a sound. During the game, we had a lot of fun and we helped each other. As a result, the students seemed more confident and comfortable working with all of us. That made us extremely satisfied.

We wrapped up the day by having our technology teacher, Cindy, introduce herself and give a brief talk about her college life in America. She talked about studying Computer Science as a female student and the classes she took in college. She also answered questions about Computer Science and technology from CCC students. The CCC students seemed so eager to know us and they asked us a lot of good questions. In conclusion, it was a wonderful opportunity to work with them and it was such a memorable experience.

You can sponsor a student at CCC from as little as £10 per month, which covers all costs. Email us or set up a sponsorship through PayPal below:

Sponsorship Options

Gift Aid Eligible?

Story written by Sandy Flinn - A volunteer from Australia

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:43:00 +0000

Volunteering at CamKids’ Community School was an experience beyond expectations. This is where the real culture of Cambodia can be found, untouched by tourism and development.

CamKids' students are eager to learn English and are very well behaved. I taught English using real objects, drawings, action songs, written and verbal words.

The students particularly enjoyed learning English through ESL action songs which I played on my phone and Bluetooth speaker.

I brought other resources along such as photocopies of worksheets that could be transferred to the whiteboard, coloured paper to teach colours, blue tac and small photo albums of family and life in Australia.

I am not a qualified teacher but have many years experience working as a School Support Teacher and easily transitioned to teaching English mainly because there were no behavioural issues.

If you have ever considered volunteering, bring a friend and help enhance future prospects of Cambodian children. CamKids’ Community School would really appreciate your assistance.

The Village Festival

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 09:00:00 +0000

After the rice harvest finished last week, the villagers of Chbar Chros organized a village festival in order to thank the spirits who took good care of their crops.

The celebration took place at CCC school and our students were invited to join too. Food such as Cambodian noodles, bread, and soup made of curried chicken was donated by the villagers.

It was particularly great to see our younger children having fun! I observed that the young children are growing up so well, respecting each other and their parents and teachers and also wanting to help in whatever small way they can in the community.

Sophak Phorn - Project Manager

Phil's Fabulous Ride

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 25 May 2018 15:29:00 +0000

We at CamKids are constantly surprised and touched by the kindness and generosity of people. Challenged by his sceptical friends to “get on his bike” Phil Moses did just that – and it wasn’t an easy challenge - cycling some 500 plus miles from Bangkok to Saigon and passing through Cambodia on the way. Phil supported four charities and we were fortunate that he chose CamKids as one of the four. This is his story:

As a 50+ non-cyclist and having decided to join a friend on a cycling trip from Bangkok to Saigon, many of my friends thought I was nuts. So, having been challenged to succeed and expected to fail I made sure I trained well for a few weeks and decided to make my friends put their money where their mouths were!

I set up a Virgin Giving page for 4 charities including CamKids, which seemed appropriate as a lot of the journey was through Cambodia, a place I had never been. It turned out to be a fabulous adventure and my friend and I were joined by 16 others on the Exodus arranged trip in late February 2018.

Cambodia was amazing. Temples, Buddhist priests, sad history from the civil war and amazingly friendly people. People were healthy but not well off, and many children were not attending school. Motor cyclists often did not wear helmets and the agricultural output seemed too low for such a fertile and sun blessed place.

So, the £7,000 support I got for the four charities will enable CamKids to use nearly £2,000 to help support kids who need education to attend school rather than sell postcards to tourists. It's a great cause and I was delighted that my holiday adventure also enabled me to help them.

A big thank you to Phil and his generous supporters – thanks to his efforts and their generosity the money raised will cover the cost of educating a class of 30 children for six months. Put another way, the money we received will cover the entire seven years of primary education for 14 children!

Whilst the children CamKids supports have little or no access to tourists due to their rural location, they do face the same financial pressures to help support their families that Phil mentions. By providing a good local school and removing the financial burden we can help to keep these children in education. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a wonderful result and one that will change these children’s lives forever.

