My Nonprofit Reviews
purcelldavidm
Review for Cambodian Children's Fund, Santa Monica, CA, USA
My wife Linda and I made the first of our three visits to CCF in 2008. We had started sponsoring two children in 2007, and wanted to see for ourselves, first, that CCF actually existed and, second, how it was spending our money. We met CCF founder Scott Neeson, toured the Steung Meanchey garbage dump, which was then very much operational, and spent time at each of the CCF facilities where kids lived and learned. The highlights of the visit were meeting “our” kids for the first time and riding along with a young lady on the day she moved from living at the dumpsite to living at CCF4. We were deeply moved by, and shall never forget, the joy on her face. We now proudly sponsor her, too. We came home from that trip 100% confident that our money was being spent as we had hoped: to help give disadvantaged children a safe, clean environment in which to live and access to the education most of them hungered for.
We returned to Phnom Penh in 2011, and, for the third time, in January, of this year. On both occasions, we spent time with our kids and their friends and toured CCF facilities to see what was new. And, we’ve learned there’s always something new at CCF – new buildings, new programs, new staff, and an ever-growing number of Cambodian kids and parents whose daily lives are touched and improved by CCF. The depth and breadth of the expansion since 2008, has been awesome. What has not changed in 6 years is CCF’s commitment to the kids, the kindness and dedication of the staff, and the high standards CCF maintains – all of which we observed first-hand.
Before this last trip, we were worried CCF might be growing too fast. We were pleased, then, to meet staff and volunteers involved in strategic planning, human resource development, accounting, measurement, and other activities that demonstrated to us CCF is building a strong, modern organization to support its program and facility expansions. We think CCF is going to be around doing good work for a very long time, and we’re gratified to be even a small part of that.
