Lips in' Sync 2016

Plans are underway for the 2016 'Lips N Sync' charity event. Put the date aside for an awesome evening on 20 February 2016. Last years event was fantastic ..... heaps of fun and will live on in the annals of Nymboida's musical history. Some of the acts were so good that they were repeated at a local Australia day event.
Here's a link to info from last years event

Event Flyer !

It's your chance to be a star! Its karaoke without the bad vocals!

Email me with the song you will mime or preferably a link to the Youtube clip, dress as your artist of choice and ' work it, baby!'

Toni is seeking donations of home cooked meals for the buffet. Please let me know if you can help out. 

You get a delicious smorgasbord meal, donated by awesome locals from Nymboida, and some great entertainment.  The door charge is $15 for Adults, $5 per child. All proceeds go to our projects in Cambodia.  Don't forget to BYO drinks.

You can download a flyer suitable for printing here and for email here 

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Christmas gift ideas

We will be holding a stall at the Nymboida Twilight markets on Friday 18th December and will be focusing on gift ideas for Christmas. We sell scarves, sarong bags and soaps made by ladies in the poorest villagers who use the sales as a way to provide food and education for their children. Selling these products at our market stalls ensures that the proceeds benefit these families.

Soap Ladies working hard

Soaps finished and awaiting packaging

The lovely Ruth, modelling a sarong bag and scarf

Ongoing projects

While we don't communicate everything that's happening all the time, all of our projects are ongoing, which is exactly what your generous donations are used for, similarly when you come and support  events. We would like to express our gratitude to all who assist us with our efforts.

While we have had new donors join our cause we have also had a few who, for changed personal reasons have withdrawn support. This level of uncertainty hasn't allowed us to take on any new projects as we want to make sure we have enough financial support to continue with all the on-going projects.  We also have the double whammy of the continually worsening exchange rate as Cambodia uses the U.S Dollar.  So while there may be a dearth of new and exciting news, the reality is, all our projects are funded and we can continue only because of the generosity of those who have helped out.

University scholarships - update 

Sok Mong is in his last year of university studying Tourism and English. He has been passing his subjects well and we are confident that he will achieve his goals and become the first member of his family to obtain a university degree. We are so proud to have enabled him via the donations from our events and supporters, you have made it possible. 

Seng Somnang is continuing with his Engineering studies.  We have funded extra one-on-one English classes  and I can already see the difference in his written English.  He needed extra tuition in English as many of the STEM courses at University are taught in English and he was struggling.

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Market Stall Updates

Sponsored university students

We currently pay for two young men to attend university. Seng Somnang attends uni in the Capitol, Phnom Penh and Sok Mong is a student at Life University in Sihanoukville. Sok Mong is doing really well with his studies and passes all of his subjects except Christianity. Why do they study Christianity when they are Buddhists? When we asked Mong he said it was just part of his course but didnt know why. 

Somnang is having difficulty with English so we are investigating extra classes for him. He is very excited and grateful to be given the opportunity. We are hoping he'll benefit from the classes and improve his marks because if he fails the English component he fails the whole course. 

Seng Somnang

Market Stall

Stall setup at Nymboida Hall

Handmade button jewelry donation (Ann Maraldo)

The local market stall is really on a roll with all proceeds going to the organisations we support. However it is sometimes difficult to find time to have a stall at every market. If there are any Nymboida locals who would like to contribute by helping us by either manning a stall from time to time or even to donate excess home grown produce, home made baked goods, home made jams pickles etc that we can sell, we'd love to hear from you.

Donors

We have several wonderful people who have set up regular donations into the fund raising account. Regular donations allow us to commit to projects that are ongoing.  If we had more regular donations (a few dollars each week or fortnight from several people goes a long way) we would be able to fund more longer term projects in education and health,  our two main priorities.  If you are interested in donating, you can set up a regular funds transfer from your bank account to the fundraising account, details of which are here

Prefer reading this on the website instead ?

Click here to go to the website

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Jumble Sale Result

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the Jumble Sale.  Once again the wonderful people of Nymboida outshone themselves with their generosity.

We always have such fantastic support for these events

We made $498.80 which is alot lower than usual so we have probably exhausted the Nymboida area of donate-able items. This $500 is however, enough to pay for two years of university in Cambodia.

In the past it has been difficult disposing of the items that didn't sell. It usually involves making multiple trips to the secondhand shops in town and the CVC have in the past donated a free rubbish load. This time we were able to donate the remainder  of the items to Gurehlgam, an indigenous support group in Grafton. They will be holding a fundraising sale in the next few weeks and they were thrilled to come out and collect the remaining four ute loads. We were really pleased to pass the items on so that someone else benefits.

