CamKids News Weblog

Fundraising For CamKids

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:25:00 +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. 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

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

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.

JustGiving Widget for your Blog or Website

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:30:00 +0000

JustGiving have developed a Donations Widget, which allows you to add a small amount of code to your own Blog or Website, which enables people to make a single or regular donation to CamKids directly from your Page:

The code for the Widget is:

Just cut and paste the code into your Blog or Website.

If you need any help or have any problems, please Email Us.

Banteay Sleak Community Medical Clinic

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:00:00 +0000

This clinic is a partnership between CamKids (which funds all of the costs), One-2-One (which provides the services) and the Community to improve the health status of the poor in this slum and to improve the general standard of health of the poor in this area. Moreover, it seeks active participation of the community, so that it can educate inform and empower the community to understand basic health issues and basic hygiene. CamKids and One-2-One established a similar clinic at Canalside over a year ago and the improvements in the health of the children and adults at that site has been extraordinary.

Banteay Sleak Community Clinic is set up on the road of 434 in the Chamkar Morn district of Phnom Penh. This slum community has 288 families from various locations around Cambodia. Most of people in this village have not had any education about health matters and most of them have no chance to go to school. Hygiene is extremely poor - the community doesn’t have enough lavatories because they don’t have enough money or any land to build them and only 20 to 30 families who can afford to use electricity. They live in a very poor condition with poor hygiene, contaminated spoiled food and no clean water. Most pregnant women don’t have antenatal care and give birth at home because they are so poor and don’t know where to go to check up on their health. Most of the adults work in labouring / construction or rubbish collection and recycling. Their daily income is $1.5 to 2.5 dollars per day £30-45 per month), to look after and feed their whole family.

Two teams carry out the Medical work – a medical and a nursing team. The medical clinic is divided into three stations - Triage station, Consultation station and Pharmacy station. Each station has its own tasks. The Triage station is the place for patient registration, measuring (weight, blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate) and finding out the main problems. At the Consultation station, the medical doctor or senior medical student starts to find and record the important facts such as history of presenting illness (HPI), Past Medical History (PMH), Medication , Allergy, Family History (FH), Social History(SH), Review of System(ROS), Physical Examination(PE), Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment. The Pharmacy station is responsible for providing the medication and instructions on how to take the prescribed medication, so that we can be sure that patient understand and can follow the advice.

The nursing team provides health education and much needed public health measures to the villagers and children. Managing many, many wounds which is a major part of life in the slum, when dwellers are working in bare foot. Injury and trauma is an every day life event as they are working in high risk area like construction sites and picking up and recycling rubbish.

Banteay Sleak Community Clinic started in April 2012. We see a lot of children and adults with many illnesses and wounds, along with skin problems like scabies and lice. Our team will continue to look for locations to set up the clinic so that when the rainy season comes, we will be able to continue our work. We are planning a MOBILE dental service for this community, to start on the 9th May. Once the clinic has been established for a few months, we intend to implement another program here, run as a partnership between One-2-One and CamKids, called Cambodia Smiles, so that mothers of young children under the age of 5 are targeted for special oral health education and training to improve oral health of the children as they grow.

Chbar Chros Community school

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:30:00 +0000

Work is progressing well on the new school at Chbar Chros and remains on schedule for the planned official opening later this month.

The school will provide Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 education for an estimated 100 children who do not have regular access to education at the moment. It will be run as a Community School in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education. CamKids has funded the cost of construction and will cover all of the running costs. In addition, CamKids is currently renovating a kindergarten, which will be opened for the nearby community of Raing Te at about the same time (pictures to follow).

It is planned to expand the use of the school building in Chbar Chros to offer opportunities to a larger number of people in the surrounding villages. CamKids has also secured funding and started to construct a medical centre on the site this month and also sent a mobile medical and dental team to this community in January, which was extremely successful. We are particularly encouraged by the fact that the villagers and their leaders see this as a collaborative project, which bodes well for the future.

The land for the buildings has been donated by the community and part of the preparatory work is being undertaken in association with local villagers, who are giving their time freely. Additional projects are planned for this community, to further improve the health, education and life chances for the whole community and we hope to use the knowledge and experience gained from this project to undertake similar projects at other poor rural communities in Cambodia.

