Annual Chairman’s Report
It once again gives me enormous pleasure to be blessed with the privilege to present the Chairman’s report for Supporting Cambodia, now in its 16th year. It is such a great encouragement to me to pause and take stock of the remarkable transformation that is occurring in the lives of hundreds of families in Andong slum village and remote Oddar Meanchey province.
The big picture view of what Abe and his dedicated team are achieving is always such a great inspiration to those of us who have been on the journey since it began and equally uplifting for people learning of the story for the first time.
There’s the brand new, multi-storey Andong slum village primary school that delivers an enviable first-class education and food to nearly 500 kids in one of the poorest pockets of Phnom Penh.
Seven hours away, Trampoung Primary School is nothing short of a beacon of hope to that impoverished community where 550 village sons and daughters receive an equally top notch Khmer education and nutritious meal that for many is all they will eat for the entire day.
Down the road sits the OM House of Hope where as many as 65 ambitious high school students are nurtured and mentored as they embark on an education pathway that ultimately could see them attending university in the country’s capital, most being the first in their family lineage to do so.
When you consider the volume of young people who have been lovingly guided through the successful education model of our in-country projects over the years the extent of the impact in the lives of these families is quite staggering.
But it’s when you lower your eyes and zoom in on a single family that you really get an awe-inspiring window into the profound transformation our partnership with Abe and Sophin is having for people who really have their backs against the wall.
While conducting an emergency food aid program during a visit to Cambodia late last year we came across a young mum with four little ones at the end of a really isolated dirt track who were living in absolutely terrible conditions. Separated from her husband, her family lived in a very basic one room dirt floor structure on land owned by someone else. She was able to stay there for free as she tends the land for the owner, but her only source of income was cutting local grasses and weaving basic roof panels to sell to her neighbours.
She received 25c per panel and I reckon she would have struggled to pump out more than five or six per day.
The family's water was drawn from a stagnant pond and her children forced to eat a bi-product of rice harvesting that is normally fed to livestock. Many families in OM struggle to stay alive, but this was one of the most desperate situations we have seen in recent years.
Well this same family now has a water tank, filtration system, mum has some proper tools to make a stack more grass panels each day and three of her children now attend our school where they will get a first class education and one nutritious meal a day which will really help now and pave the way for a much brighter future. These proud little students also got new uniforms and backpacks as well. Freeing up mum's time at home will hopefully enable her to increase her income too.
Zooming back out again, our support this past year has also provided accommodation and mentoring and covered study fees for OM young adults living in Phnom Penh pursuing tertiary education. We’ve conducted periodic emergency food programs, assisted with the operational costs of the OM cow, fish and avocado farm and provided transport services across many areas of the projects.
New desks were purchased for the classrooms in both OM and Andong and we funded a well-earned celebration and some gifts for the entire teaching and admin team at the end of the Cambodian school year.
Christmas was once again recognised in the communities we support with fantastic events that included meals for thousands of villagers. Abe’s project vehicle required some repairs and we once again provided some additional finances to aid his team in meeting their monitoring and reporting obligations both in Cambodia and here in Australia.
Of course, underpinning all of the project activity is the operation of both schools and OM House of Hope where we have covered teacher and admin salaries and roll out of the daily food program.
Our schools were once again subjected to some very detailed and frequent scrutiny by various Cambodian government ministry departments and as is testament to the dedication and professionalism of our staff, passed with flying colours.
None of this would be possible without the amazing backing of our supporter base here in Australia, many of the key stakeholders sitting in this room this afternoon. It is an enormous encouragement to me, to Abe, to his team and to the thousands of Cambodians we help, to have such generous and selfless people standing shoulder to shoulder with us on this journey together.
We participated in some terrific fundraising initiatives again over the last 12 months, noticeably the canteen at the Kingscote Show, the pop-up icecream stand at the Parndana Show and Stokes Bay fireworks and the clean up at the annual Kangaroo Island Racing Carnival. Many of these events afford us with opportunities to raise awareness for the projects and I can tell you it does translate into extra donations in the weeks that follow and recruitment of new regular supporters.
I’d also like to shine a light on the efforts of my daughter Mia and her two besties Bonita and Aleeya who cooked up a storm in our kitchen on a number of occasions last year and peddled their delicious creations to folk around our town to raise funds, one of the days in driving rain. The combination of their sales and a significant donation by someone so inspired by their efforts saw in excess of $3,500 find its way into our working account. Well done girls.
But most encouragingly of all, the vast majority of our funding comes from direct donations from people who very generously dip into their own resources to fund the projects. Some are well known faces who have been there from the outset, while others put their hands in their pockets after just a brief glimpse at the work being done in the projects.
More and more, I’m seeing donations come about as regulars share the Supporting Cambodia story with friends and family which is fantastic and I would encourage you to continue to weave the work of Abe and his team into your conversations.
An important tool in raising awareness for the projects and conveying what it is that inspires us all to stay involved is the very professional, but still personal and down to earth, Supporting Cambodia website. It is such an asset to be able to direct potential donors to the site and I offer my ongoing gratitude to Emily McWaters for helping me set it up and keep it up to date.
Over the past 12 months, all of this support has translated into us being able to fund project activities in Andong and OM to the value of 629 million riel or just over AU$245,000. This is slightly down on the AU$280,000 from last year, but does take our running tally for the past six years to just shy of AU$2 million, which is quite staggering.
One of the real highlights of the past year was travelling with a group to Cambodia in September. It is always such a wonderful experience to visit Andong and OM with like-minded individuals and each time we go the ever increasing positive impact is plain to see. I challenge anyone to look into the eyes of one of our village kids when they are explaining with such hope what they want to do when they grow up and not come away moved and motivated to double down the efforts when we return home.
I would like to conclude with a few thank yous. Firstly to anyone who has donated, volunteered or just shared a word about the projects, you are helping to rewrite the script for some of the poorest people on the planet and I would like to say a huge akun (thanks in Khmer). I’d like to thank one of our staff Kathy Flack who has taken on a large responsibility for our locally based reporting and receipting that is so vital to keeping things ticking along in the background. Thanks Kathy. And finally, to the good wife who fills the roll of treasurer, catering division manager and sounding board for me. I draw much encouragement from your wisdom and dedication to the cause. Thanks wifey.
Thank you once again for entrusting me with the honour and privilege to oversee Supporting Cambodia as chairman and look forward to collectively filling in more chapters in the story over the coming year.
Rob Ellson, Chairman, Supporting Cambodia.
We would love for you to consider partnering with us in an array of great projects across two of Cambodia's poorest provinces by making a tax deductible donation today (or any day). You can contribute directly into our Australian working account ‘Supporting Cambodia’ BSB: 015-600 Account: 1967 91878 (Please include your name and email address in the transaction for a tax receipt) or with a credit card on our donation page.