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  ....

Thames Path Challenge for the Children of Cambodia

CCF UK is currently planning a number of fund raising projects for 2013 but in the meantime we are putting together Teams to enter the Thames Path Challenge, a 50km walk from Putney to Runnymede taking place on 29^th September 2012.  We would love you to join us! (www.ThamesPathChallenge.com).

Teams receive a rebate on group entries which is why we are asking you to enter via us: enquiries@CCF-UK.org).  Registration is £50 a walker which goes to Thames Path Challenge.

Entrants raising over our minimum requirement of £250, will be refunded the original £50 registration fee on request.   Walkers must have at least £150 by August 17^th in their Just Giving account to secure a place (£50 of which is the registration fee). An additional minimum of £150 is due by 20^th September 2012.  This guarantees CCF a minimum of £200 per walker

If you would like to join the walk, please register on Just Giving www.justgiving.com/cambodianchildrensfund  (Make Your FUNDRAISING Page).  You will need £50 in your account before we are able to register you – please ensure this money is in place before completing and returning the registration form which is available from enquiries@ccf-uk.org .

We will officially register you as soon as we have made up Teams of six people which qualifies CCF-UK for a rebate.  Your refund of £50 - on request - is undertaken by CCF and not the Challenge organisers. 

The Thames Path Challenge organisers will send you full details once we have completed registration on your behalf.

With your help we will meet our target of £10,000!  Please join us – it promises to be a fun and exhausting day with plenty of scenic stops (i.e. pubs) for the faint hearted!  And who knows, we may make this an annual get together!

Best wishes,

Liz Bolton on behalf of CCF-UK

*PS:  If you would like to contribute to the blog with images of Cambodia, quotes explaining your reasons for supporting CCF, letters from your sponsored child etc., please do submit these to enquiries@ccf-uk.org for consideration.  We would love to hear from you!

Scott Neeson and some of the Children of Cambodia