If you feel inspired by Phil’s story – get in touch and we can help you with setting up a charity giving site and provide information for your supporters. It costs just £10 to educate a child for a month and every penny donated is spent directly in helping children in Cambodia.

JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/tccc

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

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

Why is attendance at our CCC school so high?

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:08:00 +0000

Most people outside of Cambodia probably don’t realise that student absenteeism in State schools is extremely common, while at our CCC school our students hardly ever miss a class.

Unlike in the West, absenteeism is rarely due to the students not wanting to attend, but to ill health or social and economic pressures on their families. Children often miss classes for long periods as they are required to help their parents with family duties such as rice transplanting or harvesting.

At our CCC school, we have created a partnership with the community which not only provides a creative and high quality education which follows the Cambodian syllabus, but we also include other initiatives such as:

Providing medical and dental treatment, which reduces absences due to illness;
Free provision of school supplies - unlike in State schools, we make sure that all of our students have sufficient study materials;
Follow up with family - any absences result in the family being contacted to find out the reasons and, if possible, resolving the issues so that the child can return to school;
Unlike in many State schools, our teachers are always punctual and deliver high quality lessons to the students, free of charge.

Again, we would like to thank all of our sponsors and supporters for your donations to help these students receive a life-changing education. Contact us if you are interested in becoming a sponsor - just £10 per month provides a full education for a child.

2017 Report & Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 15:11:00 +0000

The CamKids Trustees are pleased to report that our Annual Report and Accounts for 2017 have been filed with the Charity Commission and can be downloaded from HERE.

We would like to thank all of our donors and supporters, without whom we would not be able to help some of the world's poorest children.

If you have any questions about these accounts, please contact CamKids Finance

The biodigester

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:29:00 +0000

Our biodigester is a renewable energy source, producing methane from cow manure to generate gas for cooking and lighting.

It was built at CCC in 2014, funded by students from the Liger Leadership Academy in Phnom Penh, who raised the money to have it installed as part of their renewable energy project.

Not having to buy gas for CamKids staff cooking, saves around $140 per year, which may not sound like a lot but is the cost of educating a child at our school for a year.

Families work on a rota system to bring 20 kg of cow manure every day to put in the biodigester. This produces gas for 3 onsite staff to cook their food.

As an added bonus, the waste from the biodigester is excellent nutrient rich organic fertilizer for our veggie garden.

Winter 2017-18 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 17:00:00 +0000

As reported last year, we are now concentrating on the development of our CCC school and other MEND projects in Kampong Speu Province, which are 100% controlled by CamKids and where we believe that we can use donors’ funds most efficiently.

We are pleased to report that the process of transformation was completed by the end of 2017 and we are looking forward to focusing all of our efforts on improving the quality of education, health and opportunities for the children and the villagers supported by these projects, through your continued support.

Our decision was given a huge boost by the unexpected visit of HM King Sihomani of Cambodia to our CCC Project in July (see Page 2 of the Newsletter). You can see a video of the visit here.

Please click on This Link and take a look at our latest Newsletter which focuses on the King's visit as well as those of other volunteers and organisations during the year. If you like what we are doing, why not sponsor a child at the school through a regular donation - £10 per month covers the full costs of one of our schoolchildren.

Remember, CamKids has no administration or fundraising costs - only Cambodians receive funds from the charity. Every penny you donate therefore directly benefits the children in Cambodia. Your support is critical to our continuing aid to many thousands of children and their families.

If you need an incentive to stick to that New Year's resolution or just want to set yourself a personal challenge for 2018, why not set up a Fundraising Page for CamKids. Any donation, however small, will help us provide long term support for some of the world's most vulnerable children.

Finally, we would like to thank all of our donors and supporters and wish you the very best for 2018.

The CamKids Trustees

To access the Newsletter, please click This Link or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail.

