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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 6:13 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:JR, you know, I am still getting occasional correspondence from some of those whom I resettled those 20 years ago. A lot of them were young adults or children/teens and now have families but have kept in touch. Kind of gratifying knowing you can change somebody's life forever for the better, yeah?
Absolutely, it must be very touching to have made a direct difference.

The first time I went to Vn in '89 seemed to coincide with a somewhat new official programme to relocate Amerasians to the Peens and the US. My flight out of TSN was me + 199 people who were all taking a leap of faith away from their previous lives. Surreal.

I enjoyed looking at your pictures. I was surprised to see that they built a Cao Dai temple!

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Post by Eau2011 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 6:26 pm

JR8 wrote: Eau, you asked if that charity is run by friends and have I visited the village. The answer is no and no. I saw the name of the charity on signboards as we drove through the countryside around Siem Reap. In one village there might be two wells and one might read say 'Donated by John and Amy Walker, Sydney Australia' with the Aussie and Cbn flags on, then the next 'Donated by the Cronkite family, New York, USA'... and so on. The benefits of these wells are so tangible and clear to see. And the self-propogating nature of the works is inspired. I'm not in the habit of throwing my money around for some fake feel-good glow, so rest assured I was thoroughly persuaded of the case :)

How do you pick charities worth supporting? Look at the people who are running them. Look at their mission statement. Look at the people who are patrons, and significant supporters. Look at their accounts. With Sustainable Cambodia, their overheads are miniscule, something like 5% or less.

SMS, I too take a rather jaundiced view with regards to much 'charity' (or perhaps to the concept of what is regarded as charity). Maybe another one of my pet peeves :wink: For me true charity is giving of yourself, rather than giving with the expectation of any kind of return (PR, headlines, that 'warm glow', to boast to your friends). Giving time is good when you can afford it and that time is correctly applied. Not everyone always has time available on tap and so I wouldn't dismiss cash donations out of hand as a form of vanity exercise though. In fact volunteers who have time generally create overheads, and it is cash donations that fund that too...
You Cambodia village sounds really good. I will take a close look to see if I can do something, through donate or village gift programme.

I read the situation of the children in Cambodia is bad (mortaliy under 5 years old ranked 36th in the world, the highest in the region).

JR8, thanks, you opened a new door to me. That is exactly what we need, through word of mouth propaganda, :D otherwise I really don't know which I should trust, just see the huge "donate" in every website of charity programmes and projects. :???: Hey, see, you again did something good unconsciously.

For individuals I think donating time or money is doing theirselves a good, we get much, we should also give to people who need it. :) That's what I think about charity work and donation. "Return" does not exist in my life dictionary. :wink:

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Post by Eau2011 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 6:31 pm

JR8 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:JR, you know, I am still getting occasional correspondence from some of those whom I resettled those 20 years ago. A lot of them were young adults or children/teens and now have families but have kept in touch. Kind of gratifying knowing you can change somebody's life forever for the better, yeah?
Absolutely, it must be very touching to have made a direct difference.

The first time I went to Vn in '89 seemed to coincide with a somewhat new official programme to relocate Amerasians to the Peens and the US. My flight out of TSN was me + 199 people who were all taking a leap of faith away from their previous lives. Surreal.

I enjoyed looking at your pictures. I was surprised to see that they built a Cao Dai temple!
I haven't had that luck to witness the history. :-|

A bit envy SMS and you. :)

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Post by JR8 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 6:53 pm

Eau2011 wrote:
JR8 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:JR, you know, I am still getting occasional correspondence from some of those whom I resettled those 20 years ago. A lot of them were young adults or children/teens and now have families but have kept in touch. Kind of gratifying knowing you can change somebody's life forever for the better, yeah?
Absolutely, it must be very touching to have made a direct difference.

The first time I went to Vn in '89 seemed to coincide with a somewhat new official programme to relocate Amerasians to the Peens and the US. My flight out of TSN was me + 199 people who were all taking a leap of faith away from their previous lives. Surreal.

I enjoyed looking at your pictures. I was surprised to see that they built a Cao Dai temple!
I haven't had that luck to witness the history. :-|

A bit envy SMS and you. :)
Don't get me wrong, I was just there as a tourist (albeit one of the very first who managed to get in in the post-war era). SMSs involvement and insight are way way deeper than that (I'll leave it at that !) :)

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Post by JR8 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 7:05 pm

Eau2011 wrote:
You Cambodia village sounds really good. I will take a close look to see if I can do something, through donate or village gift programme.

I read the situation of the children in Cambodia is bad (mortaliy under 5 years old ranked 36th in the world, the highest in the region).

JR8, thanks, you opened a new door to me. That is exactly what we need, through word of mouth propaganda, :D otherwise I really don't know which I should trust, just see the huge "donate" in every website of charity programmes and projects. :???: Hey, see, you again did something good unconsciously.

For individuals I think donating time or money is doing theirselves a good, we get much, we should also give to people who need it. :) That's what I think about charity work and donation. "Return" does not exist in my life dictionary. :wink:
The idea was to essentially adopt a village, lock stock and barrel. And over time add layers to the work being done, water well, schooling, fish pond, bee-keeping and so on. I set up the plan with the well, and had a lot of friends express support, the difficulty is how to fund-raise amongst a group of international friends (you can't ask say 50 people to all wire £10 to your personal bank account). If you're a bunch of people say in the UK you can all simply make a donation through 'charity funnels' like JustGiving.com. It seems it is/was unfortunately impossible to find a viable way to collectively internationally donate to a US based charity for a defined project.

The issue of wells is a compelling one. If village children are having to spend most of their waking hours walking through minefields to go and collect dirty river water for their families to wash/drink etc then they have no time for education. So how can their situation advance? Freed of that, they are able to go to school. The obvious follow-ons from that follow on
:)

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Post by Eau2011 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 7:21 pm

JR8 wrote: The idea was to essentially adopt a village, lock stock and barrel. And over time add layers to the work being done, water well, schooling, fish pond, bee-keeping and so on. I set up the plan with the well, and had a lot of friends express support, the difficulty is how to fund-raise amongst a group of international friends (you can't ask say 50 people to all wire £10 to your personal bank account). If you're a bunch of people say in the UK you can all simply make a donation through 'charity funnels' like JustGiving.com. It seems it is/was unfortunately impossible to find a viable way to collectively internationally donate to a US based charity for a defined project.

The issue of wells is a compelling one. If village children are having to spend most of their waking hours walking through minefields to go and collect dirty river water for their families to wash/drink etc then they have no time for education. So how can their situation advance? Freed of that, they are able to go to school. The obvious follow-ons from that follow on
:)
Very convincing.

I see it is developing very well, in a way of sustainability, and family helping surrounding villages, if that's done. There are 13 villages now.

I found it's a bit weird those children looking for sponsorship mostly got school life sponsored, but not home life sponsored. :o Does that mean the family can make enough for living so their home life is not problem?

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Post by JR8 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 7:31 pm

Don't know. Maybe sponsors just find the idea of supporting education before 'home life' more compelling.

Anyway, I'm not here to be their advocate. I just thought they were a good example of a well structured organisation/charity.

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Post by Eau2011 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 9:19 pm

JR8,
you won't believe it! :)

I wrote to a volunteer who is a German on SC website, I asked her how's her experience in SC.

She replied just now and said she finished the work in Cambodia and works in SG now. And we can have a coffee to talk about it and she can show me some pictures, I will definitely do it. :)

What a surprise! :)

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Post by JR8 » Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:12 pm

Hmmm!

I expect that would be very interesting! :)

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