FEEDING DREAMS

CAMBODIA

 

OCT 2017

Newsletter

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Devastating Floods Cause Feeding Dreams To Close 1 25 Water Filters Delivered to Our Poorest Families 6 Volunteers David & Genene Stock the Store Room Just In Time For Pchum Ben 8 Long Term Volunteer Jeff Updates Our Policies 9 University Students Graduate 4 Our Payment Gateways 5 Sokleap’s Success Story 2 Funeral Support to Long Term FDC Family 7 Thank You to The V.I.P Donors Club 10 Team Members Still Awaiting Sponsorship 12 Contact US 13

Devastating floods cause feeding dreams to closeSadly, this month Feeding Dreams has been forced to close repeatedly due to excessive and dangerous flooding. With monsoon rains and unusual weather patterns increasing significantly over the last 2 years we realise we must act immediately to ensure we are able to remain open during these times.

We now have costings from an experienced builder to install and implement a complete new drainage for the school and connect it into the main underground road piping. Following this we will also need large quantities of dirt and gravel to build up certain areas. Unfortunately we have no funds for this urgent and necessary work, but without commencing with this work we will have to remain closed every time we have heavy rain. This is already impacting on our children and their families by not being able to attend school and additionally receive their free school meal.

The drainage and works will cost us US$2800.00 - a considerable and unexpected expense that Feeding Dreams Cambodia simply does not have.

We are therefore asking all our friends, supporters, child sponsors and VIP sponsors to spread the word and dig deep and support us for this urgent school drainage system funds appeal.

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DONATE NOW

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SoKleaps success storyThroughout her life, Sokleap has experienced starvation, tragedy, illness and loss. Since the death of her alcoholic father many years ago, Sokleap and her 9 siblings have been raised by her extremely hardworking rubbish collecting mother ‘Thonny’.

Proceeding the death of her father, her older sister who is completely deaf and unable to communicate, was abducted and taken to live in Malaysia. The family fear they will never see her again.

Sokleap’s elder brother Krem, 23, is suffering from a brain injury after he had a traffic accident on the street in Siem Reap town, many years ago. Krem is illiterate and lifts boxes for a market in the evening.

The large family reside under a makeshift hut, built with scrap metal and rubbish. In order to survive, each of the children have also spent years helping their mother collect rubbish.

Receiving a daily meal, free education and sponsorship at Feeding Dreams Cambodia over the last 5 years improved their situation significantly.

Last year, Sokleap became one of our first students at our Dreams Vocational Training Center. With a high level of English from her Feeding Dreams classes, Sokleap was allocated into the Front Office department.

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Here she learned core competencies alongside vital life skills. After 6 months of intensive in-house training, Sokleap embarked on a 4 month internship at Ree Hotel. Here she put into practice her learnings and was monitored closely by her trainer.

Upon graduating with a certificate from the Department of Tourism and the Department of Labour & Vocational training Sokleap gained full time employment at Angkor Paradise Hotel.

Each week, Sokleap returns to Feeding Dreams after work to continue learning English and to meet with her old classmates. Once a shy and demoralised young girl, Sokleap has blossomed into a confident and proud young woman.

She earns a good salary, is treated with respect in her workplace and is able to provide for her family. Last month, Sokleap bought a motorbike and took her extremely poor family into town to eat out at Lucky Mall. They enjoyed a burger and chips and went shopping for the very first time ever in a supermarket.

Her mother Thonny got dressed up for the occasion, and Sokleap posted their adventure all over Facebook. She was so proud to be giving back to her mother and taking care of her family.

A couple of months ago Sok Leap’s brother Chanthit began studying in our Cooking department at the DTC. We are delighted to know that after he graduates from our course the living conditions of this entire family will continue to improve.

Step by step, with the support of daily nutrition, education, community support and vocational training, Sokleap has completely transformed her family’s life.

We are so proud to be sharing this success story with you, and look forward to sharing many more in the future.

