Gates Foundation Provides Millions for Sanitation in Cambodia, Vietnam

Bill Gates, accompanied by his wife Melinda speak to students at an appearance at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

04 September 2012
Men Kimeng, VOA Khmer

WASHINGTON DC - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided nearly $11 million to help more than 1 million people establish better sanitation through the construction of latrines.

The funding, provided to the East Meets West Foundation, will help people in Cambodia and Vietnam, where around 17,000 people die each year from poor sanitation, said John Anner, director of East Meets West.

That means the loss of some $1.2 billion a year to medical treatment and absence from work, he said.

“So we see sanitation as not simply being a health issue, but also something that helps families trapped in the cycle of poverty and makes it hard to climb out of poverty,” Anner told VOA in an interview.

Poverty Aid for Cambodia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6t-zldQCo

Every photo shown in the video was taken whilst conducting our projects in Cambodia.

Please help and donate today at:

www.povertyaid4cambodia.org

Also support us and help spread the word by liking our Facebook page! =)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poverty-Aid-for-Cambodia/118640968173697

Buddhist monks and UNICEF join to improve the lives of vulnerable families

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-y-nOB29uk

VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent RobMcBride reports on efforts made by Buddhist monks to support families affected by HIV in Cambodia. Watch in RealPlayer

At Ang Popel Temple, monks lead prayer sessions for people affected by HIV and AIDS. Participants also get advice on maintaining their health and a range of support services. (UNICEF Cambodia/2012/McBride)

The Buddhist Leadership Initiative has been life-changing for Cheng Sophea, who is living with HIV. She lost her husband to AIDS and is now raising their 11 year-old-son on her own. (UNICEF Cambodia/2012/McBride)

By Rob McBride
UNICEF

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 6 February 2012 – Cheng Sophea dropped to the ground with her son and bowed in a gesture of respect as Khun Khat arrived at her home in Kampong Speu Province, several hours outside Phnom Penh.

Ms. Cheng was diagnosed with HIV in 2002, and a year later her husband died of an AIDS-related illness. Since then, Khun Khat, a monk, has visited regularly, offering invaluable support as the 34-year-old mother comes to terms with the challenges of living with HIV while raising her 11-year-old son, Seung Panha.

“Sophea has had a lot of challenges in her life,” said Khun Khat, “but we’re advising her, and others, how to live and how to carry on.”

OCEC fundraiser for Malai district, Banteay Meanchey province

http://www.box.com/s/ue0ye0fg7helgusobte0


http://www.box.com/s/rm3h9nzf2r696lsi61n2


http://www.box.com/s/y3el7b3go7vrdm2dv7qa

Christmas Food Appeal For the Forgotten People at a Rubbish Dump in Siem Reap, Cambodia

 KI-Media Note to the organizers: Please set up a Paypal account for online donation!

$25 could be the difference between poverty and provision

16 September, 2011

Cambodia (MNN) ― In the Western world, $25 really can't buy much even at the grocery store. A gift of $25 might be helpful, but not life-changing.

In Cambodia, however, $25 can be the difference between poverty and comfort, life and death.

The World Hope International Adelphe program offers business training and microloans for women in several third world nations. The ministry recently reported two particular success stories within the program.

Sokheang is a young mother of two daughters. Before she connected with Adelphe, she was struggling to support her children. After attending a series of Adelphe business courses, however, she was approved for a $25 microloan.

The loan was enough for Sokheang to open a stand to sell goods. Within three months, she was able to repay her loan and take out a larger one to expand her business. Now, Sokheang is making enough income to pay her living expenses, send her girls to school, and save for future needs.

Rockin' for Cambodians

Ottawa-area residents build houses for poor

August 6, 2011
By Bob Carver
Ottawa Citizen (Ontario, Canada)

My wife Wendy Cunning and I are self-described "Asia Hands." My connection to Southeast Asia derives from my long involvement as an instructor of martial arts from that region. I owned and operated the Thai Boxing Academy in Ottawa for 12 years. Wendy and I began spending our yearly vacation in Southeast Asia in 2000. The initial trip took a bit of convincing on my part. After hounding Wendy for several years, she finally relented to our first trip with the words, "All right, I'll go this once, then I don't want to hear about it any more."

