HELP Make a Difference ...

CCF UK is currently seeking volunteers to help implement the many exciting strategies planned for 2013.  We are also looking for one or two people who believe they have the experience and skills to join the Board of Trustees and can add value to the UK  operation.  We feel that anyone who has visited Cambodia, or has a connection with the country, will feel a particular affinity to the children and people and will support the UK Charity - either as a volunteer or a trustee - with the passion we are seeking.  If you would like to support CCF UK please send an e mail with your cv to enquiries@CCF-UK.org

Honoured with the Ahimsa Award by UK Jains

Founder of CCF, Scott Neeson, was honoured earlier this month at London's House of Commons with  the Ahimsa Award, presented annually to an individual who embodies  non-violence and compassion.  Previous recipients include Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Ahimsa Day was invented by the British Jain diaspora and has been celebrated annually at the House of Commons in London since 2002.  It was created to underline the universality of Jainism - with 6 million followers in India alone - and to publicly identify it with the concept of non-violence, Ahiṃsā Day is marked by all Jains in the United Kingdom. It is added to traditional Jain religious festivals and is a new sign of the Jain presence in the UK.

Image by Ravin Mehta

Great News for the UK and the Kids at CCF!

It's been a good few weeks for CCF UK.  With two Trustees and six great supporters walking 400 km in one day over £6000 was raised by and for the Charity.  Well done the A Team!  
Additionally, we've just received an extremely generous donation of £15,000 - earmarked for CCF's Nutrition Programme - from the Taylor Family Foundation The objectives of the Taylor Family Foundation are to help and support children and young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, in the areas of education, health, recreation and the performing arts:  The Taylor Family Foundation. 
Without the generous support of organisations such as this, many of CCF's programmes would no longer be able to run.  Our grateful thanks to the Foundation!
Additionally, last night ABC Australia broadcast Poh's Kitchen, a cooking programme which focused on CCF in Cambodia for this episode.  We can't upload the video as it's not up on YouTube yet but check out the link below for an eye opening view of the work the Charity undertakes.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/video/default.htm?pid=player2&src=/tv/pohskitchen/xml/s3597459.xml&title=Cambodia&GenreID=41

 More hot news to follow shortly!

Congratulations to Cambodian Children’s Fund for Winning 

Innovative Education Award

Cambodian Children’s Fund’s education program has been awarded the 2012 WISE Award as “one of the world’s best initiatives in innovative education”.

Cambodian Children’s Fund’s ‘Generational Change through Education’ project - which wraps community well-being around a comprehensive education program – was recognized for its “transformative impact on education and society”.

CCF is the first organisation in South-East Asia to be awarded the prestigious prize. 

Follow this link for the full story: 

http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=648&Itemid=382

Back To School Campaign

CCF has 1300 students heading back to school on October 30th – and we need some help getting them ready.

To get a student ready for the first day of school – with two new uniforms, a backpack and drink bottle, books and stationary – will cost:

Want to pay for the full year's school supplies?

£23 - Primary School Kids – Up to grade 6
£90 - Secondary school kids – grades 7 to 9
£186 - High school kids – grades 10 to 12

The education costs of secondary and high school students are more expensive because they are provided with extra classes – like maths, physics and chemistry. These classes cost £13 per month for each student.

To donate, make cheques payable to CCF-UK so that we are able to gain Gift Aid. If you do donate by cheque, please let us know if you are a British Taxpayer. 

Send cheques to: CCF- UK Communications, 24 Monson Road, London NW10 5UP.

Or pay through our Just Giving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/cambodianchildrensfund

Sign up to our Newsletter by e-mailing us at enquiries@ccf-uk.org

 

Three of Mike Armitage's Seven Children!

CCF UK's original founder and Chair Mike Armitage has sent us this image of three of the girls he sponsors.  They are pictured with their father and siblings.

From the left the 3 girls are Channa,Vanna and Vanny

Sceptical Surveyor visits Dump Kids

Earlier this year Belfast surveyor Nick Rose stumbled across an article in the Sunday papers about the successful (Scots) Hollywood film producer Scott Neeson who wandered into the area around the Municipal Dump in Phnom Pehn whilst backpacking in Cambodia. 

