We made 3 donations from the CFF to Cambodian beneficiaries in 2013. The first donation was made back in April, when we received this email from Kim Tha, director of the Cambodian Handicraft Association:
"Dear Alan, Warmest greeting from CHA! Everything is going on better and better at CHA.
Unfortunately, the power always go out at CHA and all block near CHA program.
We got a generator from our friend who lives in foreign country, but we cannot afford to buy gasoline to start it because we have no electricity every day - it goes out every day at least 5 or 6 hours a day.Today, we filled it with 12 litres of gasoline.
Last night, we had no electricity because the electricity cabinet was broken, so we had no light for the whole night. In the evening, I got the news from state TV, and they broadcast that we have not enough power to use in Phnom Penh till May, so we are worried about the usage of electricity to run our whole program. We are lucky to get a generator from our friend, but we cannot have enough gasoline to fill it.
Will you please find out any way to help us run the generator? Thank you in advance for your kind help whenever we need your generous assistance. I should to thank you very warmly for all the help and comfort you can give us during this worrying time.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
With million thanks,
KIM THA
CHA director"
I contacted the Trustees of the CFF, who agreed to send the CHA US$1,000 as fuel for the generator was costing up to US$400 a month. This allowed the CHA to run their generator without worry throughout April and May, and gave them some back-up in case of further electricity outages.
In December we received another email from Kim Tha:
"Dear Alan,
Warmest greeting from Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled (CHA)!!!! We send this email to appeal to you, who are the best friend, on behalf of our young disabled women for your helping us with any kind offer or support because of political issues - mass demonstration created by the opposition party in Phnom Penh during a few months.
This has threatened the visitors, customers and others to come to Cambodia, and this caused us to get a slow sale, lack of income and fluctuated prices at the markets. We are facing to the difficulties in covering everything in our program which has been run to deal with everything to the young disabled women who have depended on the daily sales to solve their daily standard of living.
During this worrying time, we would kindly like to ask you for your generous help and support to place orders or make something available for us to get the income to resolve our daily life while facing to the bad situation in Cambodia. Up to now, we have not had any funds from outside resources, and we have solved our program by ourselves in producing silk items to be sold in order to get the income to deal with our daily expenditure in the whole program.
Also, during the political issues caused by mass demonstration for a few months after national election, we have lacked the income/funds to cover the rent, food, education, medicines and other expenses on training supplies for the entire program. For the time being, on behalf of our disabled members and myself, I would warmly like to ask you for any generous assistance that is fair for you to help us get the income to settle up our program to move on step by step.
Please take your time, efforts or funds to provide us with whatever it can be to assist us. We do hope that you will find the best way to help us after reading our appealed letter, and we thank you beforehand for your invaluable time, efforts and others to us. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
With million thanks, KIM THA, CHA director"
Again, it felt important to support the CHA through this difficult time - political upheaval is nothing new for Cambodia, but it sounds particularly bad this time. Kim Tha estimated it would cost around US$10,000 to fund the CHA for 6 months. As this was too great an amount for the CFF to fund the Trustees agreed to send US$2,500 to at least tide the CHA over until the New Year, with the hope that the political situation will improve soon.
We received the following certificate from the CHA to confirm the funds had been received:
The final donation of 2013 went to a new recipient - Ier Phang, shown below in a selfie from his Facebook page - Ier was born in the countryside, but like many Cambodians moved to Phnom Penh to make a living for himself.
I first met Ier when I lived in Phnom Penh in 2005/6. He was one of the people helping to set up and run the New Cambodian Children's Life Association (NCCLA), which was the main reason for me setting up the CFF. Ier was a hugely positive presence for the children, and really helped me to get to know them better with his excellent English to Cambodian translation skills.
Ier has been involved with the NCCLA ever since, and I was very pleased to make contact with Ier through Facebook a few months ago. He filled me in on his latest news - he is married and has a young son, and he is finding it hard to make ends meet. As such he is keen to attend University to study Business Management, but he can't afford the fees of US$360 a year for the 4 year course.
Again, I asked the Trustees whether they felt supporting Ier through his studies would be in keeping with the aims of the CFF, and they felt it would be as we support any under-privileged Cambodians, and Ier very much fits this category. As such, we sent Ier the US$360 he needs for the first year of his course
Ier started his studies last week and will be keeping us up to date with how things are going. He knows that we will continue to support him as long as he passes each year of his course. I asked Ier to send a short paragraph to introduce himself to you, and here it is:
"My name is IER, working at Himawari Hotel Apartments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, my wife name is Linda, working as receptionist at central hotel in Phnom Penh as well, my son name is Iden, he is now five years old and studies at English school but course is a bit expensive for children class and what we think is to provide him a good education for his future so we decided him to attend school as we were experience not high in education.
My family situation is not so good as we rent a flat to live in the city, everything is expensive, medical supplies, transportation and when we get pay is very low, even we could not be providing in living.
I would like to inform you that my studies are going very well, I am really enjoying the course very much, teachers are full of experience in teaching and provided all documentations.
I would like at this time like to thank you very much all donors who give the money to the Cambodian Futures Foundation, it would be great for me have a chance to continue studying at University for upgrading my education by leading, organizing, planning, and controlling because I am right now studying business management.
I would like to send all the best wishes, good health, long life and success.
Best regards,
IER"
We haven't just been spending money this year, we have also been getting some money in by reclaiming Gift Aid on all the generous donations we have received over the past few years. We recently had around £650 paid into the CFF account, which of course helps us enormously in achieving our aims of helping some of Cambodia's most vulnerable people.
I will leave the last word to Kim Tha, who sent me this email a few days ago. This is what your contributions achieve:
"Dear Alan,
I would like to inform you that CHA has a new student, Seng Yim, 30 (see photo), who has polio in right arm and leg as well as a left eye blinded. She got this problem since she was born in Sway Rieng Province.
While working on the farm alone in her village, she was raped by two men who lived in the same village, and one of the two was arrested. Because of being raped by two men, she has a daughter who is 6 years old. After having had a daughter aged over two years, she was raped by another man in her village while working on a farm and the perpetrator has been on the run.
So, she had to leave with her daughter for Phnom Penh to find out the Skill Training Program to learn skills, then she found out CHA program to learn skills and stay at CHA, but CHA cannot let small children to stay with CHA members as the rules mentioned at CHA, so she took her daughter to live and learn literacy at the orphanage near suburb of Phnom Penh.
With the best wishes,
KIM THA
CHA Director"