STOP PRESS: The official blessing of the school took place on 22 March 2012 and an update will be posted shortly.

CamKids 2011 Annual Report & Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

The Trustees of CamKids - The Cambodian Children's Charity, are pleased to report that the Charity's Annual Report and Accounts for 2011 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

From Vision 2 Voice Concert in Aid of CamKids

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:41:00 +0000

From Vision 2 Voice and Special Guests are delighted to present a concert in aid of CamKids:

DATE: Saturday 10th March 2012
VENUE: Bedgrove Infant School, Ingram Ave, Bedgrove, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP21 9DJ
TIME: 7.00pm start. Finish by 9.30pm
DRESS CODE: Smart Casual
TICKETS: £20 each cash (£10 for 5 to 15 year olds, children under 5 free)

The concert will be compered by Jamie Hinde – Royal Shakespeare Company actor and West End Lead. It will be 2.5 hours of song and dance (with interval) featuring Rickmansworth Adult Choir, The Academy Choir and Soloists, Konflict dance troupe which can be seen on the hit TV show ‘Got To Dance’, David Mitchener’s Children’s Choir and a surprise special guest too.

To book your seat please email Megan on megan@megantanner.net or call 07957 787399.

CamKids' Partnership with GCDF

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

At the end of 2011, the Charity entered into an agreement with The Global Child Dental Fund (GCDF), the world’s leading global dental charity for children, to work together on a number of projects in Cambodia. Our first programme with GCDF will be SEAL CAMBODIA, which was launched in January 2012 and co-funded by CamKids and GCDF. We have partnered to provide 60,000 children with dental sealants over the next three years. The treatment will initially be targeting 6-7 year olds, but could be extended after the initial programme to over 100,000 children.

Sealing provides each child with a greater protection against dental caries and oral pain in the long run because the sealant helps to strengthen teeth in children when they are at their most susceptible to decay. Studies show a 2/3 reduction in decay in children who have had their teeth sealed.

Each of the following SEAL CAMBODIA delivery partners will carry out this dental sealing, together treating a total of 20,000 children each year:

One-2-One Cambodia
The Cambodian Ministry of Health
Faculty of Odonto-Stomatology, University of Health Sciences
Faculty of Dentistry, International University
The Cambodian Dental Association
Cambodia World Family (CWF)

This is expensive work that requires supplies and logistics. We have wonderful and committed help from many Cambodian volunteers, as well as visiting interns from abroad, but we still need funds to continue providing treatment for each of the children. £1 Sponsors one child for a year on the sealant programme - why not support the treatment of 10 children, or get your friends or work colleagues to chip in to treat 100!

If you would like to make a donation to help fund this project, please go to: www.bit.ly/singdonate or www.bit.ly/regdonate if you would like to make a regular donation. Please enter "SEAL", in the Project field. Alternatively, please email medical@camkids.org for more information.

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:33:00 +0000

You can raise money for CamKids (at no cost you) every time you shop online with 100's of brands including Play.com, John Lewis, Amazon and Dixons. If you sign up by 31st March 2012, Give as you Live will donate an extra £5 to CamKids when you spend £10 or more - www.giveasyoulive.com/join/camkids

Who Will Children's Village

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

We thought that you might like to see some photos from the Who Will Children's Village, including their newly painted children's houses. Thank you to all of the volunteers who put in a great deal of hard work in the baking sun to chip away the old render and repaint the houses.

Progress on CCC school in Kampong Speu

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Work has started in earnest at our new project in a remote part of Kampong Speu province. We are working with three village communities to build a school and medical facility.

The school will run kindergarten and grade one and two classes at which time the children are old enough to travel the distance to the nearest government school. Future plans will comprise of a range of community activities including running literacy classes for the adults in the villages.

As mentioned in our last newsletter this falls under the umbrella of our new MEND initiative (Medical, Education, Nutrition, Development). See our latest Newsletter for further details.

IU Dental Clinic Report

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Over the past three months the IU Dental Clinic has seen over 508 of children from 17 different orphanages and NGOs all over Phnom Penh. Many of the children came from Steung Mean Chay – an incredibly poor community where families live in slum conditions next to Phnom Penh’s old municipal dump site. For the majority of these children, it is the first time they have received any dental care. All of this work is funded by CamKids.