Please consider making a donation to help these desperately poor children and their families.

If you are in the UK, you can text CAMK13 £10 to 70070 to make a £10 donation (or change to £5, £3 etc). Even a small donation of a few pounds from all of our supporters will make a huge difference. Remember, we do not have any overheads, so 100% of your donation goes to helping the children.

Alternatively, go to www.bit.ly/singdonation or www.bit.ly/regdonation to make a single or regular credit or debit card donation in £, $ and A$ or PayPal to pay in any currency through PayPal (all cards accepted).

Thank you

The CamKids Trustees

Khmer Sight Perform Miracles!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 13:05:00 +0000

A few weekends ago, the Khmer Sight team visited our CCC School and Clinic, where we had assembled over 250 elderly villagers to have their vision tested, particularly for cataracts.

60 villagers were identified as needing treatment, but only 33 agreed to be taken to Phnom Penh (for most of them, their first visit to the Capital) and treated at the Khmer Sight free clinic (see previous post).

I met a number of the villagers after their operation and they were so grateful to have been given back their sight.

They promised to spread the word to those who were afraid of undergoing treatment and we are planning on extending the search to the wider community around our project in early 2018.

A huge thanks to all the team at Khmer Sight and also a special mention for Keith and the children at LIGER School in Phnom Penh, who helped with translation, comforting and reassuring the villagers and accompanying them when back in PP.

Also a huge thank you to the surgeons and opthalmists from Newcastle, England who came to Cambodia, self-funded and in their own time.

By Royal Appointment!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 16:44:00 +0000

Everyone at CamKids is incredibly proud and honoured to announce that King Sihamoni visited our CCC School and other MEND projects earlier this year, as reported on the King's Facebook Page.

The King gave a very moving speech and was given a tour of the classrooms where he saw classwork, paintings and drawings lining the walls.

The history and ethos of CamKids’ integrated MEND approach was explained to him and he was particularly interested in our dental program for all of the children.

The King thanked CamKids for helping his countrymen and the Royal Palace team provided breakfast, t-shirts, scarves, books and pens and some money to every student.

Registering new students at Chbar Chross

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 18:52:00 +0000

Fundraising for CamKids Without any Effort

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:34:00 +0000

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. It doesn't even require you to get up out of your chair, if you don't want to! With online fundraising services such as Justgiving, 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 25% 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 well-known JustGiving service, as well as Virgin Money Giving, BT's MyDonate and other popular services, where you can also make single or regular donations. Fundraisers can be located anywhere in the world and funds can be received in a number of currencies. You don't need to sign up for a Marathon or even pour a bucket of cold water over your head (although you are welcome to, if you want). Just tell your friends and family that you want to support CamKids in helping some of the poorest children in the world - we can even supply some standard text for you to use and to provide you with pdf factsheets of our projects to forward to your sponsors.

If your friends and family do need an extra reason to part with their money, our JustGiving Page has some possible fundraising suggestions and will also give you an idea what can be done with the money you raise. In the past, CamKids supporters from all around the world have set up pages for the following events:

Marathons

Birthdays

Weddings

Skydiving
Bug Eating

Climbing Kilimanjaro

Beard Shaving
Kick Boxing

Cycling through Asia

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 your money will fund, so that you can report back to your supporters on how the money was spent. Remember, at CamKids we have absolutely no administration or overhead costs and so we can guarantee that 100% of the money you raise for us will go to helping the Cambodian children.

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 pay for a teacher in 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.

CAM API Medical Company - Visit to CCC School

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 08:21:00 +0000

It is rare to see businesses in Cambodia taking such a proactive role in engaging with rural communities, which is why we were so pleased to be contacted by an HR Manager from Cam API Medical Co Ltd, a local company based in Kandal Province. The company is a manufacturer and wholesaler specializing in the production and export of medical and infection control apparel. They expressed to us that a group of senior management staff were interested in visiting our CCC school to learn more about the project and how they could get involved. We therefore arranged a visit for them to come and see our school.

