The Sunrise Children’s Villages (SCV) are located in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, Cambodia. SCV started in September 1993, following the first visit by Geraldine Cox. Since that time, three centres have been created. The Sunrise Children’s Villages provide education, medical care, and a home for orphaned, abandoned, vulnerable and disadvantaged Cambodian children.
Love and light, Geraldine Cox AM, “There's a crack in everything -That's how the light gets in…” My, how the months are flying by! Early March was spent mainly in Sunrise with the usual gaggle of visits from sponsors and team meetings with staff. Not to mention spending time with the children in my house and the Centre’s grounds. We had meetings with engineers, architects and contractors to get all the plans in place to start construction on the Macquarie Bank Learning Centre. Mid month, I was in Adelaide to meet with sponsors, family and to keep up with the affairs of our 8 Sunrise students, who are all doing amazingly well in their studies. The rest of the month was taken up with school presentations, before I went to Brisbane to pitch again our Sunrise advert on Channels 7, 9 and 10. This was to confirm that channels will continue to screen these for at least another year. Thanks goes to Jo Stone and Kevin Moreland and staff at BCM Advertising who are responsible for filming this advert completely free of charge! I was able to return to Cambodia for another staff member’s wedding, Chhay Theara. At month end, some Thai and American friends came to give us advice on our farm project in the aquaponic and hydroponic fields. This is a small pro ject and new for us but I have hopes for it to grow. Later in the month I took a few days off to attend a family christening in London where I have not been since I was 19. Naturally there have been a few changes there since then. The high point in this period was for me to get Ashurst (a large legal firm) to in clude Sunrise in their global staff giving program. This is marvellous but will take time to really bear fruit and we need to follow up every possible lead to build up reserves, which are being used every month to give the children what they need. I was invited to a presentation given by the Australian Charities Fund in Canberra and was so honoured to be there as only around 15 Australian Charities were on the list. Malcolm Turnbull gave a passionate speech about corporate social responsibility and a program he is involved in to get one million Australians to donate one dollar to charity. The event was organized by Richard Murray, CEO of JB Hi Fi, one of our biggest staff giving sponsors. Sok San, our Operations Manager has much more exciting news for you, so I now hand over to him. I never forget and neither do our Sunrise children, that we exist simply through your interest and generosity. Thanks to one and all, large and small...... STOP PRESS … Colour printing Sorry this edition is late reaching you. This edition was colour printed in Cambodia, help ing to support a local business and keeping costs to a minimum. We hope you like it! If you prefer an email version or to be removed from our mailing list, send an email to [email protected]News from Geraldine... Inside this issue: Operations Update by Sok San Yi 2 What’s happening at Sunrise 3, 4 Our Community Support 5, 6 Thanks from Sunrise 6 Khmer corner 7 Bequeathing & Memorial Donations 7 Fundraising 7 Merchandise 8 Payment /Change of Details Form 8 Volume 14 Issue 2 The Australia Cambodia Foundation: PO Box 1113, Unley BC 5061, Adelaide South Australia Tel: +81 8 8340 4230 Fax: +81 8 8340 4920 Email: [email protected]Cambodia:Country Director & President: Geraldine Cox AM Operations Manager: Sok San Yi Check out the lovely couple. Richard Murray JB Hi Fi— far right
Transcript
Love and light, Geraldine Cox AM, “There's a crack in everything -That's how the light gets in…”