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Jumble Sale, Sunday 21 June

Jumble Fund Raising Sale This Sunday 21 June

Donations of items to Raise Funds

We have been collecting items for the sale over the last few months and our verandah has been a mine field of trip hazards but we will be transporting all of the donated items to the hall during this week. You can still drop goods off at our house, or we can collect them from you.   Please contact Toni p: 6649 4263 or e: cookie1616@gmail.com if you want to help with donations.

Sale Day

We will be having the jumble sale in conjunction with the Nymboida Market on 21 June a the Nymboida Community Hall. In years past our jumble sale has attracted a large number of people and with the regular crowd who enjoy the market for the social aspect this should benefit not just us but the stall holders as well.

We hope to see you there !

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COLT Donation

COLT Donation

We have supported COLT (Dutch based charitable organisation working in Cambodia) with several small projects over the years and we purchase their handmade Sarong Bags

The lovely Ruth, modelling a sarong bag and scarf

to resell at the local markets here in Nymboida.  The two initiatives we support most with all the donations we pass on are health (the now) and education (the future).  The opportunity recently presented itself to make a donation to help them establish a health clinic for some of the very poor at their upcoming new centre.  The aims of the clinic as set out by COLT 

The medical clinic
In the new community centre there will also be space for a medical clinic which we hope to realise in cooperation with the German NGO - Chibodia www.chibodia.org. Since 2011 they have run a mobile health clinic in this area with a well-trained medical team. They are limited in what they can do because they have no permanent, safe place to store medicines and medical supplies. At Colt they will have a permanent clinic so that they will be able to offer more medical care and the people in the area will know where to go if they need medical help and advice. The Colt social worker will work closely with the medical team so that any underlying social problems will receive proper attention. We will also set up an educational programme with workshops and training sessions on subjects related to health care such as hygiene, pregnancy, HIV/aids and social subjects such as domestic violence, drug abuse etc.

Donation confirmation (above)
€345 at the exchange rate on the day ended up as $A493.72

Jumble Sale

Just a small reminder ahead of the impending biannual Jumble Sale.  We rely on goods donated to sell at the sale, our biggest fundraising event.  You can drop goods off at our house or we can collect them from you.  Please contact Toni p: 6649 4263 or e: cookie1616@gmail.com if you want to help with donations.

We will be having the jumble sale in conjunction with the Nymboida Market on 21 June.

Donors

We have several wonderful people who have set up regular donations into the fund raising account. Regular donations allow us to commit to projects that are ongoing.  If we had more regular donations (a few dollars each week or fortnight from several people goes a long way) we would be able to fund more longer term projects in education and health,  our two main priorities.  If you are interested in donating, you can set up a regular funds transfer from your bank account to the fundraising account, details of which are here

Prefer reading this on the website instead ?

Click here to go to the website

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Amazing donations

Donations

Each year the Grafton Mens Shed  choose a project or organisation they would like to support through donations of funds they have raised. This year they chose ours and donated $500... wow... a huge thank you to the guys and the wonderful work they do.

Thorn amongst the roses !

Another thank you to Bella and Steve.  The kids couldn't make it to the fundraising disco but they donated the entry fees anyway.  Thank you so much.

Jumble Sale

Just a small reminder ahead of the impending biannual Jumble Sale.  We rely on goods donated to sell at the sale, our biggest fundraising event.  You can drop goods off at our house or we can collect them from you.  Please contact Toni p: 6649 4263 or e: cookie1616@gmail.com if you want to help with donations.

We will be having the jumble sale in conjunction with the Nymboida Market on 21 June.

Donors

We have several wonderful people who have set up regular donations into the fund raising account. Regular donations allow us to commit to projects that are ongoing.  If we had more regular donations (a few dollars each week or fortnight from several people goes a long way) we would be able to fund more longer term projects in education and health,  our two main priorities.  If you are interested in donating, you can set up a regular funds transfer from your bank account to the fundraising account, details of which are here

Prefer reading this on the website instead ?

Click here to go to the website

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Everything was awesome !

Fundraising Disco

Everything was awesome for the Princess 'n Pirate disco at Coutts Crossing Hall.  A smaller turnout than we'd hoped but with some momentum we can make it a bigger event next year and the kids that did attend had an awesome time.  A huge thank you to SMILE productions for donating their time and coming all the way from Coffs Harbour.  If you are looking for a professional organisation to run  an event for children, Andrew and his crew do a wonderful job. Also, a thank you to the Nymboida Canoe Centre for allowing us to use their bus to take the kids from Nymboida to Coutts Crossing and to Bob Warner for volunteering his time to drive them all and of course to all the parents and kids that supported the event

Kids having fun at the dance

Nymboida Markets

Toni is back every second Nymboida Market, selling produce from our little farm and items we've brought back from organisations we support in Cambodia.  The money from the sales at the market goes to the Cambodian fund, so if you're looking for a hand made sarong bag from the ladies at COLT or soaps from the Goodwill Centre, see Toni at the market stall.

