As I hope you will all be aware, the Cambodian Futures Foundation (CFF) aims to support several organisations in Cambodia, not just the New Cambodian Children's Life Association (NCCLA), i.e. the orphanage. One of these organisations, the Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled (CHA for short) recently contacted me to update me on happenings there:
"Kay Rothanary, who had a psychological problem, she got a job and she left to live outside CHA. We are so glad that she got a job and can deal with her life. Right now, CHA accepts two deaf young women to be trained in our program. They have five deaf members in their family, but we allow two deaf trainees to learn in our group, and we will get more people in the future if we have more orders from outside country.
Besides these trainees, we also recruited two vulnerable girls, one was rape by her father, and another was hit seriously by her father."
Kim Tha also sent me photos of the new trainees - this first one is of one of the deaf sisters...
and this is the second deaf sister.
The following two photos are of the 'vulnerable girls' as Kim Tha called them - I am not sure which is which and didn't want to ask...
"Thank you very much with your efforts to help us while we face the financial recession, and we have lacked funds to run our whole program which assists the disabled as you know. Your work is very much appreciated and we all think it is most kind of you to give up your time and effort to be with us and we do appreciate it. Particularly, I know you have put a lot of efforts into our program. I request for your kind help for 6 months, that you think what you can help us as much as you can. We all are looking forward to hearing your advice and kind decision soon."
The email included an attachment detailing what extra costs the CHA would incur over the next 6 months due to the new recruits, in training equipment and materials, food and board etc. It worked out to around US$2500 for those first 6 months, but what would result from that would be handicraft items that can be sold to raise extra income, so it seemed a good way to build some sustainability into the CHA.
The money will give 4 vulnerable young adults a decent chance of changing their lives for the better, and I hope you will agree that that is worth every penny.
The Trustees agreed to my proposal to donate the full US$2500 to the CHA, and the transfer was completed last week. I will leave you with this email from Kim Tha, which goes out to all of the donors to the CFF, past and present:
"Hi from CHA! I send you this email to let you know that I got the money from your charity today. That's very kind of you all to help our group while we are facing the difficulties in our daily standard of living. Your donation makes our group pursue our efforts to deal with our daily activities and program as well as our daily living. On behalf of CHA group and myself, I would like to thank you and everyone at your charity that assist us in right situation and exact need. It is very absolutely great for us to get this to resolve every activity in our program and make our program move on better and better thanks to your kindness. We all never forget it for our whole lives."