My, how the months are flying by! Early March was spent mainly in Sunrise with the usual gaggle of visits from sponsors and team meetings with staff. Not to mention spending time with the children in my house and the Centre’s grounds. We had meetings with engineers, architects and contractors to get all the plans in place to start construction on the Macquarie Bank Learning Centre. Mid month, I was in Adelaide to meet with sponsors, family and to keep up with the affairs of our 8 Sunrise students, who are all doing amazingly well in their studies. The rest of the month was taken up with school presentations, before I went to Brisbane to pitch again our Sunrise advert on Channels 7, 9 and 10. This was to confirm that channels will continue to screen these for at least another year. Thanks goes to Jo Stone and Kevin Moreland and staff at BCM Advertising who are responsible for filming this advert completely free of charge! I was able to return to Cambodia for another staff member’s wedding, Chhay Theara. At month end, some Thai and American friends came to give us advice on our farm project in the aquaponic and hydroponic fields. This is a small pro-ject and new for us but I have hopes for it to grow. Later in the month I took a few days off to attend a family christening in London where I have not been since I was 19. Naturally there have been a few changes there since then. The high point in this period was for me to get Ashurst (a large legal firm) to in-clude Sunrise in their global staff giving program. This is marvellous but will take time to really bear fruit and we need to follow up every possible lead to build up reserves, which are being used every month to give the children what they need. I was invited to a presentation given by the Australian Charities Fund in Canberra and was so honoured to be there as only around 15 Australian Charities were on the list. Malcolm Turnbull gave a passionate speech about corporate social responsibility and a program he is involved in to get one million Australians to donate one dollar to charity. The event was organized by Richard Murray, CEO of JB Hi Fi, one of our biggest staff giving sponsors. Sok San, our Operations Manager has much more exciting news for you, so I now hand over to him. I never forget and neither do our Sunrise children, that we exist simply through your interest and generosity. Thanks to one and all, large and small...... STOP PRESS … Colour printing Sorry this edition is late reaching you. This edition was colour printed in Cambodia, help-ing to support a local business and keeping costs to a minimum. We hope you like it! If you prefer an email version or to be removed from our mailing list, send an email to [email protected]
News from Geraldine...
Inside this issue:
Operations Update by Sok San Yi 2
What’s happening at Sunrise 3, 4
Our Community Support 5, 6
Thanks from Sunrise 6
Khmer corner 7
Bequeathing & Memorial Donations
7
Fundraising 7
Merchandise 8
Payment /Change of Details Form 8
Volume 14 Issue 2
The Australia Cambodia Foundation: PO Box 1113, Unley BC 5061, Adelaide South Australia Tel: +81 8 8340 4230 Fax: +81 8 8340 4920 Email: [email protected]
Cambodia:Country Director & President: Geraldine Cox AM Operations Manager: Sok San Yi
Check out the lovely couple.
Richard Murray JB Hi Fi— far right
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Dear Sunrise Supporters The final quarter of financial year 2013/14 delivered many significant and fruitful achievements and identi-fied some challenges for the year ahead. These achievements have only been possible through the won-derful support of all our donors and dedicated staff. Here are just some of the results we achieved thanks to your support. Prevented child exploitation Abuse and exploitation of children in our care were fully prevented. We received excellent feedback and en-dorsement from the Ministry of So-cial Affairs (MOSVY), who inspected our implementation of their Policy on Minimum Standards for Alternative Care. This important task was achieved through cooperation and construc-tive feedback from staff and man-agement at all levels. No serious health problems Good hygiene, good cleanliness and care meant that our children’s health was free from serious health problems like dengue fever. Focus on staff development To ensure our staff are aware of the latest policies and procedures in dealing with children, they received training in Parenting and Child De-velopment skills, Children’s Rights, Domestic Violence, Cambodian Gov-ernment Minimum Standards for Alternative Care, Staff Policy, Child Protection Policy, Operacy, Cooking skills for kitchen supervisors and English language. Some of our senior staff are study-ing Bachelor and Master degrees in business management and develop-ment. Data systems fully maintained Child Biographies, Sponsor reports and “Smart Sponsor” system are up to date for all Sunrise children.