Before the visit, Cam API asked us what would be the best way to support the school. With the new academic year starting in November, we suggested that the provision of study supplies would be a great help to our students. We were therefore extremely grateful for the generous donation we received from them when they came to visit, which included text books, back packs, pencils, erasers and art books.

The visitors were given a tour of the classrooms and medical building, and had the opportunity to talk with the students and teachers. Following the tour, each of the students and teachers received a cash donation, which they were all very grateful for. The delegation was also provided with printed information about our GRADE project, which aims to provide sponsorship for an entire year group at the school and included a sample of our GRADE friends report and background information on CCC school. The company’s HR manager said he would look into the possibility of making school uniforms for the school.

The visit was a great success and we would like to thank the company for their interest and generous donations - we look forward to developing an ongoing relationship between CamKids and Cam API.

The Teachers at our CCC School

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 15:30:00 +0000

CamKids is extremely lucky to have a number of gifted and dedicated teachers working for us at our CCC School – not always the easiest thing to do when you’re so far from a town - or a sealed road - or electricity! Our teachers are vastly experienced and totally dedicated to the children by providing the best education they possibly can. We spoke to some of them, to find out their hopes for the future.

Probably our most experienced teacher is 62-year-old Sath Kry, from Tropaing Lorpeak village in Kampong Speu. He is married with two grown-up children. He was formerly deputy director of Tropaing Lorpeak primary school from 1981-2013, and has now been working at CCC since October 2013. He says the reason he works at CCC School is “because I want to help teaching the children in this community, as it is poor and most of the kids never go school.” He goes on: “I want to share my knowledge to kids and don’t want to spend my time uselessly. Moreover, I want to have some additional income to support my family.”

Sath Kry says the differences between CCC School and public schools is vast: “At CCC School, the academic discipline is strict - all the teachers come to teach regularly and on time, complete all the requirements from Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport; they focus on kids’ behaviour, morality, hygiene, health care and school environment. At public schools, some teachers don’t pay attention on their teaching and they are not willing to do the job. They don’t come to teach frequently and don’t follow up the students who are always absent. Hardworking teachers are not appreciated or rewarded.” He says his ambition is to see all the children who are studying at CCC School have “a bright future and become a human resource for Cambodia’s future development.” He goes on: “I also hope that all my work will contribute to the better lives of those children and join hands to build the human resources in Cambodia. I also want to see all the teachers at CCC have better living too.”

Sixty-four-year-old Thav Sophath from Ork Yom Village in Kampong Speu is married and has eight children. He was a former school director of Ork Yom primary school from 1988-2013 and has been working at CCC since August 2014. He says he wants the children at CCC “to be knowledgeable, educated and have a good future. Earlier, there was no school and the children here never got an education.” He continues: “I don’t want to bury my knowledge and I want to share it with the children.” He also sees profound differences between CCC and public schools: “All the students here at CCC are truly competent to jump up the grade, but at public school, the students just finished the year and go up.” And, he adds, “all students and teachers respect the school discipline and good behaviour.”

Koy Sina, who is 28 years old and from Kbal Krolach village in Kampong Speu is married with a one-year-old son. She has been working at CCC since Oct 2013 and is also a kindergarten teacher at Tompoung Primary School. She loves teaching the kids, who she says are very disciplined. Sina says she likes teaching the poor and disadvantaged kids “who have less opportunity”. She loves the school, because it offers “a good quality of education and the school wants the quality rather than quantity.” Moreover, she adds, “the school supports the study materials, uniforms, health care and a tooth brushing program.” Her ambition for the children is that “they will be knowledgeable, moral, show good behaviour and become good citizens. I wish all the children be successful in their life and have a bright future.”