As you can imagine, many of the children have very significant dental problems. At the initial examination, most children are listed as having ‘poor oral hygiene’ and their problems include cavities, tooth pain, abscess, bleeding gums and gum disease. The IU team has been able to provide a wide range of treatments including: extraction, filling, scaling, root canal treatment, fissure sealants and topical fluoride. For a few, they have also been able to provide surgery (usually for impacted painful wisdom teeth), crowns and partial dentures.

The aim of the IU staff is not only to treat the children’s immediate problems, but to educate them on how to look after their teeth. The students training with the IU Dental Clinic take turns each day at giving oral health education to groups of children. There is a section of the clinic with mirrors and basins where children can be taken to have supervised tooth brushing. Each child is given a free toothbrush after their visit.

A few of the older children have severe cavities in their permanent teeth. It is often a difficult decision whether to extract, or try to save the tooth with costly root canal treatment and a large filling or crown. Where this involves the front teeth, the IU team does as much as it can to save these teeth so that the children can have a nice smile. Rotten or missing front teeth can place the child or adolescent at a lifelong disadvantage, as well as impacting on their self esteem, ability to make friends or get a job later.

One of the IU’s patients is 15 year old Dalin. Dalin sadly lost her parents due to HIV/AIDS when she was 8 and moved in with her aunt at the Steung Mean Chay dump site, living in extremely poor circumstances. Dalin is currently in grade 8 and aspires to become a medical doctor so she tries to study hard.

Dalin was brought to the IU Dental Clinic for treatment because she had toothache, an abscess and significant fractures to her front teeth. Treatments and oral health education were given by IU dental students and after treatment, she was ecstatic with the result. The opportunity to receive such treatment and care for the first time in her life left Dalin feeling extremely fortunate and grateful to all those who made it possible.

Your support means that we can not only treat hundreds of children and free them from pain but provide valuable practical training for the students of the IU clinic.

If you are are interested in finding out how you can help children like Dalin, please email us or make an one-off online donation here or a regular donation here.

CamKids Winter 2011 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000

CamKids In The Community

Strangely, it remains a common misconception that CamKids' work is confined to one orphanage, as we still get asked the question “How is the orphanage going?”. The fact is, we do support 4 children’s centres, to varying degrees and in different ways, but we also do a vast amount of work in the wider community, supporting programs to help keep vulnerable families and communities together, as well as our increasing education and medical programs. We thought, with Christmas approaching, the theme of our newsletter should be “Save the Family. “

One of the major criticisms of orphanages in Cambodia is that the majority of children have some sort of parentage - they are economic orphans. This is not a situation unique to Cambodia but it is a very real problem. With little infrastructure and no help for poor families, it is a viable and sometimes the only option for parents, single parents or extended family, to put their children into orphanages and children's centres to give them the opportunity of an education, healthcare and even the most basic of needs - food.

It is a driving ambition of CamKids to not only help those centres that already exist, but to help lessen the desire for families to look for alternative living arrangements for their children, by providing, or at least, helping to provide their communities with facilities and opportunities for those families to stay together as a unit. A nice sentiment, but how, with your help, do we make this a reality?

In this edition of our newsletter are practical examples of how this is happening, how it can continue to happen and who is helping in the pursuit of these goals.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

In order to fund our the projects shown in this Newsletter, we need to raise £20,000 to build the CC School, £5,000 for Raing Te Kindergarten and a further £5,000 for furniture, equipment and setting up costs.

£15 will pay for a solar light for family use at night, £30 will pay for a desk and bench for the school, £300 will fund the cost of digging a well and £400 will pay for solar equipment to give the school light at night for evening classes.

If you would like to make a donation to help fund these great projects please go to:

www.bit.ly/singdonate.

Regular payments are our life blood and enable us to commit to supporting programmes like this for the long term. If you feel able to commit to a regular donation to CamKids, the following is a guide to how far your money will go:

£10 a month will pay for School Supplies and Consumables

£20 a month will pay for a Junior Teacher’s Salary

£30 a month will pay for a Teacher’s Salary

£100 a month will pay for all the School’s Running Costs

Please go to:

www.bit.ly/regdonate

to make a regular donation or e-mail finance@camkids.org to find out other ways of making a tax-deductible donation in the UK, US or Australia.