What Scott saw would change his life, a forgotten community living day to day by scavenging anything they could sell from the dump.  The experience haunted Scott and the following year he sold his house and cars, moved to Phnom Pehn and set-up the Cambodian Children's Fund.  That was 6 years ago and the Fund now provides clean water, food, shelter, heathcare and basic education for over 700 kids.

Nick has two young kids himself and the article touched a chord but Iike many people Nick is sceptical that donations to such charities actually reach the front line.  His initial investigations were positive - low administration costs and a maximum score for transparency from www.charitynavigator.org. 

Nevertheless, Nick wanted to see the charity in action and a planned trip to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand provided the perfect opportunity. 

These are his own words and photographs:

It is Monday lunchtime Cambodian time and I land in the sweltering heat of  Phnom Pehn. 

Scott Neeson is away fundraising and his right hand man Patrick McKinlay comes to meet me - a diminutive ex-army scotsman who came to visit as a sponsor and didn't leave.  That was 4 years ago and he won’t be leaving anytime soon.  Patrick says everyday is a challenge here and he would be bored at home.

We visit two of CCF’s five facilities in the poorest parts of the City - they are very basic but functional and clean - space is clearly at a premium, with rooms used as classrooms during the day and for sleeping at night.

I notice that Patrick and the Cambodian staff are all softly spoken with the kids.  He explains that many have suffered abuse or rejection from parents and they are slowly learning to trust adults again.

 We head off on foot into the areas where CCF have a presence and I see deprivation on a level that is difficult to describe.  The mud lanes are difficult to navigate and there is garbage absolutely everywhere.  

Groups of kids recognise Patrick and come out from corrugated metal shelters to say hello.  Their smiles are infectious and the warmth towards Patrick is palpable.

Patrick and I sit down to talk.  My immediate question is why the Cambodian  government is not doing more to help these kids. 

This question also troubled Patrick when he first arrived but he suggests you cannot look at the situation through European eyes. 

Cambodia is a poor country with a troubled past and no welfare state.  Whilst education is technically free teachers are badly paid and need to be subsidised by parents.  This creates a poverty trap that is almost impossible to escape.

We chat about the financial situation.   A major funder has just gone bust but they are optimistic that the money will be found from somewhere.   I suppose you have to be an optimist in this environment or you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning.

I ask what would happen to these kids if CCF closed it's doors tomorrow -  “someone would step in” he says but the look in his eyes tells a different story.

I leave Cambodia charmed by the kids I have met and humbled by the people at CCF - truly good people doing good things in very difficult circumstances.

Since returning from Cambodia, Nick has set-up  HYPERLINK "http://www.justgiving.com/friendofCCF" www.justgiving.com/friendofCCF

His aim is to use the power of the internet and social media to get as many people as possible to each donate just £1 by texting DTGC58 £1 (or some other amount) to 70070

Thames Path Challenge Registration

Phew!  Got the A TEAM together just in time to meet the deadline for the Thames Path Challenge - Putney to Runneymede or Henley - on September 29.  In addition to our TEAM of six - Susie, Kate, Davy, Juliet (Trustee) and Red Hot Liz and Katie - we have three other walkers walking independently two of whom - Michael and Billy - dedicated to the 100 kms.  More updates to follow!  There's still time to sponsor the Team by donating to Just Giving.

New Boy at CCF

Posted on FB on 29th July 2012
"I had to share this photo (feel free to do the same).
This little one wandered into one of our external food programs on Friday night, hungry and a little lost. I located his shelter today and, if all goes to plan, he will be enrolled in our Day Care program this week.
Watch this space as I will post another (happier) image once he has been with us a few weeks."

Two of CCF's smiling children.  There are over 1,200 others being cared for by CCF.

From HRH the Prince of Wales to the Rubbish Dump

Scott today working his way through the rubbish dump in Phnom Penh and in his previous life as a Hollywood bigwig meeting Prince Charles.

Newest Trustee Juliet Phillips

Juliet Phillips is the latest recruit to join CCF-UK as a Trustee.  Not only is she a whizz at figures (she heads a finance department of eight) she has legal training, appears ten years younger than she actually is -  and brings pragmatism and diplomacy to her role with CCF.

