Good morning,

As many of you would be aware, we have just concluded a unique three month fundraising initiative for our Cambodia projects following a very generous offer from one of our long term supporters to match contributions made up to June 30 to a maximum combined total of $100,000 ($50k + $50k).

With our ongoing support of over 1,000 students in the two schools in Andong and Oddar Meanchey (OM) villages and the myriad of other project activities totalling well over $250,000 annually, this unique campaign had the potential to give us a great platform to work from for the next 12 months.

As we counted down the weeks towards the end of the financial year the tally rose steadily so with 24 hours to go I thought I should sit down and crunch the numbers and see if we were getting anywhere in the ballpark of the $50,000 target. Well to my great surprise and delight the numbers on the calculator late in the day on June 29 read ....... $49,365. In my book that's pretty much $50k so I was pretty excited to let our supporting donor know the outcome on July 1.

Well things didn't quite go according to plan, as during the last 24 hours of the financial year we had another $13,000 filter into our project account so I now had a slightly more awkward conversation ahead of me with our donor, but true to form they rose to the occasion and pledged to match the full amount which is unbelievably generous.

So we now have a great position to work from for the next 12 months as we continue to support some of the most impoverished families on the planet in Andong slum village and remote Oddar Meanchey.

And this level of support has also enabled us to seriously consider fast-tracking a really exciting and much needed infrastructure development project early next year .... but more about that later.

Thanks again for your ongoing support and encouragement.