However, Asia has a way of hooking visitors. Most who visit Thailand and neighbouring countries fall in love with the climate, food and especially the people, and can't wait for their next opportunity to visit. Wendy was no exception. Since 2000, we have travelled the length and breadth of the area. "We have now been to more parts of Thailand than many native Thais. We have also visited Laos, and toured Vietnam from Hanoi to Saigon in 2002," says Wendy.

But it was our visit to Cambodia in 2003 that changed our lives. That year, we did a three-day trip to Siam Reap to visit Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was an absolutely amazing place, but we also noticed that there was real poverty on the edge of what had been developed for tourists. Other areas we had visited in Asia were always green, with multiple crops per year possible, and no one goes hungry. Crossing from Bangkok over the Cardamom Mountains, we saw an immediate and striking difference in the climate; Cambodia was "dustbowl dry," as Wendy put it.

New set of eyes

April 12, 2011
Joni Gail A. Morales
Philippine Daily Inquirer

IN MARCH of 2010, I was told to be part of a CSR (corporate social responsibility) activity in Cambodia—to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. We were a team of 11, from different Millward Brown offices in the Southeast Asian region. For five days we were freed from office work to do brick-laying and cement-mixing under the hot Cambodia sun.

Not all of us knew each other well; some of us came to know each other only through e-mail. This made the assignment look more exciting: aside from the prospect of finding new Cambodian friends, we were going to meet colleagues from Southeast Asia.

I was assigned to take care of the team, to keep tabs on each team member, meaning, to make sure we all go back home in one piece. The task proved to be challenging, after all this was a bunch of driven individuals, “brewed” in a fast-paced working environment, all workaholics. Needless to say, each one was all set and ready for a new experience. All of us left office work behind and just “stopped” ... to slowly be part of the other side of reality.

Action at grass roots

Sewing the seeds ... the Hotel de la Paix Sewing Centre teaches skills. (Photo: Leisa Tyler)

Angkor's tourist income is funding community projects beyond the Cambodian heritage site, writes Leisa Tyler.

March 26, 2011

The Age (Australia)

Cambodia's Angkor Heritage Park is the fastest-growing tourism attraction of any World Heritage monument. Increasing at an average rate of 30 per cent a year, arrivals are expected to reach 3 million this year, up from 200,000 visitors 10 years ago.

Tourism has turned the temples into one of the most sought-after experiences in the world and brought development and infrastructure to the nearby town of Siem Reap.

But few people in Siem Reap province benefit from these tourist dollars. Predominantly rural, the people remain among the poorest in Cambodia, many living on less than a dollar a day.

Join Habitat for Humanity in Cambodia

March 22, 2011
By Staff
Issaquah Press (Washington, USA)

Help build houses in Cambodia alongside Habitat for Humanity of East King County employees.

Emily Fortman, director of family services, and bookkeeper Kathy Davis plan to lead 12 adventurers on a Global Village trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, from June 10-18.

Global Village trips consist of volunteers and a local family working side by side. The family then lives in the home.

In addition to the project, volunteers can experience authentic Cambodian meals and cultural activities.

Answering the Call to work with Dying Prisoners in Cambodia

Answering the Call

Lisa Cescon left a high-level position with a top entertainment company in London to work with dying prisoners in Cambodia.

PFI.org

As a young child, Lisa Cescon hated the inequity she saw around her. “You're lucky if you are someone who has the ability to succeed in life, and you're just jolly unlucky if you don‘t” she reflected. But Ms. Cescon was blessed with the ability to succeed, and she eventually became a top executive at Warner Brothers in London, England.

Despite being a committed volunteer all her life, her desire to help those less fortunate deepened. At the age of 35, she made the decision give up her successful career to go to Cambodia. Shortly after arriving in Phnom Penh, she and her friend Nicola received the call to work with prisoners. They were earnestly praying that God would use them in some direct way, when they were interrupted by a phone call from a local woman they had recently met. She asked if they would be willing to conduct weekly prison visits. “That was God,” Ms. Cescon recalled. “I am a real cynic - but I know that was God. We had both worked in prisons before.”