Barb modelling scarves

The lovely Ruth, modelling a sarong bag and scarf

Don't forget to attend the huge Nymboida Mothers Day Market on 10 May, starting at 8am.

Due to time commitments Toni can only attend every second market (once a month) if anyone wants to volunteer their time to attend the alternate market to sell items, just speak to Toni and we'd love to have you help out ! That way we'd have the stall at every market (once a fortnight)

Jumble Sale

Just a small reminder ahead of the impending biannual Jumble Sale.  We rely on goods donated to sell at the sale, our biggest fundraising event.  You can drop goods off at our house or we can collect them from you.  Please contact Toni p: 6649 4263 or e: cookie1616@gmail.com if you want to help with donations.

We will be having the jumble sale in conjunction with the Nymboida Market on 21 June.

Donors

We have several wonderful people who have set up regular donations into the fund raising account. Regular donations allow us to commit to projects that are ongoing.  If we had more regular donations (a few dollars each week or fortnight from several people goes a long way) we would be able to fund more longer term projects in education and health,  our two main priorities.  If you are interested in donating, you can set up a regular funds transfer from your bank account to the fundraising account, details of which are here

Prefer reading this on the website instead ?

Click here to go to the website

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"Think I better dance now !"

Fund Raising Dance

Andrew from Smile Productions in Coffs Harbour has donated his organisation to put on a Kids Disco at the Coutts Crossing Hall this Saturday, 18 April.  Andrew does a great job and the kids will have an awesome time !

We have a free bus organised from Nymboida to take any local kids to Coutts Crossing.  The bus leaves from the Nymboida bus stop at 5:30pm and returns at 8:30pm

Costs are $10 a head and include light refreshments 

A huge thank you to local Nymboidan man about town, Bob Warner, for donating his time to drive the bus and to the Nymboida Canoe Centre for allowing us to use their bus.

All funds raised go to helping organisations we support in Cambodia

Booking are essential:
Contact Toni P: 6649 4263 E: cookie1616@gmail.com

  

Flyer

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Art 'n another perspective

Art to inspire creativity

An art session has become one of our regular activities during our yearly visits. The teachers and students really look forward to it. This year we enlisted the help of local Nymboida artist Pamela Denise who donated the materials and expertise. Pamela donated a workshop where Toni learnt the process of making the items and also how to deliver the workshop to the children herself. It turned out to be the best art session we have ever held. We usually hang the art in the centre so that everyone can enjoy them but the children loved their dragonflies so much they all wanted to take them home to show their parents. Why not let them have a little beauty in their homes?

Starting the creative process

Such rich, glorious colours

Ann's Tale

We had tried to organise a group of some of the wonderful people who donate to come to Cambodia with us. Unfortunately for a variety of reasons the small group became a group of one. Then Toni's Mum, Ann was the only one of the group left standing.  We asked her to write a small piece about what she thought...

Just back from an exciting and enlightening trip with Toni and Trev to see their Cambodia. The groups they help support (Goodwill centre, COLT and  CHOICE) are doing fantastic work providing food education and clean water for the poorest families so the children have a chance  to get an education, also helping women to become self sufficient making soap, clothes and bags which can be sold to give them an income. The Khmer we met were very nice, humble people who are making the best of what they have-little as it is. We can't help them all but every thing we do will help.    

Toni and Ann choosing items to sell at our local market

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Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville

The main port and largest coastal town in Cambodia, the town were we lived in 2011. Returning was like a homecoming of sorts.

Exchange Rate

We took A$7000 of donations to Cambodia, A$500 was donated to CHOICE, the rest was converted to US Dollars, with the currently deteriorating exchange rate we received US$4930.  Some of this was used to buy the Sarong Bags from COLT, these will be available for sale at the Nymboida Markets.  The remainder we deposited into the Cambodian account to fund our on-going projects. As mentioned in the last post, we are now unable to take on any more projects amd we're concerned we may struggle to fund the current projects.

Free classes for the village 

That night we sat in on the English and computer classes at the Goodwill Center, both of these classes are funded with your donations.  Buntha is really pleased with the results of the children. The children attend classes based on knowledge not on year level so that classes may have students aged five sitting beside children aged twelve if the older student hasn't had the opportunity to attend school previously. The children have never used a computer before, as it is not in the public school curriculum. Not until University are they given that opportunity and most cannot afford that luxury. Two of the students now have employment in design businesses in town due to these classes.
Sambath teaches the English classes five nights a week. The children are now writing and reading whole sentences in English. It reinforced to us the benefits of our fundraising efforts.  These classes are open to anyone in the surrounding village.

