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.