My Nonprofit Reviews

I visited Cambodia for the first time in 2006. While I found it to be a beautiful country and an exciting travel destination, I also found it a bit depressing to witness the grinding poverty that seemed to be everywhere. After returning home, I kept thinking about finding some way that I could help. While I was already donating to other charities, I wanted to find an organization that would enable me to really see the difference I was making. I had also read that one of the most effective way to fight poverty was through girls' education. With this in mind, I began researching charities on the Internet.

As a former investigative journalist, I'm naturally pretty skeptical and careful in my research. Still, it didn't take me long to determine that CCF was a highly reputable and effective organization. I contacted the group and told them that my wife and I would like to sponsor a Cambodian child, preferably a girl, although the latter wasn't a requirement. They very quickly matched us up with our sponsor child, a 12-year-old girl, and we started communicating regularly via e-mail very soon after that. For the past five years or so, we have been regularly in touch with our "daughter," writing e-mails and sharing pictures. The staff at CCF has been incredibly helpful all along the way, providing us with regular updates about our daughter and her academic progress.

A few years ago, my wife had the opportunity to visit our daughter in person during a business trip to Cambodia. This past winter, I was able to visit her myself for the first time. She is now a bubbly 17-year-old with a bright outlook and a great sense of humor, who talks about becoming a nurse and helping others just like CCF has helped her. Along with one of her friends and a member of the CCF staff, we spent an afternoon shopping, eating, talking, laughing and taking pictures. The CCF staff also gave me a tour of their facilities in Phnom Penh and told me about all the great work they are doing. Everywhere we went, the smiles on the children's faces were priceless.

I'm grateful to Scott Neeson -- one of my true heroes -- and all the wonderful people at CCF for giving me the opportunity to help and get to know my Cambodian daughter. Although she is almost grown up now, I hope she will be a part of my extended family for a long time, and I hope to continue to be part of the CCF family.