Fundraising for Novices

By: Shoshana D. Kerewsky, Board President

Donors and volunteers are the heart of any non-profit organization. Like many non-profits of its size, Friendship with Cambodia has a donor base that is overwhelmingly made up of individuals and families, not corporate sponsors. Whether you make financial donations, give gifts in kind, sponsor a student, or volunteer for FWC, we thank you for your generous contributions. You already know the many ways your donations help the people of Cambodia. You’re also aware that the need is ongoing, which means that we will always be asking for your support.

Whether you’re a one-time donor or contribute more regularly, that money has to come from somewhere. Below are some ideas and to help you think bigger than just your own pocket. A little creativity can go a long way to increase your support for FWC. Here are some ways to get started.

Basic contributions and sponsorship: First, here’s a recap of ways you can support FWC’s programs in Cambodia. Information about all of these options is available on our website.

• Sponsor a student. This is rewarding for the donor and essential for the student.
• Take our tour in Cambodia. After you take our socially responsible tour, you may never look at vacations the same way again!
• Make an unrestricted donation. This lets us put the money where we need it most, including unglamorous but necessary expenses such as paying our small staff and buying copy paper, as well as providing a fund that can be distributed to projects as needed.
• Buy a copy of Responsible Travel Guide Cambodia. More than a tour book, it will give you a good picture of Cambodia and why your donations are so important. Your review or Facebook post online helps bring Friendship to a wider audience as well.
• Buy crafts at our sales and house parties. The crafts are beautiful and their sale helps support programs for vulnerable people in Cambodia.

Creative fundraising: Have fun while raising awareness of the issues facing Cambodians today. Here are some of the ways I’ve collected money to donate to Friendship:

• Collect returnable cans. Those deposits add up. To get there faster, ask your neighbors if you can have their cans for a worthy cause.
• Sell old paperbacks to a used bookstore. $15 isn’t a lot for us, but it can make a big difference in a country where the average income is about $1 a day.
• Distribute copies of our travel guide to libraries and potential donors. At my request, my friends and family have bought and donated a number of copies.
• Have a yard sale. Or donate what you make at one vent selling your hand-made jewelry, notepaper, or scarves.

Ask family and friends to contribute. Most of us are uncomfortable asking people we know to donate to our favorite causes. A few years ago, I started adding “donation to FWC” when people asked what I’d like for my birthday or holidays. After doing this a few times in a row, I no longer have to ask. Many of my family and friends now automatically make donations. In fact, I often don’t even know that this has happened—while signing donor thank-you letters in the office recently, I was startled to see that both my mother and stepfather had donated without telling me! When I recently turned 50, I asked people to make a donation up to $50 in lieu of a gift. Over $300 was donated. That’s a pretty good birthday present.

Big fundraising: If you’d like to be ambitious, here are some ideas for fundraising on a bigger scale.

• Make it personal. The last sections of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide discusses strategies for effective fundraising, such as focusing on people rather than statistics. We can provide you with photos and stories to supplement your efforts.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are many sources of information on fundraising. Take a look at these widely available articles online:
  1. “The Ten Most Important Things You Can Know about Fundraising” by Kim Klein: http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Practical/Shop–ToDo/Activism/FundraisingTips.htm. This article presents some philosophical and pragmatic standards for fundraising that may help you become more comfortable asking other people to donate.
  2. “Fifty-Three Ways for Board Members to Raise $1000” by Kim Klein: http://www.walkoaklandbikeoakland.org/downloads/53ways.pdf
  3. A practical guide intended for board members that may give you some ideas about activities that are a good match for you.
• My students challenge you! Take a look at “FHS Professional Issues II Students Raise $6573.56” at http://education.uoregon.edu/feature.htm?id=2825 to see how students in an undergraduate class raised $6,573.56in donations in about 5 weeks. One group made over $1000 profit in a few hours by reselling Krispy Kreme donuts in an area that doesn’t have a franchise. Think what you could do over a year!

Are you ready to get out there and share your enthusiasm with others? If you’ve had a successful event, raised funds creatively, or directed people to our donation page, please drop us a note so we can thank you. If you’d like to do something but aren’t sure what, contact us. We have a pretty good sense of what has worked in the past and can help you refine your plans. Thanks in advance for your commitment and energy!