New Gate at Sunrise Siem Reap
Business planning and budgeting A comprehensive business plan for 2014/15 has been developed to cover four main programs: 1 Centre-based childcare 2 Education 3 Case Management 4 Community outreach programs. The Budget has been approved by the Board of Directors. Local community support We are highly committed to reaching as many vulnerable children as possible. Sunrise through our partners provides all kinds of support to children living near our three centres. This ranges from food and healthcare to repairing school facilities, sports equipment and educating children. You can learn more about some of these projects through-out this Newsletter.
New Khmer pre-school classes I am very proud to inform you that our first ever Khmer pre-school classes for 50 disadvantaged and vulnerable chil-dren from poor families living nearby will open in August 2014. This comple-ments our existing community outreach program, which includes English and computer training, dance and music, sports, library activities, direct emer-gency assistance in educational, food and healthcare support, shelter and in-come generation for hundreds of chil-dren. Macquarie Group learning centre Our big dream of having more and modern classrooms to expand our edu-cation program for Sunrise children and children from local communities will be-come reality in early 2015. Sincere heartfelt thanks to Macquarie Bank for sponsoring this project. Newcomers/family reintegrations Between April and June, seven new chil-dren were referred to Sunrise and five children and young adults were reinte-grated back to their families after posi-tive family assessment completed. Improvements in our facilities With generous support from our donors, projects completed include: Sunrise Phnom Penh: Renovation of toilets and bathrooms. Repainting of buildings. Sunrise Siem Reap: Renovation of kitchen and children’s dormitories, plus construction of new toilets, gazebo and parking shed, new gate, volleyball and soccer fields. Our premises are well maintained and almost spotlessly clean, as anyone who has visited will know.
Operations Report from Sok San Yi
Sok San Yi, Operations Manager
Renovated kitchen in Siem Reap
New gazebo and walkway
Brightly painted new shed
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What’s Happening at Sunrise 2014 Khmer New Year Celebration As part of our family/risk assessment procedure, many children visited their families over the Khmer New Year holiday in April. Their families came to collect them on April 11 and they all returned safely to the centre by April 20. Before departure to their hometowns, a Buddhist blessing ceremony, a small party for the children and a number of Khmer popular dances and games were arranged to welcome the upcoming new year, The Year of the Horse. A group of community children who attend classes at Sunrise were also invited to attend the activities of the day. Like Sunrise children, they were given a pair of socks and shoes as a gift from a Cambodian business-woman. This celebration was not only fun — it also gave children a chance to learn more about their culture and traditions, which are part of their development.
Our special New Family Member: REI SAMUEL Rei Samuel, a disabled child, is unable to walk or do anything by himself and was referred to Sunrise by the Missionaries of Charity in May. He cried a lot on his arrival but by the next day, he started to smile. Surpris-ingly, with good care and supplementary food in his diet, his weight increased considerably a month later. He enjoys living in our Centre. Samuel has been taken to meet a neurologist at the National Paediatric Hospital, Caritas Organization and Veterans and Rehabilitation International Cambodia for health and physical check-ups.
One of our older students, Saran (who was also selected for the Summer Tour Program in 2013) was chosen to travel to Kos Romdal Village on 21 May to translate for Sue and Daryl who have been great sup-porters of Tep Sovandeth, a disabled child living nearby. The translation was to help explain their new project to the headmas-ter, school manager and students at school. Thank you Saran.
International Labor Day In celebration of International Labor Day on May 1, Sunrise Chil-dren’s Villages organised rubbish collecting activities to clean up the centre and outside areas. All staff and children were invited and di-vided into groups with gloves for protection, plastic bags and clean-ing tools. We also planted some trees and flowers.
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A snake at Sunrise! On his visit to Phnom Penh in April, Chef Alex from Sydney brought with him lots of rolled cakes to make a giant snake cake over 5 m long! The smiles on their faces show how much fun the children had as they decorated their giant snake.
Welcome to Srey Vy 18 month old Srey Vy recently joined Sunrise. Although malnourished, Srey Vy’s diet is being supplemented with porridge, biscuits, soya milk and vitamins to ensure a healthy future for her. Here she is happily sitting in her new cot donated by supporters, the Brandt-Gagnon family.