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In recent months we have had 9 students graduate from their bachelor degrees at University. Among the graduates were our beloved staff members Ms. Soknita who studied English Literature, Mr. Seng who studied Law and Mr. Thai who studied Business English. Each of these graduates come from humble beginnings, and through determination and persistence have managed to come out on top. A huge thank you to their sponsors for making this possible, and providing these inspiring individuals with the opportunity to succeed in life. GRADUATES DEGREE SPONSORSChhen Rorl Bachelor of English Literature Pottercorp Pty Ltd Ros Sophat Bachelor of English Literatre Steven Tan Ny Sokrith Bachelor of Tourism Peter Deveraux, Mary CominoMap Sokna Bachelor of English Literature Sarah Calhoun Mek Soknita Bachelor of English Literature Jack Brzo, Brett MeadKun Sengthai Bachelor of Business English Steve & Debbie Gripper Khuy Seng Bachelor of Law Justin Dai Mao Sopheaktra Bachelor of Law Kay & Jenny, Robert & Jacquie Horder Chang Ly Champa Bachelor of Tourism Brett Mead

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UNIVERSITY GRADUATIONS

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We offer tax deductibility in Australia, USA, Canada and UK attracts Automatic Gift Aid

UK/GlobalDonations With 25%

Gift Aid

CanadaFully Tax Deductable

Donations

U.S.A #277Fully Tax Deductable

Donations

AustraliaFully Tax Deductable

Donations

Donate Direct

FEEDING DREAMS CAMBODIAA/C 2599771Swift Code ANZBKHPPANZ Royal Bank LtdSiem Reap, Cambodia

OR

Our payment Gateways

5.

Recent groups of volunteers from Bamboo have launched a community based water filter project for our poorest community. This entails short term volunteers coming across for a few days and building sturdy wooden stands for ceramic water filters. Each volunteer is set the task of completing 3 water filter stands, and at the end of the week are to hand out the filtration devices to the poorest families in need. Access to clean drinking water is limited in Cambodia, in 2014 Unicef estimated that 6.3 million Cambodians did not have access to clean drinking water or basic sanitation. Without safe water and adequate hygiene, children (41 per cent of the population) are especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases. Currently, we are working with Bamboo to provide these water filters to the families residing in the nearby slum area in dire conditions. We are working with the village elder to assess the order in which families are to receive these filters . This is assessed based on which parents value education the most and who have the most children to care for.

Thus far, Bamboo has built, delivered and donated 25 water filters to our poorest families. In the coming months we aim to have one filter given out to all 65 families in this area.

Clean drinking water is a basic human right, thank you to Bamboo for providing this to our families and for you ongoing support and development within our community.

25 WATER FILTERS DELIVERED TO OUR POOREST FAMILIES

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The Feeding Dreams team were very saddened to learn of the death of a loving mother, whose children have been attending Feeding Dreams Cambodia for many years.On the 10th of September Mrs. Pach passed away from long term TB and ongoing abdominal problems. She visited a doctor for treatment, but sadly the doctors’ advice didn’t help.

Mrs. Pach‘s husband phoned FDC to inform us about the funeral, and many of our staff went to join. The family is extremely poor and couldn’t afford the funeral costs so in a show of support our school delivered 50kg rice for the ceremony. Sadly they had to borrow their neighbors money to prepare the funeral, and our school reimbursed them with these funds.

Knowing that the children of Mrs. Pach now only have one sole caretaker, our community support manager Mr. Sophorn, did not want them to be in debt for the funeral.

Our heart goes out to the children and their father, and we hope that they can recover and move forward after their devastating loss. The children of course shaved their head in respect of their mother’s passing.

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FUNERAL SUPPORT TO BELOVED FDC FAMILY

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Landing at Siem Reap’s international airport in late July, I was so excited to be returning to my second home and again, as a volunteer at Feeding Dreams. I was initially coming for 5 weeks but the rewarding experience (and the smiles from the children) convinced me to extend my stay to 8 weeks this time.

Prior to my arrival, Kerry gave me the task to implement a child protection program to support the existing child protection policy. The purpose of the program was to educate all FDC staff in identifying potential and suspected child abuse and exploitation dangers to strengthen the prevention of harm and risk being inflicted to our children. In addition to the two-hour presentation to all staff, two Fact Sheets - Child Abuse – Physical, Emotional and Neglect and Child Sexual Abuse were distributed with a refresh of the existing FDC’s Child Protection Policy.

Also, I helped in the revision of the Volunteer Management procedures to continue to improve the rewarding experience and valuable support given to FDC so unselfishly by all our wonderful volunteers. As a volunteer this time, I also enjoyed other activities such as helping with the toilet repairs, organising garden and football field maintenance and mitigating flooding problems in addition to my usual volunteering experience in teaching English conversation to older students and to the hospitality students at the Dream Training Center.

