Newsletter, March 2007

Greetings!

We have merged our shelter project with an American organization (Agape NGO), which has opened a shelter in Phnom Penh last summer. Now all the girls from our shelter live in Agape’s shelter. Our shelter mother Mrs. Jaya Srey Victor, who has worked with the girls for three years also works there. The shelter is located in Phnom Penh, close to where our shelter used to be.

On December we negotiated with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland about the continuation of our project. The co-operation with the ministry is based on the condition that the project is gradually handed over to a local organization. We informed the Ministry that we had not found any acceptable long term shelter run by Cambodian organization. The Ministry accepted Agape and it’s shelter as our partner organization. Most of Agape’s staff is Cambodian. Last week we decided that Children of Cambodia will be responsible for follow-up and evaluation of the development and well-being of ”our girls” as well as for the evaluation of the project as a whole. We will report to the Ministry once a year about our evaluation that we will be conducted during each year.

We will inform the sponsors about how the girls are doing in the shelter two times a year. We still need the help of sponsors in this important follow-up stage which will continue at least until the end of 2008. Because there are much less sponsors in our Orphanage Project than in the Shelter Project and because the orphanage needs more sponsors we will now direct new sponsors to the sponsorship program of the Orphanage Project.

New encouraging development has happened in the Orphanage Project. Sponsors can follow the work of our volunteers in the orphanage through a diary which we have opened on our web pages. Pictures are included as well. The Diary is located at www.childrenofcambodia.com/diary.php There you will find information about the orphanage project and the children’s well-being. The diary is kept by our volunteer workers. The volunteers will also keep sending personal email +photos twice a year to the sponsors of the children. Newsletters to all will be sent when needed.

We are grateful for your support. Your effort has helped the girls in our shelter to recover and develop and it has created them possibilities for education and a stable life. We are grateful also for your help in the Orphanage Project which has given us the possibility to provide care and attention to part of the children in the orphanage as well as milkpowder to all the children in need.

Best Regards,

Pihla Muhonen
Director
Children of Cambodia