Dr. Shoshana Kerewsky is Academic Coordinator of the Substance Abuse Prevention Program and on the faculty of the Counseling Psychology and Human Service Department at the University of Oregon.

International Day of the Girl Child

The following transcript is a speech given by Sophia Sturtevant during Hardy Girls Healthy Women’s celebration of  International Day of the Girl Child.  This day seeks to bring global awareness to the often difficult plight of girls in developing countries, advocate for girls’ rights, and push for greater gender equality for voiceless girls the world over.

Sophia was adopted from the Happy Family Orphanage in Cambodia.  She now works to raise funds for the orphanage.  Friendship with Cambodia also supports the Happy Family Orphanage.

We would like to thank Sophia for sharing her story with us.

Sophia Sturtevant (far right) at the Day of the Girl celebration. Photo courtesy of Hardy Girls Healthy Women.

Thank you, Megan. Thank you, Mayor Brennan. I’d like to thank Hardy Girls Healthy Women for the opportunity to speak to you all today.

As Megan said, my name is Sophia. I am 13 years old, and I live in Yarmouth, Maine. I’ve been involved with Hardy Girls Healthy Women since I was 8, beginning as an Adventure Girl. I was born in Cambodia and adopted when I was 6 months old. I am home schooled; I am a musician, singer, dancer, and artist.

In 2007 when I was 8, my parents and I had the opportunity to go back to Cambodia and visit the orphanage where I lived as a baby, and to meet the woman who runs the orphanage and some of the girls who helped take care of me.

In 2011 when I was 11 1/2, we were planning our second trip to Cambodia. One month before we left, I told my mom I wanted to fund raise for the orphanage and raise money to buy schools supplies, food, and school uniforms. So, I wrote a letter to all my friends and family and asked for their support.

My goal was to raise $200 dollars, but I ended up raising $1200 dollars. With that money we were able to buy: 200 notebooks, 100 pencils, 50 pens, markers, rulers, pencil sharpeners, a basketball, rubber balls, soccer balls, 34 school uniforms, food, shampoo, and bug spray for the orphanage.

The school uniforms were very important to the girls especially, because without them they couldn’t go to school. It meant a lot to me because I could help the kids who were living in the same orphanage I lived in when I was a baby.

This year my moms and I are sponsoring a Cambodian girl to go to college. Her name is Kimleang, and she is one of the girls who helped care for me as a baby. For just $500 dollars a year, my family and I can make sure that she has a safe future.

By 2015, females will make up 64% of the world’s adult population who cannot read. Only 30% of girls in the world are enrolled in high school. By celebrating the Day of the Girl, we can call attention to the importance of girls access to education in Cambodia, and all around the world.

While I was getting ready for today, my mom and I saw that there are two villages in Cambodia who are also recognizing Day of the Girl. One of those villages is where I was born. My hope is for a world where everyone knows about Day of the Girl and joins us in celebrating it, where all girls and women have equal access to education and a future free of violence, sex trafficking, and inequality.

Thank you.

Battambang - a microcosm of Cambodia.

Reblogged from Dominic Stafford Photography.:

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A microcosm of modern Cambodia. A mix of the old and the new. Locals treasure the traditional culture, and this pride can be seen on a daily basis. It's different to other provincial capitals. Not as dusty, not as poor, not as boring, not as lost. Over the years, power of this old town has switched hands more times than one can count on one of them - the last being the French.

Read more… 56 more words

Beautiful photographs!

Lunch with Channary

Last week, Friendship with Cambodia hosted a lunch with Channary Bill at Cafe Yumm in Eugene, Oregon.  Channary is a long-time supporter of FWC who has hosted several house parties at her home in the Bay area.  She is the president of the Santa Clara County Cambodian Women’s Association (CA), which sponsors two of our students in Cambodia.

Channary was the only member of her family to survive the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.  She escaped to Thailand and moved to the US, eventually completing a chemical engineering degree at Oregon State University.  She was ‘adopted’ into a Cambodian family in Oregon, which helped her adjust to life in the States.