What’s Happening at Sunrise
Art/drawing competitions A group of ten art students attended the National Art Com-petition organised by Global Art on 31 May. As a result, three of them became champions and one other received a consolation prize from the competition. Meanwhile, another two children aged between 10 and 12 attended an art-drawing competition organised by Sovannaphumi school. By the end of June 2014, the group had painted new and beautiful artwork of animals on the water tank close to the warehouse.
Our Adelaide office is moving soon …. In mid-October, our Adelaide team is moving to office space in Flinders Street in the heart of Adelaide, South Australia. Our rent is unbelievably low thanks to the Bunnik family from Bunnik Tours. We’ll keep you informed and let you know our new location and contact details in our next Newsletter.
Our students in Australia
Our students continue to enjoy the challenges of studying in Australia. Their results have been, in some cases, astounding considering they are studying in a second language. Three of them, Sopheak Louch, Srey Leak Phem and Theaneath Outh, will return to Cambodia at the end of the year as they will finish their studies in Film & Media Studies, Nursing and a Cordon Bleu course. Soknoeun Soeun is achieving good results in her Year 12 studies. Her host family have generously taken her to Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island for short visits, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Sopheak Louch flew to Bali to help with the organisation ‘Bali Kids’. His flight was generously donated by the director, Brenton Whittaker. Sopheak found many opportunities to film what the organisation was doing for his film studies. He’s hoping to produce a documentary. Srey Leak Phem completed a 3 week placement at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for her Nursing degree. She rose to the challenges of working long hours and being on her feet all day while learning all about the care of patients in a very busy hospital. The skills these students are learning will help them contribute to the development and well-being of Cambodia in the future.
Our Community Support
Support for local grandmother Recently a Sunrise case officer arranged for Tep Sovandeth, a disabled boy living in Kos Romdol island, to be taken to Rose Centre to check problems with his legs. He had assessments with a specialist who observed his weak points and gave some advice to his grandmother. The staff also taught Sovandeth’s grandmother some physical therapy skills to help her grand-son.
Sports gear to Iroha Primary School’s soccer teams The Birdwood Primary School in South Australia provided funding for the purchase of new soccer gear for Iroha Primary School. The much needed items included soccer balls, uniforms, boots, socks, shin guards and goal keep-er gloves for 40 team members aged between 10-12 years old. A special ceremony was held on 12 May at the school to present the donated items.
Participants included Sunrise representatives, School Director, teachers and the soccer team members. The soccer team members were very happy to receive the gifts. At the end of the cere-mony, the School Director and soccer teams thanked Birdwood Primary School for their generous support. The students also expressed their wish for the Birdwood Primary School representatives to vis-it them in the near future and play soccer with them.
Emergency assistance for four orphaned children Sunrise Siem Reap provided emergency support to a family of four orphaned children including 7 month old twin babies and two girls, aged 4 and 6 living in a poor community in Siem Reap city. The mother of the children died while she was delivering the twin babies and the father died of illness. These children are being cared for by family, including the grandparents, aunties and uncles who have a very limited income and they are also supporting 11 family members in total.
The family are really struggling in poor conditions with insufficient money for healthcare, proper shelter and insufficient food, especially for the orphaned children.
Sunrise provided milk for the babies, cooking oil, canned fish, instant noodles, eggs, salt and rice. We plan to provide further and longer term support for these children through our family-based child support project.
Community event for Sunrise school partner With the co-operation of a Sunrise case officer in charge of Community-based Support Programs, a group of 96 students and seven teachers from our school partner, Iroha Primary School, were taken to participate in the Im-age Charity Day organised on April 9 at Beeline area. It was a good opportunity for community children to join in this program. They saw some popular singers and other artists perform and enjoyed having their photos taken with the singers. Food, soft drinks, ice cream and gifts such as books, pencils, pens and shampoo were given to all participants.
