Gifts for Goodness Sake

Ralph:  You can make your Christmas even better by Making A Difference in the life of someone else!

Check out the: Gifts for Goodness Sake Catalogue

MAD4Cambodia 2013 Trip - register your interest!

Planning for the 2013 MAD4Cambodia Trip will begin early next year.

If you would like to be involved or find out more, please email Brad or call/SMS him on 0402 336 036.

Feel like you're MAD and want to Make A Difference... Join the 2013 team!

Breaking the Poverty Cycle

Karen and Lloyd: It was great to visit the ICC Light of Hope School and see the amazing job that is being done by everyone there.

It showed us that it is possible to make a change and break the poverty cycle for those children. 

While visiting the ICC School, we met Veasna Chan, a year 11 student.  He would really like to go to university to become an engineer.  Financially, this is a very big obstacle, so we have offered to sponsor him to help make this a reality.

Education is one of the best ways to break the poverty cycle, and we are so excited to be part of the change (even in this small way).

We are looking forward to continuing to support this amazing project.  If you have the opportunity I would highly recommend you visit!

Veasna with "Mum" (Karen) and "Dad" (Lloyd)

Trip to Siem Reap Temples versus Soccer

Jo-ann: It was a long trip to the temples - 3 hours of crazy and dangerous roads!  But it was a nice to see the temples and be there. It was so hot and lots of walking and climbing up stairs.  We didn't have time to see them all. We only saw two temples, but we drove past others temples along the way.

We had lunch at the Blue Pumpkin.

Sopheavy, Sarah, Ryan and Daniel at the Blue Pumpkin

 Then some of us had our feet "cleaned" by our little friends the fishes eating our dead skin!

After the temples, we went back to the ICC School and we chatted with the kids and had dinner. It was yummy! We ended up with another big bonfire and cooked damper - which only made us hotter! But it was so fun!  I helped the little kids cooking the damper and they was so happy.  They even fed damper to me - from their hand to my mouth - and I fed them too!  They so cute. I miss them already :(

I don't know it will be next year or the another year, but I will be back soon!

Lloyd: When we got back from the temples, we played soccer with the kids.  I actually had more fun playing soccer with the kids for 5 minutes, than the day at the temples!

Remember to Brush

Sarah and Jo-ann wanted to help the families in Chom Trough to keep smiling - with clean teeth!  So they gathered up as many dental and hygiene products as they could to share with the village.

Here's Jo-ann showing the kids how she keeps her smile so bright...!

Poverty in Chom Trough

Annette:  On Thursday afternoon we got into pairs and were given $20. Our mission was to go to the local market to buy 20 soaps, 20 packets of washing powder and hair ties. Each pair were given something different to buy.

Troy warned us before we went to expect a very strong smell, pig heads and other unpleasant things. We managed to get all that we needed to for just under $20, or so we thought!?!

Going to the markets...

When we arrived back at the hotel, we discovered that we were 5 packets of washing powder short! We got ripped off!?! I was very annoyed but that soon disappeared as we put together 20 care packages for a very poor village we were visiting for tea. Other things in the care package were mosquito nets, underwear, thongs, note pads & pens, fruit, vegetables and coal.

Sorting out the gift packs for the families in Chom Trough

Ben and Lloyd bring back some coal for the villagers... by horse and cart!

We then travelled to the village to give the packages out. Wow! What a village! Check out the photos of the houses!  Some of the students from Carmel recently spent a night at this village. I'm not sure how we would have coped with that.

A house in Chom Trough

Ryan giving one of the gift packs to the village families

Larissa made lots of friends

So did Patricia

 The lovely ICC Cook then cooked up a massive 'pot' of noodles was for dinner. Kids came from everywhere with their bowls, or for those that don't have bowls, they came with plastic bags! After dinner we had a big bon fire (cause it wasn't hot enough already!?!) and cooked chocolate chip damper.

Now THAT is a big pot of noodles!

Cooking damper around the bonfire.

The living conditions at that village were unbelievable.  I'm really glad that we were able to give some of the families a great care package.

Basketball Comes to ICC Light of Hope School

Daniel: I wanted the students to know how to play basketball, so I thought we could get them a basketball ring and some gear.  So Ethan and I put some money together to make it happen.

First, I wrote a letter to the Perth Wildcats, asking for some gear - and they said "Yes"!  They gave us some basketballs and shirts to take.  Katie Reed was really nice and the Wildcats are awesome!