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 below, you will receive future copies 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. If you would like to find out how to support our work, please Contact Us.

The CamKids Trustees

Subscribe To CamKids' Twice Yearly Email Newsletter

Newsletter by VerticalResponse

Spend and Raise Money For CamKids With Give As You Live

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Brighton Marathon - Final Place Available

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:30:00 +0000

The last CamKids place is up for grabs for the 2012 Brighton Marathon on Sunday 15th April 2012.

The minimum sponsorship amount is £500 per runner and we already have 12 runners signed up for the event . As an example of how far this money will go, £500 will pay for the running costs of one of our rural schools for a year.

Participants will receive a CamKids T-shirt, Running Vest and Charity Wristbands. We will help you set up a Fundraising Page on JustGiving to collect any sponsorship money, which you can share with friends and family by email or on Facebook.

We have a very short deadline to confirm the places with the organisers. If you are interested, please email: events@camkids.org.

HIV Dental Clinic in Phnom Penh

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:15:00 +0000

CamKids are pleased to report that we are helping to fund Happy Clinic – a dental clinic established in April this year and operated by One-2-One. The Clinic is located in the grounds of the Happy Tree orphanage in Phnom Penh. The orphanage cares exclusively for children with HIV/Aids and the Happy Clinic is the only clinic in Cambodia to provide dental care to children with HIV/Aids.

Happy Clinic is staffed by a dentist and two dental nurses and provides services not only to the Happy Tree children but also to street children and children from other poor communities.

Between August and September, Happy Clinic examined 322 children from various children’s centres including the ‘River Kids’ organisation and a very poor community called ‘6km Community’ located just outside of Phnom Penh.

The oral health knowledge and consequently the oral hygiene of these children and their carers is very poor, resulting in much dental decay and a great deal of pain and suffering. Happy Clinic was able to provide a range of treatments including 160 fillings, 193 fluoride treatments, 177 sealants and 87 extractions.

The Happy Clinic team strongly believe in prevention before cure and an important part of their work is the provision of oral health education and practical demonstrations are given by the dental team to all children attending the clinic. They also visit other orphanages and communities and provide information on how to maintain oral health and general hygiene.

Happy Clinic staff have been visiting children from ‘6km Community’, a slum community outside Phnom Penh. One-2-One came in to contact with this community through one of it’s dental assistants, who used to be a resident. The community is extremely poor, the majority of the children do not attend school and are left unattended while their parents work. Throughout August, One-2-One took many of the community’s children to Happy Clinic and provided them with dental treatment, many more children still need to be treated and will be seen in the coming months.

Part of a personal message from Dr Kim Sreang the dentist at Happy Clinic:

“The most common problems I have were decay on the permanent teeth, however, after they have been to Happy Clinic I can see that their oral health status has changed a lot. For preventative care: every time children come to Happy Clinic, dental assistant give them oral hygiene instruction and I have applied fluoride vanish which makes the teeth strong and prevents the teeth from decaying, and now I can see that they have a better smile. The thing is when are in pain they cannot speak up, they are shy and embarrassed which make them scared of other people, and then cannot learn well from the school.

I am very happy and enjoy working with the children; I am committed and will try my best to work well with the children and their carers and directors. I am grateful that I can help my own people. Children are the best and brightest future for Cambodia. Thank you CamKids for your partnership. We protect the children together”

Here is a personal story from Srey Nak, one of the children from River Kids:

“My name is Srey Nak, I am14 years old. This is my first that I can have chance to visit Happy Clinic. I got toothache and I could not drink, eat and sleep well. It is really distracted me from studying, and sometime I missed school, because I cannot concentrate in the class, which is really difficult for me. Now my teeth no longer in pain, I am so happy that I can chew the food well. I can now go to school and concentrate. I would like to say thank so much to CamKids and One-2-One for saving my teeth and helping me with my life.”

EYC Summer Camp

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:00:00 +0000

EYC was given a great opportunity to send 150 students to an adventure camp in the jungle of north Cambodia over the past few months (25 per week for 6 weeks). The feedback from the students has been a very positive, as this was a life experience unlike anything they've ever done before. They can't seem to say enough good things and when they return they are bursting with enthusiasm.

