Our biggest ever donation!

The second of the recent donations we made turned out to be the biggest single amount we have ever donated, and it was for an excellent cause of course.

A month or so ago Kim Tha from the Cambodian Handicraft Association (CHA) contacted us in desperation, as the landlord of the building they occupy in Phnom Penh had contacted them to tell them they had to vacate the building by the end of June:

"Our activities in the programme have been processing better and better. Some of our trainees have got jobs at other companies, and they have made their lives better because they have got paid higher from their companies for which they have worked. CHA’s ultimate goal is to provide the skills to allow their trainees to integrate back into society knowing their worth and being able to provide for themselves and their families.   

As you know, CHA is a non-profit organization who does not rely on donors, but at this time we appeal to you for help because the current landlord of our houses, where we have run our projects for almost 10 years, sold his houses for which we have used to run our whole activities to serve the projects of training the people with disabilities, poverty and vulnerabilities, and the next land lord who bought these houses, which we have managed to implement our programme, asked us to find other place to move our programme out at the end of June 2012. He needs the houses, where we have processed the projects for the disabled, for his own aim. We have been very worried about this transfer because we have had no funds to resolve this, so we really require your kind help and urgent funds as well as your useful advice.

We found a new one for our programme and will move to it in June. We are sending you this email to let you know that our programme requires some assistance from you, and we would like to propose you to help funds for moving our programme to another house and the rent cost for a few months after being moved so that we can have strong position to lift up to help ourselves continue it as usual. Your help with this will ensure our group can pursue the efforts and patience to learn more skills in our programme, and CHA will maintain its excellent standard of work with the disabled.

With the best regards,
Kim Tha"

As Kim Tha was asking for over US$10,000, which is more than I felt the CFF could afford, even though we had more than that in the CFF account, I contacted the Trustees and asked them for a quick decision about how much we felt we could afford to donate to the CHA without compromising the reserves we hold in the CFF account.

Once we had decided the maximum amount we could commit, I contacted Kim Tha to ascertain that that amount would be enough for them to make the move they had to and to stay sustainable. Once Kim Tha had confirmed that it would be enough to keep the CHA going, we transferred US$5000 to the CHA account, comprising US$4100 from the CFF and US$900 from me personally, as I had made some good profits recently on selling CHA goods at local markets. Once I confirmed  that the transfer had been made Kim Tha sent me the email below:

"Dear Alan,

Thank you very very much. I am very absolutely delighted to hear about what you said in your mail and that's very kind of the Trustee of the CFF to agree that you all can fund the donation to our new primeses. I think it is enough to run the move of CHA program to the new location for the time being, it is so good to hear from you and congratulations on the support and kind donation - that is exciting. We are grateful to you for your help, and we feel eternal gratitude to you and the donors of the CFF for saving our group’s life and recovering from difficulties. On behalf of my group who are the people with disability, poverty and vulnerability and myself, I should thank you very much once again for your generous assistance that helps to prolong our standard of living better and better.

Yesterday, we all moved everything at CHA completely. We finished our move of CHA program and we are very glad to finish the move only one day from 6:00am till 6:00pm thanks to your kind donation to help our group and some of our foreign friends came to CHA to help us.

With the best wishes and love,
Kim Tha
CHA director"

I think Kim Tha says it better than I ever could - but that email is really directed at you, the donors to the CFF, as you have funded this. Thank you so much from me, you really are making a huge difference to many people's lives.

I will finish with a photo of Kim Tha with one of his helpers in front of the new CHA premises.

With very best wishes from Alan and the Trustees of the Cambodian Futures Foundation.

A new water purifier for the orphanage

It's about time I updated you all on some recent donations made by the Cambodian Futures Foundation.

Firstly, we received an appeal in April from Neth at the NCCLA to replace the water purifier we bought them about 5 years ago. The old water purifier had stopped working and, despite efforts to revive it, could not be fixed. The old problem of having water delivered and having to carry it up several flights of stairs still existed, so they were keen to buy a new one, and one that would be more robust than the previous one. In Neth's own words:

"You are kindly informed that the water filter you provided for the New Cambodian Children’s Life Association in 2006 is now not working. We have got it repaired and changed some accessories almost every month, but that did not help. Therefore, we would like to call for your support in buying a new water filter for the orphans and staff.

It costs $1100 with the quality of international standard, the brand name not the same old 1, less electrical utility (3 to 4 Kw it costs 5000 Riels (80p) per day) and it is made in Malaysia. Please help us as much as you can because it is not your responsibility, but your generousity.     

Kids, staff and I, Neth want to wish you and relatives and friends the five Buddhist blessings, longevity, social prestige, happiness, strength and enlightenment."

As this is exactly the kind of project we like to fund, being both sustainable and environmentally friendly, we agreed to fund the whole amount of US$1100.

As you can see from the photo below, the water purifier was purchased and very well received by the children at the NCCLA!

We also made a second donation, this time to the Cambodian Handicraft Association (CHA). I will write about that in a separate blog. But for now, thanks as always to all the regular donors to the CFF for your continued generosity! Alan and the Trustees of the CFF.