I am writing this article two weeks after returning to Australia with my fond memories from this visit. Also, I am already booked to return to Feeding Dream in late December 2017. As they say, “visit Cambodia and Feeding Dreams once, you will be back again!” That is one saying that is true. - Jeff Loof

The team at Feeding Dreams Cambodia would like to thank our long term supporter Jeff Loof for all of his hard work. If you would like to read a copy of our newly developed and updated policies please email emily@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Long Term Volunteer Jeff Updates Our Policies

Last month our kind volunteers David & Jeanine wanted to hand out clothes for our students in time for Cambodia’s largest religious holiday, Pchum Ben. During Pchum Ben our school closes for one week and our students return to their homelands to celebrate with their families. This is a very special time for Khmer people, and for the poor students at FDC, David and Jeanine thought it would be nice to hand out new (second-hand) clothes for the event. David and Jeanine joined our Khmer staff and visited the large second hand clothing warehouse in Phsar Leu market. Here they spent $125USD and were given over 1,000 items of children’s clothing. The clothes we’re already bundled up in size brackets, folded and clean. Our team was blown away by the quality of the clothing for the price. After this, Jeanine and David had the pleasure of spending hours in the FDC ‘Boutique’ handing out clothing to our excited and grateful students. Thankyou to this wonderful couple for making our students feel special and loved during their holidays!

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David & Jeanine stock the STORE room just in time for pchum ben

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Sophorn SreyrothProudly sponsored by

KIDS CANADAProudly sponsored by

SANDRA DALY Proudly sponsored by NICOLE SAINT

Mardy

Thankyou to the VIP donors club

Join our VIP Donor’s Club by sponsoring one of our amazing Cambodian Teachers, Cooks, or Social Workers. Individuals, families, schools or businesses are invited

to commit to supporting a salary for a period of 12 months. Each teacher educates approximately 100 poor students each day, whilst our cooks prepare meals for 600 children every day. We shall proudly display your name on our website, Facebook and Newsletter regularly. You and your immediate family will also be entitled to

Free Volunteer experiences with Feeding Dreams Cambodia annually.

Salaries range from US$150 and up, and All Donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

ThaiProudly sponsored by

THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOLProudly sponsored by

STEVE & DEBBIE GRIPPER, USA

Tina SaroProudly sponsored by

ANONYMOUS SPONSOR

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VannakProudly sponsored by

THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL

Kum TakProudly sponsored by ALLAN MUTTON UKProudly sponsored by

REPUBLIC OF YOU

Tha DinhaProudly sponsored by

AUSTRALIAN SWEEPER COMPANY

Proudly sponsored by THE HORNER FAMILY AND

FRIENDS

Soknita

Srey RaProudly sponsored by THE HENRY FAMILY

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SinangSOCIAL WORKER

US $230/Month US $2,660/Year

Click here to read more

Srey Mao Sok Mean

Team members in need of sponsorship

Each staff member listed below plays a crucial role in the overall operations of our centre, and they too are from very poor families and have overcome all odds to be where they are today. Without them, there is no feeding of dreams for Cambodian children and their families. They too need to feel valued.

HEAD CHEF/COOK

US $240/Month US $2,720/Year

Click here to read more

I.T SPECIALIST/TEACHER

US $400/Month US $4,700/Year

Click here to read more

Feeding Dreams Team would like to say a special thank you from our hearts to our lovely friends and donors from across the globe. Without humanitarian love, support, and engagement in our work with the impoverished,we could not have continued our life saving programs for these beautiful people. Thankyou www.feedingdreamscambodia.org

Contact Us

Ms. Kerry Huntly

Ms. Emily Williamson

Mr. Blaed Perkins

Project Manager/Public Relations

Ph +855 (0)97 600 9000

kerry@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Program Support Officer

Ph +855 (0)10 835 074

emily@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Mr. Sophorn Mr. Makara Community Support Manager

Ph +855 (0)92 535 570

community@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Manager Y.E.S Football Academy

Ph +855 (0)11 851 135

YESacademy@feedingdreamscambodia.org

General Manager Dreams Training Center

Ph +855 (0)93 200 555

trainingcenter@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Ms. Arlene Gormley

Mr. Joe McBride

Sustainable Development Consultant

Ph +44(0)787 3623 635 arlene@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Volunteer Manager

Ph + 855 (0)78 731 595

volunteer@feedingdreamscambodia.org

Mr. ThaiHead of Academics

Ph +855 (0)97 385 8110

admin@feedingdreamscambodia.org