The facility, called Jombok Hoas, was provided free of charge, but the total cost for transportation was significant and funds were not available to pay for the bus rental. CamKids therefore offered to cover most of the transportation costs and our students have been travelling across Cambodia to allow them to take part in this great opportunity.

The following is a letter from an EYC student:

Hello! My name is Choum Sopheak. When I went to the adventure camp I was happy, excited and a little afraid. Now I want to tell everybody about my interesting experience there with the other students from EYC.

When I came to Jombok Hoas, I thought that this place was going to be more like an army camp. But when I stayed there and participated in the activities, it was much different to what I thought. Through the many experiences and the learning activities, this place has encouraged a greater consciousness and self confidence in me. Most activities have impacted my social life, my individuality and the people around me. Jombok Hoas is a place for helping people to work together, to build teams and to forgive the other people in the group. All the games always create knowledge, new ideas and we gain experience from it. They showed us methods to solve the problems that we face in our lives, like studying, family, and working.

I learned a lot of creative ideas in leadership, relationships and how to work with co-workers in organisations. Some of the activities were very scary, but I still managed to do them, because of the facilitators and my friends, who always encouraged me. I even managed to survive the high ropes course. Thanks to EYC, CamKids and the organisers of Jambok Hoas who offered the opportunity for me to get more knowledge and experience.

"Big Po" Community School in Takeo District

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Big Po community school is one of 15 locations where CamKids, in conjunction with the local NGO New Futures Organisation, operates rural schools in the Takeo region of Cambodia. CamKids funds all of the running costs of the 15 schools and is working with NFO to improve the quality of the teaching and the buildings where the teaching takes place. The following post is an extract from a report made by CamKids' local staff member, who regularly checks and monitors the schools.

Big Po is located in Pou village, Sambuor commune, Treang district, Takeo province. It is 12km from Takeo town and takes nearly one hour to get there, via the main road. Big Po opened in 2008 in a female teacher’s house in Pou village, for which she charges a nominal rent to use her house. None of the students are charged for the lessons and all of the books and other materials are provided free of charge by CamKids.

There are two English teachers who are qualified teachers at local State schools. One is a teacher in the Pou primary school and the other, a high school teacher. They are hired to teach English to the children after normal school hours, under the rural schools programme developed by NFO and CamKids. The wages which they earn supplement the low wages which are paid in the State schools and help to support their families. They usually teach about three hours per day from Monday to Friday in the afternoon (State schools usually only operate in the mornings). They are often helped by visiting foreign volunteers, which gives both the students and the teachers the opportunity to practice their spoken English and improve their accents.

During the State school vacations, the teaching schedule is changed, as the students are free all day. With the agreement of the Authorities, they move the lessons to the Pou primary school which is located in the village and is better for the children as there are more opportunities to learn and play.

The syllabus depends upon the age and ability of the group which is being taught. For example, some children learn from the Beginner New Headway syllabus, whilst others use Let’s Go Part One. The total number of students being taught in this community school is 116 at an annual cost of around $1,400 (£900) which equates to a cost per child of around $12 or £8. CamKids is also working to provide additional training for the teachers and has also established a teaching English by Phonics course, which all of the teaches have been instructed in, by a visiting educationalist from Australia.

If you would like to support this or any of our other education projects, please send an email to schools@camkids.org. A regular donation of £30 ($50) per month will pay the wages of one of the teachers at Big Po school and £20 per month ($30) will pay all of the costs for 30 children to attend school for a year.

The Al Murray CamKids Golf Classic V

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

On July 15th, Effingham Golf Club hosted the Al Murray CamKids Classic V. This is the fifth consecutive year we have held the event and the third consecutive year it has been held at Effingham Golf Club. Steve Hoatson and all his staff were once again, professional and friendly and hosted another flawless day. This is one of the reasons why, in previous years, the golf day has always proven to be hugely popular, great fun and very successful as a fund raiser, allowing CamKids to continue, and expand on, its projects for children in Cambodia. This year was no exception.