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Thanks from Sunrise
Bikes for needy local community children Sunrise Children’s Villages provided 4 bicycles to poor and disadvantaged families in the community whose homes are located far from the school. This ensures that the children are able to travel to school everyday. Thanks go to our wonderful supporters who provided money to purchase the bikes.
Our Community Support (cont.)
Social justice evening At a school event recently, 5 women speakers spoke about helping disadvantaged girls, women and underprivileged children. Hannah and Molly had their stall all set up with infor-mation and a donation box. Around 150 people attended and were very interested in Sun-rise. Even the School Principal donated. The girls did a great job. Hannah also made a slide show of SCV that played through the night. The whole evening was based on extraor-dinary people doing extraordinary things for others. Thank you Molly & Hannah—a job well done!
Vihea Chen Primary School Located near Sunrise Siem Reap, this school with approximately 200 students, has been selected to be a school partner to Sunrise. As a partner, Sunrise provides support to the school as well as its children. The old playground from Sunrise has been repainted and repaired and will be donated to the school. Sunrise has also opened its doors to welcome 54 children from the school to study computer skills, dance, mu-sic and arts from Monday to Friday. Sunrise also provided the students with school ma-terials including pencils, pens, writing books, volley balls, basketballs and 6 chairs for the teachers. We plan to help build new school buildings as the old ones which were constructed by the villagers in 1980 are now in very bad condition and dangerous for the children.
Geraldine battling a Sydney winter in her Onesy!
Intimate lunch with Geraldine An Intimate Lunch with Geraldine was held in May at the highly award-ed Shiki Restaurant, Intercontinental Hotel, Adelaide. Thanks go to Victoria McGregor-Reid for donating the luncheon and Judy Myers who organised the event. Both these ladies work for Ouwens Casserly Real Estate and are great supporters of Sunrise. The event was a wonderful oppor-tunity for a small group to share a superb lunch and listen to Geraldine’s stories of life and strug-gles in Cambodia.
New friendships are formed Our Treasurer Richard Fennell recently travelled to Cambodia with his family to visit Sunrise Children’s Villages. His family had a wonderful time meeting the chil-dren and formed many new friendships. Richard’s daughter, Eliza had organised a Pyjama Day at her school, Seymour College, and presented a cheque with the money she had raised. Thanks so much for your efforts Eliza.
Geraldine and Victoria
Judy and Geraldine
Everyday Hero A great way to fundraise for Sunrise is to register on Everyday Hero for events you may wish to participate in (eg fun run, weight loss challenge). As a participating Hero, you can choose your own charity to raise funds for. It is simple to register. Following is a summary of upcoming events where all participating Heroes can choose Sunrise Children’s Villages to raise funds for.
The Sun-Herald City2Surf: Sunday August 10, 2014 Presented by Westpac, this is not just Sydney’s favorite sporting event, it is the world’s largest run and is taking place on August 10, 2014. Since 1971 Sydneysiders have been joined by participants from all over the world, elite athletes rubbing shoulders with locals to run, walk or watch the 14km race from Hyde Park in Sydney’s CBD to the finish at spectacular Bondi Beach. For more information see: www.everydayhero.com.au/event/city2surf2014
Sunshine Coast Marathon, 2014 Sunday August 31, 2014
One of Australia's most loved running festivals, the 7 Sunshine Coast Marathon, is set to be bigger and better in 2014 with a new look beachfront course and more runners than ever before.
In its third year, 7SCM will again deliver a flat, fast and scenic course so you can achieve your goal, no matter what your ability. Whether you're an elite athlete testing the legs and chasing down prize money, an age grouper looking for an elusive PR, a first time marathoner nervous about making the distance or a beginner wanting to know what the fuss is all about, you can achieve it by running the 7 Sunshine Coast Marathon.