Finally, 28-year-old Hong Him is actually from Chbar Chros village, where the school is located. He has been working at CCC since 2009, over seven years, and was the first teacher before CCC school officially opened in March 2012. He had originally been teaching without pay for about three years because he pitied the kids who were eager to learn but had no school. “I was inspired by the elder people who want to see a proper school was built for young generation, that why I decided to teach without paying while my family faced financial problems too.” He has very definite ideas about what he wants for his pupils. “I want to help the children in my own community to have knowledge. I want to help CCC becomes an outstanding school where the children can get a good quality of education. And I want to help my community to have a better standard of living.” He likes the fact that all the teachers are dedicated in teaching and are in school regularly. “Both staff and teachers really pay attention to the children’s education, and all of the community and the parents are active participants in what we do.”

We are dependent upon regular donors to support our schools programme. From just £5 per month, you can fund the cost of an education for a child - £20 per month gives a valuable education to 4 children. Please go to www.bit.ly/regdonation or contact us for more information.

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 09 May 2017 13:36:00 +0000

The CamKids Trustees are pleased to report that our Annual Report and Accounts for 2016 have been filed with the Charity Commission and can be downloaded from HERE.

We would like to thank all of our donors and supporters, without whom we would not be able to help some of the world's poorest children.

If you have any questions about these accounts, please contact CamKids Finance

Australian School visit to CCC

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 16:00:00 +0000

A school in New South Wales in Australia, the Kinross Wolaroi School, has been supporting our CCC school in Kampong Speu province for a number of years through our GRADE program.

This support includes contributions from every student, their parents and teachers to buy school supplies, uniform and bicycles for the students at CCC.

This year two teachers led 10 Kinross students to volunteer at the CCC school, where they learned about the living condition of the sponsored students.

The students were fully immersed in the daily routines of the children - teaching English, playing sports, games, eating meals together and experiencing the lives of the villagers in the CCC community.

It was a tremendously valuable trip for all concerned, and we thanks the teachers and the students for their continuing commitment to our work in Cambodia.

Winter 2016-17 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 11:30:00 +0000

2016 was a turbulent year, for many reasons. For CamKids, the effects of a falling pound, as a result of the UK's Brexit vote, has resulted in a fall in our income and reserves of around 15%. Following a review of our funding objectives and effectiveness, we are now focusing on our own CCC school and other community projects in Kampong Speu, which are highlighted in our Winter 2016/17 Newsletter. We now have six full-time Khmer teachers and a total of 382 students studying at CCC school from kindergarten to grade 6.

Our aim is to run CCC as a full-capacity primary school - two classes at the seven grades we offer, i.e. a total of 480 pupils enrolled. To be able to achieve this long term aim we need to build two more classrooms and it is also our ambition to build a library that will be a valuable resource for the children and the village – this is something for the future when the financial situation is more stable.

Please click on the link below and take a look at our latest Newsletter, which focuses on CCC School and our associated community projects. If you like what we are doing, why not set up a regular donation - no amount is too small and just £5 per month will achieve a great deal in Cambodia. Remember, CamKids has no administration or fundraising costs - only Cambodians receive funds from the charity - every penny you raise therefore gets directly to the people in Cambodia. Your support is critical to our continuing aid to many thousands of children and their families.

If you need an incentive to stick to that New Year's resolution or just want to set yourself a personal challenge for 2017, why not set up a Fundraising Page for CamKids. Any donation, however small, will help us provide long term support for some of the world's most vulnerable children.

We wish you all a happy and successful 2017 and hope you enjoy the Newsletter.

The CamKids Trustees

To access the Newsletter, please click This Link or Contact Us and we will send you a copy by e-mail.

Please consider making a donation to help these desperately poor children and their families.

Thank you

The CamKids Trustees

Medical and Dental Programs at CCC

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 16:00:00 +0000

CamKids has been working in partnership with the medical charity One-2-One for a number of years. At CamKids' MEND (Medical, Educational, Nutritional and Development) project at the CCC school in Kampong Speu province, One-2-One sends a dental team every month to our community clinic and a medical team every two months.

