It’s not often…infact it’s never happened before!…that i ask you gracious readers to dig into those pockets. However, my friend Elly is helping to organise a fundraising event in Cambodia for the Kompong Thom Orphanage.
The orphanage currently looks after 117 children, where every day is a struggle. Luckily, however, there is a young graduate teacher there who is giving his time to teach the kids. While this sounds like a sob and weep story, it literally is. Elly’s account of taking children who live on rubbish tips into the orphanage last year, and some of the pictures she showed me were absolutely shocking.
This 22 year old teacher, is trying to give a chance to 117 kids, so that when they move on to go at life on their own, they can have some kind of an education. Education is so important for these kids, that it literally can mean the difference between life and death. Cambodia has closed doors on allowing adoptions from people in the US or UK, so many kids face a bleak future. Learning basic skills such as reading and writing, or advancing them into maths and even English can give these kids a much better chance of getting themselves out of poverty. Unfortunately, there are no materials to teach with, and he is having to give lessons from memory, and the kids are not able to write anything down to help remember, or even just to learn how to write.
Charity. Yes, i’m asking you to give. Normally i’m not a huge charity donator, I am often skeptical that the money doesn’t really get to those that need it most. However, as Elly has set this up and is running it herself – there is no doubt that whatever money you donate won’t go to buying her new shoes (hope you’re taking note Elly!!) (lol), it won’t go to advertising or be wasted on unnecessary expenses – every penny that you give, will be used only for buying books for the kids.
Textbooks cost £2.50 each and Elly is asking that you consider donating £5.50, to cover the price of two books and the postage and packing to have a photograph sent to you of the lucky children who get to use them.
Please click this link (new window) and give something. If you’re already reading this without having clicked and donated, let me lay into you a little bit.
If you are reading this, you have the money to pay for internet, which means you have the money to pay for shoes, clothes, water, food, somewhere to sleep at night, drinks in a nightclub, or popcorn in a movie theatre. How much difference will £2.50 really make to your day? Will you notice that you spent it? While i think everyone reading this should donate £5.50, i think that most of you should give a bit more. If someone told you that you could save someone’s life for a tenner…you’d probably do it. I can’t guarantee that your money will physically save a life, but i can guarantee that any money you do give, will be used to directly improve the lives of those children. And when i say improve, i mean things that you take for granted everyday and wouldn’t even consider living for 1 week without.
Please help Elly help these kids – you can change someone’s future today. This is not an Oxfam ad on Channel 4, this is Fergus telling you about an email he got from his friend – who is at the orphanage in Cambodia now and is set with the task of trying to build awareness and raise money so that she can physically go and get the bus to the bookshop and hand deliver these textbooks to the children.
Please do your bit to help make a difference in the world.
NCLO Website (new window).
NCLOSAM Website (new window) (check out the cool pic of Elly at the top right!).