Katie Reed from the Perth Wildcats was really generous!  Go Wildcats!

When we got to Cambodia, we tried to buy a basketball ring and backboard, but there wasn't any.  So Lloyd, Ben and Jordan went to buy some materials to make one.  It took them hours to find the right materials - they said it was a lot harder than just going to Bunnings!

Ben and Lloyd painting the home-made basketball ring so it doesn't rust.

Ethan painting the backboard.

Lloyd, Jordan and Ben putting in the basketball ring and backboard.

Daniel and Ethan filling in the hole to make the ring stable.

We made two rings - one for the big kids and one for the little kids.  When we put it in the ground, the kids were really happy, but they weren't sure what to do at first.  But we started to teach and they got really good, really quickly!  (Ben got beaten by one of the kids!)

I can't wait until we go back so we can play basketball again with the kids!

Bright Sparks!

Michael: When we were at the ICC School, I wanted to help the students learn about electronics.

To start, I drew I simple electronic circuit diagram on the board.  We then got the teacher to explain what the symbols on the whiteboard meant.  The class gathered me around I showed them how to connect the batteries, wire and LED light to create a circuit.

Drawing the simple electronic circuit on the board.

Here I was helping some of the students.

Putting the circuit together.

The students nailed it - especially the boys!  One boy decided to attach 2 LED lights and created a parallel circuit and so I drew that on the board and the other students copied.

Got it!

I think the students liked it and I had a good time too!

Innovation

What do you do when you can't afford tail-lights?

Some YouTube videos of our time at ICC School

Playing games with the ICC students...

The ICC students sing for us!

The boys playing soccer...

Reflections of the ICC School (by Heather)

Heather: On Wednesday we went around in groups to the different classrooms at the school. The kids were sooooo excited to have visitors!!

Some of the Kindy students

The students enjoyed having some guests from Australia.

We sang songs and the kids joined in the actions, played games, showed them picture books and communicated the best we could using creative gestures and facial expressions… thankfully we had an interpreter to help us!

Ryan, Ethan, Daniel, Annette, Jo and Sopheavy

Michael, Sarah, Heather and Patricia doing songs with the students.

It was so much fun seeing the smiles on the kids faces… particularly the kindy kids who were jumping out of their skin to see Ralph… he's a very loved puppet after so many hugs, cuddles and squishes :)

Ralph Smiley, Michael and Heather reading the Hungry Little Caterpillar
(donated by a Year 1 student from Palmyra Primary School).

In the afternoon the kids had to work in the garden after school… (Not a bad idea for when I get home I say!) It looks fantastic and the veggies they produce help them all to eat healthy.

Working in the veggie garden after school.

Watering the garden.

When the gardening was done some of us helped the kids make cards and Mel took photo's of them with the instant camera so they could decorate around them. They had lots of fun and it was great to see their delight at getting a picture of themselves.

Making cards in craft time.

Sri Moceh with Annette.

The boys played soccer out on the field with the kids and in the heat I think that meant crafts were definitely the better deal!

The boys playing soccer.

Arriving at ICC Light of Hope School

We finally arrived at ICC Light of Hope School and Orphanage on Tuesday night.  We met Sokhun and his beautiful wife who cooked delicious meals for us during our time at the school.

Sokhun welcomes us to the ICC Light of Hope School and Orphanage

To get to and from the school and orphanage each day, we would travel in the back of a truck.  The drivers would do their best to drive around the pot-holes, but it was still a bumpy ride!

In the back of the truck.

The best thing about our visit to the school and orphanage was that we got to see the great work that ICC does with our donations.

We'll tell you more about it in our upcoming posts...

S21 - War and Genocide

S-21 is a museum but was once a high school that was turned into a prison and torture facility.

Our tour guide told us the history of what happened with the Khmer Rouge in the 1970's.  Basically, the wars, the genocide and government policies led to the death of millions of people and left almost everyone else in poverty.

The school was turned into a prison and torture facility.

Only a few survived...

Mel bought a book about Chum Mey's experience as one of the few survivors of the prison that executed 16,000 Cambodians.  His wife and child were also executed.

Chum Mey and Melissa.

It is amazing to think that this happened around only 40 years ago, when Cambodia was similar to other countries like Singapore.

We can't change the past, but hopefully we can learn from it and help Cambodia to build a better future.