And thus began Lisa Cescon‘s ministry to dying prisoners in Cambodia. In a country wrought with corruption, poverty and the after effects of the Pol Pot genocide, prisoners in Cambodia face dire conditions. A lack of food and water lead to the rampant spread of disease, including tuberculosis, AIDS and Hepatitis C. When they become severely ill, the prisoners are moved to a decrepit wing of a military hospital, but without access to medicine most die a slow and painful death.

Tapping S'pore ideas to help Cambodians; Insead project put water filters in rural homes

March 12, 2011
Judith Tan
The Straits Times (Singapore)

INSPIRED by Singapore's innovative efforts towards achieving self-sufficiency in water, an Insead student here set about helping rural Cambodian households obtain clean drinking water.

Not only that, Mr Victor Ferre Pellicer, a Spaniard with a degree in industrial engineering but who is working towards an MBA at Insead, also rallied 13 other foreigners here to the cause.

Barely three months later, the Water For Life initiative had installed 61 biosand filters (BSFs) and built another 40 in homes in Siem Reap.

U. project hopes to buy cows for Cambodia

Thursday, March 10, 2011 
By Carole Mikita
Deseret News (Utah, USA)

SALT LAKE CITY — What do University of Utah students, cows and Cambodia have in common? They are linked through a project to help people rise out of poverty.

"We have some very dedicated students who have educated themselves on microcredit, its potential, the impact it can have on lives,” said economics professor Wade Roberts.

Members of his international economics class want to take an idea — microcredit — halfway around the world. They have only seen video or pictures of the poverty in Cambodia but some of the students at the U. and Westminster College will travel to see for themselves in June.

In Cambodia, ADRA delivers water to refugees following border skirmish

Refugees at the Tmei Commune benefited from an ADRA water distribution effort this month. The agency later drilled three wells near the camp to provide for the health and hygiene needs of some 2,500 families displaced by border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand. [photo courtesy ADRA Cambodia]

Agency follows immediate response with well drilling, water filter distribution

22 Feb 2011, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
ADRA Cambodia/ANN staff

The humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church drilled wells and distributed more than 1,000 water filters to aid some 2,500 families displaced by recent border skirmishes between Cambodia and Thailand.

An estimated 30,000 people fled the region after clashes erupted earlier this month over a disputed 11th Century temple, killing at least 10 and wounding 89. The situation remains tense, but a truce brokered by the United Nations last week led local officials to speculate most refugees will return home shortly.

Both southeast Asian nations agreed today to allow Indonesian observers into the disputed area to avoid further violence, reports indicate.

Help Cambodia's disadvantaged with Food4Everyone

Margarita Parrish on a trip to Cambodia where Food4Everyone assists in building huts and wells

Food4Everyone assists in building huts and wells in Cambodia.

26 Sep 2010
by Omar Hamwi
Penrith Press (Australia)

PENRITH psychologist Margarita Parrish says a lack of fresh food and water has made Cambodia one of the most socio-economically depressed countries in the world.

For four years Mrs Parrish has operated Food4Everyone, a charity that raises money in Australia to build huts and wells there.

She travels to Cambodia twice a year to work with a team to help desperate families.

“Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world,” she said.

“Malnutrition is about 50 per cent and lack of water is a huge problem. We do work in Cambodia to help people have their basic right to food.”

Mrs Parrish said since she launched Food4Everyone the organisation had built 110 wells in the country. She added that global deaths due to lack of water equated to 20 jumbo jets falling out of the sky every day.

Homelessness is also a serious problem in Penrith and Mrs Parrish said it needed a solution - but Food4Everyone would not provide assistance here until local problems “remotely resembled” Cambodia’s.

“We have Aboriginal problems and homelessness,” she said.

“If we had (the same problems as Cambodia) here I’d be doing something here.”