Unlike last year, the weather was kind and everybody teed off in glorious sunshine and high spirits. Those spirits, although dampened at times by the golf, were continuously resurrected by the caravan of buggies, led by The Pub Landlord and partner in crime Adam Booker, delivering cold beer and snacks to all on the course. With the addition of the lovely Beccy, from Eye Candy Caddies, also selling refreshments as well as giving putting advise, the mood on the course remained buoyant.

In fact, to be fair, the quality of play this year was of a fairly good standard and after five years, the event is now actually beginning to resemble a golf tournament. Far more golfers than in previous years, graced the fairways with their presence. People were actually entering the clubhouse at the end of the day with smiles still on their faces, although I am sure some of those smiles were a reflection of the refreshments delivered throughout the day, rather than the golf scores.

In the evening, Al was once again merciless with his financial forfeits for supposed improprieties on the day, and his cajoling, badgering and quite frankly, harassment of the bidders in the auction, would definitely have been frowned upon on the floors at Sotheby's. However, for our purposes and for the entertainment of the room, it was pure gold. The auction surpassed expectations and CamKids is honoured and proud to report that the total profit from the day was in excess of £15,000!!!!!!!!!!!!! An amazing amount for which we, but more importantly, the children in Cambodia, are eternally grateful.

So many people help to make these days special, rewarding and successful, and to that end, special thanks must go to Al Murray, Adam Booker, Steve Hoatson and the team, Fullers and all the businesses and individuals who sponsored the day and donated prizes. The day simply would not happen without you all.

Thanks also need to be extended to Gail Taylor, Beccy, Big Bob, Lisa, Win and ALL the golfers on the day and guests who came for the evening. Thank you all for your support, humour, encouragement and faith.

Places for the 2012 Brighton Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

CamKids has been offered some additional places for the 2012 Brighton Marathon. Public places have already sold out and very few charity places are still available. The event will take place on Sunday 15th April 2012.

The minimum sponsorship amount is £500 per runner and we already have 10 runners signed up for the event . As an example of how far this money will go, £500 will pay for the running costs of one of our rural schools for a year.

Participants will receive a CamKids T-shirt, Running Vest and Charity Wristbands and can set up a fundraising page on JustGiving, to make collecting sponsorship money easy.

We have a very short deadline to confirm the places with the organisers. If you are interested, please email: events@camkids.org by Monday 10 October.

UPDATE: We have now filled all of the places for this year. If you would like to put your name down for next year's event or are interested in taking part in any other fundraising event for CamKids, please email: events@camkids.org.

Give While You Spend

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:00:00 +0000

CamKids has established a Fundraising page with Simple Fundraising, to enable our supporters to direct a portion of their spending with High Street Retailers and well-known brand names to CamKids. We earn commission on all sales made via this site and it doesn't cost you a thing.

There is absolutely no catch whatsoever - each of the companies that Simple Fundraising partner with have agreed to pay CamKids the stated commissions (look out for the £ symbol).

For example, if you shop for the following major brand names via this site, CamKids will earn the following commissions:

An order made with Amazon will earn us a minimum of 2.50%;
For each order with WH Smith, CamKids will earn 4% of the sales value;
CamKids will earn £40 from Direct Line for each home insurance policy sold via our web page;
We will earn £50 from Nationwide Building Society for each new mortgage; and
A new contract with Carphone Warehouse will earn CamKids £17.50;

and much more ……

Thank you for supporting CamKids

Happy Shopping !!

CamKids Summer 2011 Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:15:00 +0000

Thanks A Million!

Our latest Newsletter marks the passing of an important milestone for CamKids - we have now donated over $1 million to projects in Cambodia to improve the lives and reduce the suffering of 1,000's of children.

In accordance with our philosophy of transparency and full financial disclosure, the newsletter shows, in words, numbers and pictures, how your money has been spent over the past 4 years.

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 below, you will receive future copies 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. If you would like to find out how to support our work, please Contact Us.

The CamKids Trustees

Changing Lives - 2 Personal Stories

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

In an earlier post, we reported on the work which CamKids and One-2-One are doing, to relieve pain and increase the quality of life for poor children in Cambodia, through our medical and dental programmes.

We thought that you might like to read some personal stories to illustrate the real effects which this work has on the lives of the children.