Buntha teaching IT design

Sambath teaching English night classes

Dinner with friends 

Once again we were in the same place at the same time. Four of the past managers of the Goodwill Center and the teachers had a wonderful dinner at the Small Hotel, owned by Henrik who founded the Center. Thank you to Henrik and Mom for looking after us all. It was a fantastic night and great to catch up with everyone in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Happy shiny people

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All over bar the unpacking...

Toni is back at home after a whirlwind trip, we'll have a couple of posts coming, to keep people updated.  Most of our projects are up and running, with little work now needed from our side, thanks to the help from our contacts in Cambodia.  What we're mainly over there for is to make sure the projects we fund are running well and make sure the money that's donated is used in the best possible way by touching base with everyone.

Phnom Penh

This year, the clothing we'd had kindly donated was delivered to CHOICE, who support the poorest of the poor on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.  We also made a A$500 donation to the organisation to support the awesome work they do.  CHOICE was started by Ross and a small group of ex-pats.  Ross is an Australian from Geelong.

The clothes are well deserved and were well received. As always it's very confrontational to visit these villages.

Handing over the donation to Vanhy, the Khmer manager of CHOICE. 

Delivering fresh water to the villages (Toni's Mum, Annie)

A makeshift classroom as so many children are now attending classes

We also purchased items made at COLT, another organisation doing a great job in Cambodia.  These we on sell at the local Nymboida Market, so any locals wanting one, make sure you catch up with Toni at the next Market.

Beautiful sarong bag from Colt

We also managed to meet with Seng Somnang, a young man who we are sponsoring through University in Phnom Penh.  He's currently in his first year of Civil Engineering and doing well.

As we had Toni's mother Anne with us, we spent a couple days in Phnom Penh showing her the sites, sounds and yes... smells, of Cambodia's capital city.

These fishermen live on their boats on the edge of the Mekong. 

From Phnom Penh we headed down to Sihanoukville

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Where does the money go ?

As everyone who follows us knows, we have several projects that are supported by donations, we thought that as we've just returned to Cambodia, we'd do a quick recap some of what we do.

Goodwill Centre

Teachers

Via your donations we currently pay for two teachers at the Goodwill Centre in Sihanoukville.  We'll be meeting with both of them when we are there next week.  They do an incredible job along with all the staff at the Centre.

"Kids to School" Food program 

Some parents keep their children from school and instead have them work to raise money for food.   As long as the kids are being sent to school we give them a food parcel once a month.  The photo's below show some of the people you support with your donations.

CHOICE

Do a wonderful job with some of the most disadvantaged Cambodians on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh.  They're a larger organisation doing an incredible job of education, providing fresh drinking water and job creation opportunities via training. The organisation is overseen by expat volunteers and employ sixteen Khmer staff.

EDUCATION  

We currently have two scholarships we are supporting that has allowed us to fund two University positions.  We met with one of the students last night who is studying Civil Engineering at University in Phnom Penh (First Year) and another student studying English and tourism in Sihanoukville.

Exchange Rate

While the reserve bank of Australia wants the Aus. Dollar to depreciate against the US Dollar, it makes it much harder for us, as Cambodia's economy runs on the US Dollar. This means we have to raise considerably more money to keep funding the projects at the same level.  With this in mind and exchange rate uncertainty going forward, combined with our current donations, we are unable to take any more projects on unless we can increase our donations.  Currently we're down about 25% against the US Dollar.

We'll keep everyone updated as we can while we're here in Cambodia and being back simply reinforces the wonderful work we can do with the generous donations of our friends back in Australia.

Where the money doesn't go.

It doesn't go on us, all of our expenses, including accommodation, airfares, meals etc are all paid directly by us from our own money.  All the money goes to help fund the projects we support.

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Cambodia trip - 2015

Getting closer...

Only two weeks until we leave for our yearly trip to Cambodia, on 1 March. This trip will be different for two reasons. Firstly Toni's Mum is coming with us and so we will visit Angkor. We don't travel there anymore as none of our organizations are based there but its a wonder of the world. Say no more. The other reason is that we will meet Seng Somnang our second uni student, for the first time.

A mountain of clothes

The donated clothes are nearly sorted. Thank you to everyone who gave.  It does take a while as we have been given around twenty bags. Some of the items aren't suitable like jumpers and jackets for colder climates and some are soiled, so we spend a few days sorting and boxing them up. We really look forward to the part of our trip where we donate the clothes. The smiles on the faces of the children say it all.

One of our very talented local artists, Pamela Denise, has donated some art supplies and is giving Toni a free workshop next week. She will be learning how to make dragon flies from coloured wire and beads and taking that knowledge to the Goodwill Center for the children there.

Donations

We've also been receiving one off donations from various local community members and these donations, along with all the regular donors go along way, especially now the exchange rate is bad and projects we've committed to are consequently significantly more expensive in Aus dollar terms.

Personal Expenses

100% of all money raised and donated goes to the projects we support. Toni and Trevor cover all of their own expenses.

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