The organisation needs 47 house sponsors at $100 each, 19 wall and roof sponsors at $50 each, seven well sponsors at $30 each and 72 mosquito net sponsors at $5 each.

Money raised would ease the suffering of 72 desperate families.

“We have huge plans. We will continue to build basic shelter for people,” Mrs Parrish said.

To donate call 4737 3400, email food4everyone@hotmail.com or go to food4everyone.net

A world of good

Barton Brooks with Cambodian children

His 'small' deeds add up globally

September 9, 2010
By RITA DELFINER
New York Post

It was a trip to Cambodia about five years ago that changed Manhattan real-estate broker Barton Brooks' life.

"There were a bunch of kids I fell in love with, orphans being taken care of by monks," he said. "I wanted to help."

Brooks, 38, came home and got donations of sporting equipment and school supplies, "and I saw how easy it is to help one person at a time."

He gave up his career and founded the nonprofit Global Colors, providing what he calls guerrilla aid: "You go somewhere, do something, and teach others to do the same."

On one visit to Cambodia, he asked what the people of a village needed.

"One woman said, 'If I had some water jars, some seeds and a bike, I could take care of my family,' " he said. "It took just $80 to take her from extreme poverty to lower middle class."

On a recent trip to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Brooks -- who has been nominated for a New York Post Liberty medal in the Freedom category -- gathered volunteers and rebuilt two schools.

Brooks travels the globe doing small acts of kindness that have a big impact -- from donating 100 cows to destitute widows in Kenya, to helping create floating libraries that travel the Mekong River in Laos.

He inspires people "to actually be the change we wish to see in the world," said Valerie Mnuchin, who nominated him.

rita.delfiner@nypost.com

Northeast Ohio: Local priest helping overseas loses priceless item

8/29/2010
Amanda Barren
WKYC (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

CLEVELAND -- A priest from the Cleveland area who has been doing medical outreach work in Cambodia for the last several years came home hoping to help, but he hit a serious roadblock.

Kevin Conroy made the trip home to Northeast Ohio earlier this week for a variety of reasons.

On the list: speak at the graduation of nursing students from Cleveland State University, celebrate his elderly father's birthday, officiate at the wedding of a nephew and to help a young woman in Cambodia who is battling a rare disease.

She's a young woman who had to truly go the extra mile to even get any kind of medical attention.

"I brought (to Cleveland) an x-ray that I'd sent a person to Vietnam to get because we don't have that in Cambodia. This x-ray was to help us determine if she had a disease called Takayasu Arteritis," Conroy said.

Takayasu Arteritis is a disease that affects primarily women between the ages of 20 to 40 in Southeast Asia.

It inflames arteries and the aorta. The roadblock came when the bag that Conroy brought the x-ray CD home in disappeared. The bag was either taken or misplaced.

It also had other valuables in it, but Conroy says he is not worried about those things. His concern is about the x-rays which he says are priceless.

"It is, it's very difficult when you work with people who don't have any access to medicine and spent five years trying to get somebody to help her with her treatment," Conroy says.

Conroy was hoping some of his friends in the medical field here in Cleveland could help him find some kind of answers for this young woman. Her name is Sreyneth and she is 26-years-old.

He's retraced his steps trying to find his bag, with no luck.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about the bag that would help identify it.

It's black with a yellow handle. Conroy says his name is on things inside the bag.

Anyone with information can contact Kevin at Kevinconro@gmail.com.

Grant from UN-run fund enables Cambodian village to reap ecotourism benefits

Som Doeun, a Kuoy villager from Romchek, holds a fish he caught in Choam Prei lake

26 August 2010 (UN News Centre) – Funds from a global environment grants scheme implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will enable an indigenous community in one of Cambodia's poorest provinces to build an ecotourism project at a lake recently returned to them from private ownership.

The mostly indigenous ethnic Kuoy residents of Romchek village in northeast Preah Vihear province are to receive a share of almost $20,000 in grant money from the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants Programme, according to a press release issued today by UNDP.

They will invest the money in environmentally sensitive visitor sites in the pristine forestland around the Choam Prei lake.