Both children were brought to the IU Dental Clinic from the Bong Poun NGO, whose aim is to help poor street children, especially those who make a living collecting garbage, to go back to school. The NGO mainly works at the Steung Meanchey dump site, Boeung Tompon slum and several other poor areas of the city.

Name: Sreynet – aged 13 years

My name is Sreynet. I’m studying in grade 5. I have 3 siblings, and I am the youngest in my family. Both of my parents passed away. My oldest sister is a hairdresser. My brother is a laborer, and my other sister still studies with me. I want to be a teacher. Now I’m living with my neighbors. I help them to prepare the meals to eat. I could not go to school before, because I had to work. Today I came to the IU dental clinic – this is the first time I have been to a dentist.

I had my teeth cleaned, a filling, and one tooth extracted. The student was very good, kind and gentle. He helped me to be not afraid. Now I am so happy because my teeth wont be painful any more. I would like to say thank you so much to CamKids and IU for helping me.

Name: Oum Savary – aged 16 years

Ashamed of his appearance, he would not smile and did not like to talk, in case anyone could see his teeth. He had been like this for several years and was so amazed that such a miracle could happen to him. He could not stop smiling and showing every one his new teeth. He says this is the best thing that could have happened to him. He wanted to thank CamKids and IU for making this possible.

If you are are interested in finding out how you can help children like Sreynet and Oum Savary, please email us or make an one-off online donation here or a regular donation here.

National Aerobics Champions

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:05:00 +0000

Twenty-nine children from 6 orphanages belonging to the One-2-One / CamKids TLC Club participated in the National Aerobic Competition at the Olympic Stadium from May 18-21st 2011. The children competed in the Individual, Pair and Trio competitions and we were thrilled when two teams from the Happy Tree-HRB orphanage achieved 1st and 3rd places in the Level 1 Trio Competition! A huge thanks to our hard-working and dedicated team of sports coaches and helpers – Sarith, Makara, Rebekka, Srorn, and Thary.

As part of the programme it is also stressed to the children taking part, that sport is not about winning or losing, it is about the spirit of participation, team building, and good health. We were all encouraged to see that the children participating were very happy to have this sporting opportunity on the national stage, where they were able to show their ability and receive the cheers and applause of the spectators.

Dental Clinic Update

noreply@blogger.com (The Cambodian Children’s Charity) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000

In the past 12 months, CamKids has significantly increased its funding for projects aimed at relieving the pain and suffering of poor children and young adults, mainly through our joint work with the local medical and dental NGO, One-2-One.

CamKids established its first medical facility at an orphanage in Kampong Speu in 2006 and has since established medical facilities at a number of other organisations. Our projects with One-2-One include the funding of free treatment for poor children and orphans at the International University (IU) Hospital in Phnom Penh, the Ta Kmao clinic, a rural mobile dental / medical clinic, a weekly clinic at Canalside (see previous article) and we have just started a project to send 2 trained dental nurses into rural areas. In addition, CamKids funds the cost of the only dental clinic in Cambodia for HIV children.

The following is a recent report from One-2-One on the IU and Ta Kmao clinics' activities:

"During this quarter we continued to see children from 17 orphanages and NGOs from all over Phnom Penh. In addition, one NGO (“Who Will”) brought a busload of children from Kampong Chhnang Province. Some of the organizations are now bringing children for the second or third time, and it has been so encouraging to see that the children’s teeth have improved. No longer are many of these children in pain, with mouths full of rotting, abscessed teeth. Our use of topical fluorides and fissure sealants, along with basic treatment and oral health education, have been the main reasons for these marked improvements.

However, we are still seeing children from some newer orphanages and organizations, whose dental health is sometimes shocking to see. It is distressing when preschoolers are in pain or have swollen faces, or when teenage children have broken down or missing front teeth. A few of these older teenagers have needed crowns, root canal treatment or partial dentures and this has only been possible because of CamKids. The improvement in their health and appearance is sometimes remarkable.

The details of the 3 month period are summarized below:

Number NGOs and orphanages 18

Number of children seen 1,108

Number of fillings 480
Number of sealants 164
Number of extractions 422

Thank you again, CamKids, without whom this vital work could not be undertaken."

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 in helping 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.