In many parts of Cambodia dental care isn’t available, or is simply unaffordable. Our team takes mobile equipment into the community and on arrival sets up dental chairs (up to 8 at a time) to provide treatment and education to the local people. We concentrate on preventative dentistry, including fluoride varnishing, silver diamine fluoride and oral health education. We also undertake any necessary extractions and restoration work.

Our medical teams take mobile equipment into the CCC school and set up separate medical stations for triage, consultation and a pharmacy. Medical care includes treatment for a range of common injuries and illnesses such as dengue fever, acute infections, diarrhea, common colds, typhoid and malaria. Each patient who visits the medical clinic proceeds through the triage, consultation and pharmacy stations.

We also provide health and hygiene education to adults and children and basic health care including, height and weight measurement, de-worming, nail cutting, wound care and basic vaccinations.

Although CamKids employs Theavy, a full time nurse at CCC, it is invaluable to have a larger medical team visit every two months to deal with more complex cases. Between August and December 2016, the medical team saw 480 people, and provided them with vital care and education.

Meanwhile, the dental team saw a massive 711 patients pass through their chairs. That’s more than 700 brighter smiles, more confident and happier people out there in the world.

It is hard work, and it is slow work. But it is absolutely vital that we do it.

If you would like to support our work, please contact us.

Mud Glorious Mud!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 14:00:00 +0000

How much effort would your children make to get to school in the morning? They might be prepared to brave a little snow for a couple of days, but the photos in this post show the efforts which our children at CCC school have to go to for days and weeks on end, during the rainy season.

Many of them travel miles to get to school every day, but still turn up eager to learn after an arduous journey.

The new school year has started and CamKids is proud to announce that nearly all our CCC students passed their final exams of 2015-16 and therefore moved up to the next grade.

The new academic year of 2016-17 started in November and prior to this we were very busy getting all the supplies ready to distribute to the students. This involved measuring all the children’s feet and collecting data for their uniform sizes. Our supplies cannot be bought locally so everything is sourced from Phnom Penh – quite a task!

This year, CamKids provided 52 bicycles to our graduate students who were moving on to study at the local secondary school located 30 minutes away from CCC school. In addition, all our graduate students were supplied with uniforms, shoes, school bags and study materials. We wish them all well in this next step.

We also completed stocking CCC school with new books, pencils, art supplies etc. in readiness for the new school year and our enthusiastic students.

This year we have just about managed to squeeze our students into the existing classrooms but by next year we must add at least 2 more classrooms to accommodate our growing number of pupils and we would also dearly love to add a separate library for students and the villagers to spend some leisure time and improve their literacy skills.

It costs only a few pounds per week to sponsor a child at the school. If you are interested in sponsoring a school child or donating towards this fantastic project, please contact us.

If you live in the UK, you can text CAMK13 £10 to 70070 to

make a £10 donation (or change to £5, £3 etc).

Even a small donation of a few pounds from all of our

supporters will make a huge difference.

Remember, we do not have any overheads, so 100% of

your donation goes to helping the children.

Alternatively, go to www.bit.ly/singdonate or www.bit.ly/regdonate to make a single or regular credit or debit card donation in £, $ and A$ or www.bit.ly/cccpaypal to pay in any currency through PayPal (all cards accepted).

Thank you

The CamKids Trustees

Agriculture at Chbar Chros School

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 16:00:00 +0000

Our Chbar Chros Community (CCC) School Program Manager, Sophak, continues to put his skills he learned from studying at the Agricultural University in Phnom Penh to develop the garden at the CCC School. He designed and built a large vegetable garden on the school’s land in order to pass on his knowledge, by teaching the students useful life skills and the importance of crop diversity.

The children then pass on these skills to their own families who are simple rice farmers and have had little or no access to education. By learning about different crops, the families improve their diet and have the potential to earn additional income.