The lake, used by the Kuoy as a cattle-grazing site and as a water and food source, was returned to the 213 families of Romchek from private ownership this year after a process that involved the local, provincial and central Government.

A plan to develop the 70-acre lake into a site for hosting tourists was approved in June by GEF’s Small Grants Programme.

“The site has a lot of potential for the entire village,” said Ly Setha, a project officer for a provincial civil society organization, Ponlok Khmer, that will channel funds from the small grant into eco-tourism projects for the area.

“Villagers hope there will be a spill-over from the tourists coming every year that will allow them to earn income by selling local products, and that will help them improve their livelihoods,” said Mr. Setha.

The two-year project aims to accommodate tourists to carry out conservation-related research, or to experience the wild animals and plant life around the lake. Activities include production of publicity material, building campsites, and training community members to become tour guides.

Ponlok Khmer was already running a programme that employed villagers to repair the lake’s drainage and water level and to improve it as a fish spawning ground.

Before January, the lake had been part of a fish-farming enterprise run by the family of a local entrepreneur, who was given permission by a village chief in 1998 to use the area for private business.

Villagers accused him of blocking public access to Choam Prei. They collected 86 thumbprints to file a petition through their local government office.

The head of Romney commune took up the case in 2008 and raised its profile through a nationwide local government-association. The association, the National League of Commune/Sangkat, receives technical and financial support from UNDP as part of a project for democratic reforms at the local level.

A hand up for Cambodia’s poor

August 2, 2010
Catholic News Asia

This Catholic Relief Services video features a microfinance project being carried out in Cambodia called “Thanakea Phum Cambodia” (TPC) - which means Village Bank Cambodia.

TPC gives small loans to motivated, hardworking people who want to support their families. This video, uploaded to YouTube in May, looks at how three beneficiaries changed their lives with help from the project.

Pacific Partnership 2010 Doctors Help Mother and Son

Monday, June 28, 2010
Commander, Pacific Fleet
By Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Gaines
US Navy

06.26.2010 SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia – A mother and her young son will be able to lead better lives as a result of the care provided by Pacific Partnership 2010 surgeons working aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy.

U.S. Navy, partner nation, and non-governmental organization surgeons were preparing to perform corrective surgery to a Cambodian child’s urinary tract when they noticed the boy’s mother had very poor eyesight. The 40-year-old woman was found to have severe cataracts in both eyes. After making arrangements for post-operative care for the son, the embarked ophthalmologists then performed surgery on the mother to remove one of the cataracts.

“As the boy was being prepped for surgery, we noticed the mother feeling her way around the ship,” said Australian Navy Lt. (Dr.) Elizabeth Livingstone, an ophthalmologist currently attached to Mercy.

“So we decided to check for cataracts and then decided surgery would benefit the mother.”

Ophthalmologists aboard Mercy were surprised to see such advanced cataracts in a woman this age. The first procedure, which took approximately half an hour, was performed at the same time as the child’s surgery, which took about three and a half hours.

At the conclusion of both surgeries, both mother and child spent time together in recovery, before being taken back to their respective wards.

“Eventually, we removed the other cataract and the mother now has 20/30 vision in that eye,” said Livingstone.

The entire surgical staff celebrated the fact that they had helped this family.

“It is amazing that we could help restore the gift of sight for this woman,” said Cmdr. (Dr.) Kent Blade, officer in charge for Ophthalmology. “Otherwise, the child inevitably would have been leading his mother around in a few years.”

Not only will the child now lead a normal life, but the mother will now have improved vision,” said Cmdr. (Dr.) Brian Auge, a urologist aboard Mercy. “It was also great to see the surgical staff – from administration on down – come together to make this great thing a reality.”

The positive effect in the overall quality of life for this mother and son team translates to an overall improvement for their community – half-day’s travel away – by enabling them to become more productive members who will no longer be affected by a medical condition,” said Livingstone. “The mother must have given me a dozen hugs as they departed Mercy.”

Pacific Partnership 2010 is the fifth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance endeavors aimed at strengthening regional partnerships among U.S. government organizations, host nations, partner nations, and international humanitarian and relief organizations.