For more information see www.everydayhero.com.au/event/shinecoastmarathon2014
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To create a fundraiser for Sunrise, go to our website at www.scv.org.au/fundraising Fundraising guidelines are at www.scv.org.au/fundraising-guidelines
Fundraising
City-Bay The ever-popular fun run is over 40 years old, with options of 3, 6 or 12km run or walk from Adelaide to Glenelg. Entries open in May each year.
An additional event is planned for April 2015: the first ever Bay to City Fun Run (reverse of normal). City-bay.org.au www.walkingsa.org.au/walk/walk-event/city-to-bay-fun-run-2014/
Khmer Proverb You don’t have to cut a tree down to get at
the fruit.
Khmer Corner
A Bequest is a gift made in your will to individuals, companies, associations or charities and may be as simple as adding a Codicil to your existing will. Full capital gains tax relief may be availa-ble to your estate for bequests made to certain charities, including Sunrise Children’s Villages. For more information please see our website: www.sunrisechildrensvillage.org/bequeathing/ A special way to honour the memory of a loved one is to encourage your relatives and friends to make a gift in lieu of giving flowers. A Memorial Donation to Sunrise Children’s Villages in Cam-bodia is a thoughtful way to remember someone.
Bequeathing and Memorial Donations
You can easily create an online donation page for Sunrise Children’s Villages for many reasons: x�Running for a cause x�Cycling for a cause x� In celebration x� In memory x� It’s my birthday x�Making a difference x�Personal challenge. For details.see www.gofundraise.com.au/
In adult sizes small, medium, large Caps $12.00 One size fits all!
Sunrise Gift Cards $12.50
This range of cards would be ideal for Christmas featuring photography of some of the Sunrise children by long-time supporter and photographer Tracey Shelton. The cards show happy times during Tracey’s visit to Sunrise in July 2013 that included a trip to the beach! They are available in packs of 6 x A6 (105mm x 148mm) blank gift cards with envelopes (with 6 different images). Starring Geraldine and the Sunrise kids, it includes:
x� Happiness is a day at the beach x�Splish splashin’ x� Learning artful ways x� Victories and celebrations x� Love on the shore x� Learning to pray
Musicians of Cambodia CD $15.00
A beautiful collection of traditional songs and dance music expressing stories of life at Sunrise. The CD presents tales of hope, gratitude and happiness, as well as showcasing the talents of our children.
Home is Where the Heart Is $38.00
This book tells the deeply moving story of a woman who found her true purpose in caring for Cambo- dian orphans—the tragic victims of three decades of war and destruction. Geraldine tells with warmth and humour of an extraordinary life.
My Khmer Heart DVD $22.00 The documentary, My Khmer Heart, won the Hollywood Film Festival Documentary of the Year Award in 2000 and it has since been bought by HBO and Discovery Cable Channel.
Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms / Dr: (Please print).............................................................................................................. Postal address: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Home phone: ( ) ……………... Business phone: ( ) …………………. Mobile: ………………….. Email: …………………………………………………. I authorize THE AUSTRALIA CAMBODIA FOUNDATION to charge my credit card as specified below: My donation: $.................... for Sunrise Children’s Village in: ❏ Phnom Penh ❏ Siem Reap ❏ Sihanoukville To be allocated to: ❏ Operating expenses ❏ Education ❏ Sponsoring a child
Credit card type: ❏ MASTERCARD ❏ VISA ❏ AMERICAN EXPRESS Enter credit card number:
Name on card: ………………………………………… Signature: …………………………….. ❏DIRECT DEPOSIT Australia Cambodia Foundation – SCV Operating A/c BSB 085-005 A/c No. 54 952 3845
❏CHEQUES Payable to: The Australia Cambodia Foundation Inc. Return the completed form to: PO Box 1113, Unley BC, South Australia 5061, Fax: +61 (0)8 8340 4920 or Email: [email protected]
Payment for donations/sponsorships or merchandise orders or changes to your contact, credit card or email details can be made on the following form:
Merchandise
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