The Assistance Fund of Cambodia

                     Newsletter

January - June 2010

    











             

      






                                                        













                                                      
                                                                                                     





















           








                                           
                                                                  
                                                                                              





                                                                                               

















     
           

 

 

 

 

Cheers to All!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer and tolerating the high heat in certain areas of the country/world.  Right now the annual rainy season has returned to Cambodia. Where high heat and  HEAVY rain is the norm……

A big thank you to our supporters and donors!  Without your continued support we could not provide and accomplish our goals with the kids and people of Cambodia.

It has been a productive six months since the last newsletter.  The girls at Anakut Laor have had some adventures while the fund continues to support efforts in the medical and educational areas.

The directors have been busy managing the fund and directing various projects and events at Anakut Laor and the various missions we support.  Clive and Alice have become semi-permanent residents in Phnom Penh and can provide in country expertise along Chris..  Clive can also be counted on to be a tour guide and welcome wagon for friends of the fund that get a chance to visit Phnom Penh and Cambodia.   He will have a good glass of cabernet for those visitors.

Chris continues to make visits and provide direction for the fund’s mission and educational/fun experiences for the girls.

The girls at AL continue to grow and develop into young ladies.  No new girls have been added to the home during the last 6 months but the house mothers have had their hands full providing for the physical and emotional needs of 17 girls.  Maybe this could become a “reality show.”   The directors of AL are working with the fund to enroll and expose the girls to vocational training programs and maybe a couple of the girls could start thinking of going on to higher education in the future.




Chris on recent visits helped facilitate numerous fun and cultural experiences for the girls.  Imagine putting on your first pair of rollerblades and learning to negotiate the back alley without crashing……The “conga line” came later.

A water park experience was arranged for the girls…..Yes, even Phnom Penh has the worldly distinction of having a water park with slides, floats and waves…..As you can see from the pics a good time was enjoyed by all and even the house mothers got into the action.

To top all of this off, a 3 day trip to the Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap was put together.  For those that don’t know what Angkor Wat is, it is a vast complex of ancient temples and ruins from a past time when Cambodian society flourished similar to the Mayans.  This all happened around 800-1200AD.  The Angkor Wat complex has become a cultural icon for the people of  Cambodia and every Cambodian should visit it to see and learn about their past.  If you ever get a chance definitely visit the place.  It is very impressive!.  It rivals anything the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas built.  If you get a chance look it up on the internet.

The girls and staff that went found this trip exciting, rewarding and an eye opener on what their ancestors had built and lived in compared to today’s society.

ANGKOR   WAT  TEMPLE    TRIP

The fund provided donations to many of our regular projects during the past six months.  We continued to support Operation Smile-Cambodia with Alice as the contact for this effort.  The mission in March was another success and treated hundreds of people throughout the country. 

The fund also provided a donation to the All Ears Clinic to help expand services to a new clinic in the beach area and provide much needed training for a new Cambodian audiology  technician. 


Other missions the fund helped to support were MLop-Tapang and the Rabbit School.  The fund provided donations to MLop-Tapang to continue their vocational training program in moto-repair. 

The Rabbit School is unique in that it teaches kids that are mentally and physically disabled.  The kids are taught life skills and provided an elementary education to the best of each child’s abilities.  This is truly a challenge in a culture that this kind of charity is not high on Cambodia’s list needs but is something that is quite common in many Western countries.

Again we want to thank everyone for their continued support for the fund and its efforts.  The economy in the world is still difficult and your donations mean a lot to us and the many missions we support.  We could not do it without your support.

A special thanks goes to Jones Family, the staff and managers of Apexcylinders and friends of the fund in Bristol for the music/dancing fund raiser they put on.  This was an outstanding event and all the hard work that went into this event is much appreciated by us and all the people the fund supports.

                                                                               THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Donors during the last six months:

Bob and Joyce Jones
     The entire "Jones" Clan of Bristol
           Apexcylinders-Staff and Managers
                Michael and Ginny Stebbins
                    Antoine Descozot
                          Teresa Hilleary
                               Caroline Mock
                                    William Walker
                                          John Gilmour
                                              Mark Abatangelo
                                                   Roger and Elizabeth Hilleary



Your Directors,

Alice, Chris, Clive, Diane, and Roger
The Assistance Fund of Cambodia
www.theAFC.org
Tafc777@yahoo.com