Juliet studied law and accountancy and now works in Finance in the Insurance Industry.  During the summer of 2011, she was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take a two month sabbatical and decided to travel to countries that she had not previously visited.  Of all the countries she explored during that time, the one that really captured her heart was Cambodia.  She was very moved by the history of the country and the daily struggle faced by the people who live there as they strive to overcome the after effects of many years of civil war.  Most notable were the children, who were engaging, curious and playful, despite the fact that they lacked the essentials to live, let alone the material possessions that children in the Western World often take for granted.   A chance meeting in London when she returned, led her to the Cambodian Children's Fund and she became a trustee in early 2012.  

 One of Juliet's shots of children taken while in Cambodia in 2011

Indiana's Harrison Ford

Difficult to different between these two stars:  Scott looks just as Hollywood glam as Harrison in his hey day.  This was taken before Scott got down and dirty and founded the amazing Cambodian Children's Fund.

DI's View

Soundbites from UK Trustee, Detective Inspector John Geden:

I have been involved in a several operations to support the Cambodian National Police in investigating the alleged activities of Travelling Sex Offenders. Cambodia is an attractive location for preferential paedophiles from developed countries; there is a huge disparity between the wealth of the tourist and that of the local population in many areas. This disparity forms the key ingredient that allows an offender to abuse children at will, often with the agreement of the childs parent or carer and with little chance of facing justice.

In our comfortable homes it seems unimaginable that a parent would sell their children to a western paedophile. The very worst levels of poverty, in this country and in the rest of the developed world, are still several leagues above the crushing poverty that affects the population in many common abuse destination countries. During my visit to Cambodia I witnessed children digging for food in filthy rubbish bins and walking the streets with no shoes. I saw whole families living in the most appalling conditions imaginable and I saw how a combination of poverty and HIV had blighted a generation.

When you see this poverty in its full horror you understand how, faced with the possibility of not feeding their family, a parent would find a $30 offer from a westerner an attractive offer. I know all too well that $30 is a large amount and that children have been purchased for sex for much less.

More disturbingly, large numbers of children in the SE Asian region are trafficked into the sex industry on a commercial basis. Many NGO’s provide evidence of gang-masters recruiting, buying or even just abducting young children from poor rural communities and forcing them to work in the brothels in large cities. Research indicates that thirty thousand Cambodian children are trafficked into the sex trade and brothel owners in SE Asia can buy a woman or child from the traffickers for as little as $50 US. Virgins are even more valuable and fetch between $500 US and $1000 US.

The diverse projects that CCF delivers are low cost and high impact. They ensure that the most vulnerable families are kept above the poverty line with their most basic human needs being met by the charity. The work is long term and it is sustainable and directly reduces the threat of children being sold either individually or en-masse into the global child sex trade. It is so easy to miss this dynamic amongst all of the other support that CCF delivers. It is a combination of that direct aid and the sustainable long-term projects that CCF has developed that save children from sexual exploitation.

Scott & Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In this year of the Jubilee we thought you might like to see an image of Scott in his more spruced up days as a Hollywood mogul.  Both he and the Queen look Royally chuffed!

CCF-UK's Secretary

Susie Nash undertakes a mass of work for CCF-UK - without any of the glory!  She takes notes at all the Trustee meetings, keeps donors updated with thank you letters and is a lynchpin of the UK operation.  She has never visited Cambodia but was enticed by her brother-in-law Michael Armitage - who founded CCF-UK - to take an active role.

Susie was previously a Production Assistant on TV commercials and more recently, invaluable PA to a number of high profile authors and movers and shakers in the theatre world.  Susie lives in West London and is married to Robin an advertising creative who has supported CCF-UK by providing graphics from time to time.

Mel Gibson & Scott Neeson

Scott during his Hollywood days, on the set of Braveheart  with Mel Gibson

Child Protection DI a Trustee of CCF-UK

Detective Inspector John Geden is a Hampshire Police Officer and has an extensive background in child protection. He is a former Royal Military Police Captain and served in UK, Northern Ireland, Germany and with the United Nations. He joined Hampshire Constabulary in 1992 and has worked in a variety of roles prior to joining the CID. John recently completed an 18-month secondment to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) as the Head of Offender Management, during which time he led several investigations abroad, targeting UK citizens who were actively abusing foreign children. He recently completed a postgraduate degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Portsmouth University, gaining a distinction for his dissertation, which focussed on the management and control of Travelling Sex Offenders.

