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!