Annual Chairman’s Report
It gives me great pleasure to present the 2024 Supporting Cambodia chairman’s report. There is much to celebrate as we look back on the past 12 months and plenty to anticipate as we contemplate some potential exciting things to come.
Amazingly, this year marks the 15th anniversary of our partnership with Pastor Abraham, his wife Sophin, their unbelievably dedicated team and the wonderful families in Andong slum village and remote Oddar Meanchey. That first visit to Andong on Saturday, July 11, 2009 will be forever etched in my memory. The squalor, the hopelessness and helplessness was quite overwhelming, but so too was the enthusiasm and optimism of Abe who had invested everything he owned to start a small school in the village to educate these families out of their poverty.
I have to admit that if I’m honest, it all seemed, at the time, like the impact would be negligible and the task was too great to even consider getting involved with. But we did, and we know now, a decade and half later, that it’s a humanitarian model that really works and has radically transformed the lives of literally thousands of people, among the poorest and most exploited on the planet. You can build a house for a poor family (and we’ve built plenty) or you can hand over a bag of rice (and we’ve delivered thousands of those), but it only really meets their immediate needs and does little to rewrite the script for their lives.
An education on the other hand can never be taken away by a corrupt governor or greedy developer and opens the door to an array of opportunities and rightful choices for these deserving Cambodians and it is such a privilege to witness the transformation.
This past year we have been able to continue to support the operation of the Andong slum village primary school and Trampoung primary school in OM where, collectively, over 1,000 students receive a top notch education and nutritious meal every day. Both were again put under the microscope by the Cambodian Ministry of Education and our Australian NGO partner Global Development Group and I’m proud to say received a definitive tick of approval.
The OM House of Hope is as important as ever in the lives of our brightest and most ambitious OM teenagers, under the nurturing guidance of our dedicated and compassionate local husband and wife team. It was pleasing to be able to fund a complete re-roof of the main building just last month with a composite material that we are told has a working life in excess of 30 years.
Another equally pleasing infrastructure project in recent weeks is the reinstatement of the western style toilets at OM school to supplement the two very outdated and unhygienic squat toilets that were well short of sufficient for the 550 students and teachers who use them every day.
Other initiatives that we have been able to underwrite this past year include financially supporting and accommodating OM university students in Phnom Penh, operation of the OM avocado, cow and fish farm, transportation requirements for students and staff, a new moto for our OM house mentors, new computers, vehicle repairs and maintenance, emergency medical support, Christmas celebrations and emergency food aid and a new year bonus to each and every one of our teachers among many other undertakings.
We have also committed to provide additional resources to Abe’s administration team to assist with meeting the requirements of Global Development Group’s reporting and monitoring regime. I’ve also been able to be a bit more involved in this when these detailed reports are due which has enabled me to have a greater insight into the on-ground works. This administrative responsibility has been an ongoing source of anxiety and stress for Abe, however, I feel we have finally settled on a system that meets our requirements without being a massive burden on him individually.
All of this, of course, comes at a great cost in monetary terms and I continue to be amazed and inspired at the level of support the projects receive from our Aussie donors. In round figures our expenditure for the past year was around 728 million riell or just over AU$280,000. This is slightly up on the previous year’s AU$262,000 and takes our running tally for the past five years alone to a mind-boggling AU$1.7 million.
In addition to our regular donations, a myriad of fundraising events each year top up our coffers, the most notable ones being the Kingscote Show canteen, KI Races clean up and 10c container refunds. These, along with a few community presentations, are great opportunities to raise awareness for the projects and foster comradery among our volunteer team.
There is much optimism at the moment at the potential for some new international partners to come on board and Abe and I have been working hard flying the Supporting Cambodia flag. Abe is hosting a delegation from Singapore as we meet tonight who have expressed a very keen interest in possibly funding the desperately needed construction of some additional levels on Andong primary school which we have been unable to finance to date. Also, you may have seen on your email in recent days, that we have kicked off another matching funding donation initiative thanks to the generosity of one of our regular supporters, that could see as much as $80,000 contributed between now and the end of the financial year which would really get us off to a good start come July 1.
I’m always so appreciative of the ever-expanding supporter base that we have right across Australia. Whether you donate money, roll up your sleeves at one of our fundraising events or just share stories about the projects, you are investing in something pretty special that is having a massive impact in the lives of so many in a really unique and needy part of the world. I’m really hesitant to single out individuals as we pause and reflect this time of year, but on this occasion I’m going to make a very warranted exception for there are two people in the room tonight who deserve a special mention, which fittingly they are going to absolutely hate me doing.
Firstly, to my wife, cum-Supporting Cambodia treasurer, cum-wisdom-filled sounding board, cum-catering division, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful job she does in each of those roles. In addition to these, though, she also achieved something pretty remarkable in recent weeks, that being attaining registered charity status for Supporting Cambodia with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission.
This adds further legitimacy and greater transparency to our organisation for new and existing donors for which I am really appreciative. The other person is Emily McWaters. For a number of AGMs now I have rather sheepishly danced around the need for an online presence for Supporting Cambodia, but Emily has finally dragged me and the projects kicking and screaming into the 21st century. We now have an unbelievably inspiring website and Facebook page, complete with a terrifically simple online payment platform, some awesome promotional material and access to an archive of spectacular and emotive file photos that I literally utilise weekly for fundraising and raising awareness. Although Emily accompanied us on our trip to Cambodia last year, I’m convinced she has no idea what the country really looks like because she spent most of her time staring down the barrel of a Canon EOS R6. Please, both of you, accept my sincere gratitude. Thank you once again for entrusting me with the responsibility of steering the Kangaroo Island Supporting Cambodia ship these past 12 months and it is with eager anticipation I look forward to seeing where the journey takes us this coming year.
Rob Ellson, chairman Supporting Cambodia.