John is a regular speaker at national conferences and is regarded as a leading authority in the management, and prosecution, of travelling sex offenders. He recently completed a project to map best practice in relation to extra-territorial investigation in Australia, Sweden and the USA. He is researching the concept of forming a Europol based investigation team to provide a EU response to intelligence management, investigation and capacity building with foreign police forces.

John lives in Hampshire with his wife and two daughters and enjoys scuba diving, walking and rugby.  He will be visiting CCF in Cambodia in October where is wife intends to give some of the children cooking lessons and his daughters will volunteer.

UN Aid Worker: Founding UK Trustee

We thought you might like to learn a little about the people behind CCF-UK  and their other roles in life.  Our first in the series is founding Trustee Katy Pullen,  pretty, energetic and admirable young woman - and an Oxford graduate to boot!

Katy lived in Phnom Penh between 2006-2008 where she saw firsthand the life-changing impact of the Cambodian Children’s Fund’s health and educational programs. The inspiring work of CCF left such an impression that Katy jumped at the opportunity to be a Trustee when CCF-UK was established. Working as an aid worker on women and girls’ health issues, Katy has spent the last decade in the Asia Pacific region, working for the UN and various international aid agencies. Katy currently divides her time between London and Bangkok, visiting Phnom Penh whenever she can.

Hollywood Mogul Made a Difference ...and You Can Too!

He Changed His Life to Make a Difference...
Walk With Us and You Can Too

Life made sense at the height of his career in Hollywood with a beautiful house, pool, fast cars and money, achievements most people dream of.  Until  Scott Neeson made a  trip abroad that changed his life. In 2003 Scott visited Phnom Penh in Cambodia and what met him, he described as 'hell'. Eleven hectares of garbage covered in flies, with over 3,000 families and hundreds of orphans living either on or around the dump scavenging for items to sell, doing their best to avoid the fires caused by the methane from the decomposing rubbish. Child prostitutes and abandoned children scoured the area, either for themselves or for their families.

Scott abandoned his Hollywood career and celebrity life style to help provide a better future for the children of Cambodia and  future generations. 

   Today Scott serves as CCF's Executive Director, performing daily fieldwork and overseeing the operations of CCF's various facilities. Changing the lives of over a thousand children from some of Cambodia's most destitute communities and offering them a sustainable future through education, training, nourishment and healing.
 

With your help CCF will continue to grow and reach out to more families in need,  making the differences that are so desperately needed. 

WALK WITH US!
Check out the blogs below for information on the Thames Path Challenge Walk, September 2012, or e mail us on enquiries@ccf-uk.org for further information

http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/index.php 

Michael Mansfield QC Visits CCF

‘SUCCESS COMES IN ‘CANS’ by Michael Mansfield QC

‘Failure comes in ‘cant’s’.  These are the words of welcome and encouragement which are painted on the wall of the school foyer.  As we were to discover very quickly they represent the thematic motto of every aspect of life for the children and staff who live and work in this converted period building in the centre of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

The driving force behind this endeavour is Scott Neeson, ably assisted by Patrick McKinlay.  They suggest we visit one of the villages where the families of the children live.  Such an invitation commonly conjures up an image of sunlight dappled bamboo in peaceful paddy-fields, especially in a country of spectacular beauty, on a penetratingly hot humid day.  Yvette, my wife, is with me and we are driven for about twenty minutes to reach our destination.

No sooner had I got out of the car and started to walk, than a small hand entered mine on one side and another on the other side.  Children were emerging and erupting from everywhere.  These were no ordinary children.  The small boy holding my right hand was probably about four or five years old.  He had no clothes and no shoes.  His friends had little more.  The ground they trod was no ordinary village street.  It was an alleyway of earth, dirt and mud, strewn with litter, embedded with bottle tops and metal can ring pulls, and peppered with broken glass.  But then this was no ordinary village. 

Please contact enquiries@CCF-UK.org for the full article  ....