The garden continues to flourish throughout the year and different kinds of vegetables have been growing in the garden, such as morning glory, kale, carrots, cabbages, pumpkins, gourds, radishes, cucumbers, garlic, lemon grass, lettuce, mint, beans, zucchini and some European vegetables.

All the vegetables are cooked for the kids at CCC and given to the kids in working in the garden to cook at home. We sell the rest of the vegetables to the villagers at a good price and have invested in three plastic fish ponds and vegetable seeds.

The idea of the ponds is to get water for the vegetables and to raise fish for staffs’ consumption, selling some to the villagers. Recently CamKids has managed to purchase some additional land, adjacent to the school and plans to expand the ponds and garden, when funds allow.

If you live in the UK, you can text CAMK13 £10 to 70070 to
make a £10 donation (or change to £5, £3 etc).
Even a small donation of a few pounds from all of our
supporters will make a huge difference.
Remember, we do not have any overheads, so 100% of
your donation goes to helping the children.

Thank you

The CamKids Trustees

Chbar Chros Community School Visiting Dentist

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, CamKids hosted a group of four Australian dentists and 10 Cambodian dental nurses and assistants to work at CamKids’ Chbar Chros Community (CCC) School clinic and Krang Tatann village in Kampong Speu province for two weeks. The dental team also continued on to provide treatment in Takeo province.

This is an annual dental health trip led by Dr. Hugh Sharpe which supplements the regular visits by CamKids' dental team and provides treatment for more complex dental problems than can be dealt with at our regular visits. In the two Kampong Speu province locations, a total of 570 patients were treated – mostly from areas where people could not afford to pay for dental care at private clinics. In Takeo province, 500 people were treated and most patients received three or four different treatments (fillings, extractions etc).

This work by Dr. Hugh and the team, was hugely appreciated by the communities and these annual visits will greatly improve their dental health. Dr. Hugh also delivered donations to villagers such as cooking oil, clothes, toys, toothpaste and toothbrushes to everyone who received the treatment.

Dr. Hugh said “after my experience last year with children and villagers in the rural community in Cambodia, I wanted to ensure that we also worked on problems rather than treatment which is why I brought quality products from the UK and the USA.” He also hopes that next year the dental trip will be able to visit other communities in different provinces in Cambodia. Dr. Hugh has already imported various items of dental equipment, included a generator which can work with mobile dental units.

CamKids, on behalf of the children who received treatment from the dental team, would like to give a huge thanks to Dr. Hugh, the team and everyone involved in this project.

Volunteering for CamKids

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:00:00 +0000

We have just received this short report from Ali Miller, a volunteer at our school in Kampong Speu.

I have recently returned from volunteering at CamKids. I am studying nursing at university and I had wanted to volunteer for a while but never knew where I wanted to go.

I heard about CamKids in Cambodia and immediately decided it looked perfect. I had never been to Cambodia before and knew it was a country where volunteering work would be put to good use. I volunteered at the school in Kampong Speu for a month and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

The school was fun and the kids were definitely my highlight. They were great fun and always eager to learn. It also was also great to experience living with Cambodians and learning their culture. I was able to use my nursing skills when the medical team came to visit, which has really boosted my confidence in caring.

Although I had a background in nursing before I came, CamKids offered a lot more than just medical experience, including teaching and experiencing new culture and meeting new people. I would definitely recommend volunteering at CamKids to anyone! Ali Miller

If you have nursing, dental, teaching or similar skills and would like to volunteer for CamKids, please email contact@camkids.org.

Ben Nevis Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:07:00 +0000

We have just received the following report, from Holly Mackenzie, who has raised an incredible amount for CamKids, in memory of her Father, Ian:

On March 30, 2015 our father, Ian Mackenzie (Mac to his friends) passed away suddenly. As anyone that has lost a parent will know, tough days followed.

