My Nonprofit Reviews

Like many people, my first experience of Cambodia was a trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat as part of a longer trip around SE Asia. I immediately fell in love with the country, its culture, and the wonderful people. But I was struck by the level of poverty, and in particular the number of young children begging or sent to work selling magnets to tourists all day instead of going to school. Although I was only in the country for 3 days, the image stayed with me.
When I got back home to the UK I decided to research charities in Cambodia to see what I could do to help. I was shocked to see that the poverty I'd seen around Siem Reap was really the tip of the iceberg, and the conditions of some communities in the capital Phnom Penh were hard to believe.
I found various charities working in Cambodia, from huge multi-national organisations to small community operations. For me, Cambodian Children's Fund stood out by a mile. What impressed me most about CCF was the holistic approach that they take to lift people out of poverty. The charity covers the basic needs of the children, in terms of food, medical care, and shelter, but also goes so much further. They provide world-class education with school facilities which are easily as good as those I attended in the UK. They run leadership programmes and specialist training for older children who show the ambition and drive to go further. And they even go all the way through to university, transforming kids who have started life with nothing into Cambodia's future leaders.
What also impressed me about CCF was the way they focus not only on the children they look after, but also their families and communities. Whenever I've told a friend about CCF for the first time, it's very common for them to assume the children are all orphans. In fact, CCF do everything they can to keep the kids with their families, and also extend their support to them in terms of food, medical care etc. The emphasis is on maintaining the family ties, local communities, and traditional Cambodian culture.
The final thing that made me decide to support CCF was the 1:1 relationship between sponsor and child. While the required monthly contribution for CCF may seem relatively high compared to other charities, this is entirely funding the care of your sponsor child and his or her family. A connection is built between the sponsor and child, and in the 3 years I've been a sponsor I have already found the experience to be incredibly rewarding.
Around one year after becoming a sponsor, I visited Phnom Penh for my sponsor child's fourth birthday and spent an hour in his school class meeting and playing with the kids. Walking into the classroom full of happy, healthy children, laughing and playing, was an amazing experience. The kids love to play with new visitors, and understand (in some way) about sponsors, and after a little initial shyness my sponsor child would not leave my side. If I had any doubts about what a wonderful charity CCF is, they would have been removed in an instant by walking into any of their facilities in Phnom Penh.
Another year later, I visited Phnom Penh for the 2nd time. By then I had been lucky enough to briefly meet the founder, Scott Neeson, at a charity event in London. CCF were amazing and arranged a 3 day itinerary for me to get involved in all aspects of their work and see first hand the amazing things they do. Scott was very generous with his time, and I spent around 3 or 4 hours touring some of the charities schools and the local communities with him. Scott knows every one of the roughly 2,000 children by name, and clearly lives and breathes the charity. His passion and commitment are easy to see and explain how the charity have done such amazing things in a short period of time.
During my tour with Scott, we happened to go to one of the charity sites where my sponsor child was playing with his friends. This wasn't planned, and I wasn't expecting to see him until the next day. One of the most beautiful experiences of my life was when he saw me across the playground, immediately recognised me, and came running across the playground to jump into my arms. I hadn't been sure if he would even remember me, but this experience really drove home to me how important sponsors are to the kids. The fact that someone external cares about them individually means so much, and the child-sponsor relationship is an amazing thing. As long as I'm able to, I'll be visiting CCF every year to see my sponsor child and I'm excited to see how he progresses.
I cannot recommend CCF highly enough. Everyone I met at the charity was wonderful, friendly and welcoming. They are highly professional and organised and I have every confidence that the money I donate is used in the best possible ways. The 1:1 child-sponsor model is incredibly rewarding and makes CCF not just a line on my bank statement every month, but an important part of my life. Please check out their website and consider sponsoring one of their amazing kids, or just making a one-off donation. I can't think of many better ways to use your money.