He had always been an active man, since being in the Royal Marines as a Mountain Instructor the outdoors was an essential part of his life. Spending time walking the mountain ranges was his idea of sheer perfection, it fed his soul. So it was no great surprise that his will stated his ashes were to be scattered at the summit of Ben Nevis. In fact the wording read ‘I will climb Ben Nevis if it’s the last thing I do’. Did I mention he had a wicked sense of humour?

There followed some considerable planning as my brother lives in Dubai. Our friend Vicky announced she would like to join us too so everyone was working towards the trek that was to take place on the 31st May 2016. Training was made more difficult in that both Vicky and I live in Norfolk, one of the UK’s flattest counties!

So to provide some additional motivation, we thought it would be a nice gesture to raise some money for charity in memory of Dad. He would have been tickled pink at the thought of people giving to a great cause in his name. So why CamKids? Well, our Dad was a great traveller and having done the family thing he spent the last years of his life living in Cambodia during the Summer and Norway in the winter. He lived frugally but was a known character in the places he resided, a real people person you might say. He would play street games with the children and they would follow him knowing that his pockets held sweets and he always had time for a chat and a laugh. CamKids felt like a good fit as soon as I read about the projects they’re involved with and so we set up a Just Giving page. We set our target at £500 which we thought was optimistic but we wanted something to strive for. Having now completed our ‘trek’ and at the time of writing our total stands at £1,080.95! We have had some amazing support and I count the experience as one I’m truly proud of.

That said, I have announced my retirement from mountain climbing following a 100% success rate. It is time to hand that baton to my children.

Everyone at CamKids would like to say a huge THANKYOU to Holly and the team. If you would like to add to Holly’s total, you can do so at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/TrekforMac.

House above the Water (HAW) Medical Clinic

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 15:15:00 +0000

One of the CamKids funded medical slum clinics is located in Stoeung Meancheay Commune, Phnom Penh city. Approximately 280 families with 1,900 people live there. Most residents are rubbish collectors, construction workers and garment factory workers facing a range of health problems and diseases.

The team continues to visit the HAW community twice a month to provide medical treatment, nursing care, maternal care plus health and hygiene education. In order to expand our work more effectively, the team has continued to work cooperatively with community leaders and members to build trust and positive relationships with the community. As a result, more and more patients are continuing to seek medical care from our team and their overall health has been improving.

A total of 1,711 patients have been treated during the past year and they included 94 maternal, 364 medical and 1253 nursing patients. The number of nursing patients treated at HAW slum communities increased due to the arrangement for villagers to receive their 6 monthly de-worming from the nursing team.

Case Study

In a recent visit to the House above the Water project, a patient was interviewed. His name is Soun Sokphors aged 25 years. He lives in a house above the water community. At first he got cough, running nose and dyspnea for 5 days before he came to see us. He gets this problem 3 or 4 times a year. He said that when he was 10 years old, he lived at Kompong Chnang province. He went to hospital and was diagnosed with asthma. The doctor there gave him some medication to help.

A week later, he felt better from his problem and decided to stop going to hospital because he hoped his problem had settled. Also his mother could not send him to hospital for follow up because they needed money to support their daily expense. These problems recurred 3 or 4 times every year but he could do nothing because he had no money. In January 2015, he moved to live in HAW community. After moving in, he started hearing about our medical slum clinic.

At first he was afraid to come to see our team because he felt that his condition of many years and may be too late to treat. Over time he could see the team visiting each villager’s house to advise them how to have good overall health and educate them for a better quality of life. The team was then able to met Sokphors and advised him to meet our team in order to receive the proper medical treatment. On 8th December, 2015 he decided come to meet our team. After making his medical history, the team determined that he had asthma with lung infection. Our team provided him with antibiotic as well as Salbutamol inhaler.

Our team then advised him how to do breathing exercises and how to look after himself, to use the inhalers properly and what to look out for if the infection comes back. As a result, he feels much more confident and well. Glad that he can get care even when he has no money and glad that he can now be well to work and help his family.