Over a lunch of Yumm bowls, Channary, accompanied by her adopted nephew, Sokho Eats, spoke with a group of FWC volunteers, donors, and friends.  She shared her story of growing up in Cambodia.  She also talked about the traditional role of women in Cambodian society.  Attendees were interested to hear that Cambodian women traditionally manage household funds and oftentimes run a small, family business.

Channary discusses Cambodian culture with FWC supporters.

Both Channary and Sokho spoke about Cambodian communities in Oregon and the Bay area.  As a recent graduate of Portland State University, Sokho is involved in student organizations and volunteers with several community groups.  He spoke about issues facing second generation Cambodian-Americans.  Only 6% of the youth whose parents immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, finish high school and very few earn a college degree.  Some young Cambodian-Americans belong to gangs.  Community organizations, such as Channary’s Women’s Association, offer support and tutoring to students wishing to complete their education.

Channary spoke about the need for education in Cambodia and enthusiastically endorsed the FWC Student Sponsorship Program.  She personally traveled to Cambodia to visit her sponsored student.

Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital

Friendship with Cambodia is excited to share the newest update from our partner Tabitha Cambodia:

Founder Janne Ritskes reports, “In early June the miracle of our first 1 million dollars was realized…with the first one million dollars in the bank, we selected a contractor and the building of the hospital can begin.  They have begun land preparation and in two years, September 2014, the building will be complete.” (www.nokor-tep.net)

Friendship with Cambodia contributed $4,000 to the construction of the Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital that was matched by the DeGroot Foundation.  We are very happy to help provide free health care to Cambodian women who cannot afford to go to the doctor.

Currently, less than 7% of the rural population has access to medical care. It estimated that 90% of the women in Cambodia suffer from long-term infections of various kinds.  The Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital will provide much-needed affordable medical care to women in Cambodia.  “Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital’s mission is to become a leading health care service provider for women throughout Cambodia. Operating with a dedicated and specifically trained team working in our head facility as well with our mobile clinics, we aim at offering access to modern, international-standard, effective and affordable health services that are commonly not available to the most vulnerable in our community.” (www.nokor-tep.net)

In addition to providing care to Cambodian women, the hospital will contain an Education and Prevention Unit.  This component includes mobile units of trained staff who will travel to rural communities.  They will distribute educational materials, conduct screenings, and treat minor illnesses for women who do not have the resources to seek medical attention.  It also allows staff to transport women with serious illnesses to the hospital.

The Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital also plans to include Research and Training Units.  After the building is completed, there will be a full year of staff training to ensure that the hospital runs efficiently and that patients receive the highest standard of medical care.

The hospital is a project of the Tabitha Foundation which raises funds to support community development efforts, including a savings program, house-building, digging water wells, and building schools.  Friendship with Cambodia has partnered with Tabitha for many years and is excited to support the next phase of the Nokor Tep Women’s Hospital project.  The estimated cost of the hospital is $5.5 million.   To make a donation to the hospital through Friendship with Cambodia go to www.friendshipwithcambodia.org

8 Facts about Education in Cambodia

• 45% of Cambodian students drop out of primary school.
• More than 20% of students will repeat a primary school grade.
• Less than 80% of Cambodian students complete primary school.
• On average, Cambodian students spend 8-12 years in school.
• More than 20% of Cambodian female adolescents do not attend school.
• Less than 80% of Cambodian students enroll in secondary school.
• Less than 20% of Cambodian students enroll in tertiary (post-high school) education or training programs.
• Less than 50% of primary school teachers and between 30%-50% of secondary school teachers are female.

~ All statistics provided by the UNESCO eAtlas of Gender Equality in Education http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002155/215522E.pdf

To learn more about supporting Cambodian students, visit: http://www.friendshipwithcambodia.org/donate_sponsor.php

Student Success Story: Congratulations, Sochen!

August is one of the best months to be in the Friendship with Cambodia office.  Why?  Because we just received all of our students’ progress reports and updated photos, which we’ll soon pass on to all our student sponsors.  We love reading about our students’ school year, what they’re doing in their free time, and their plans for the future.

Every single Cambodian student that we sponsor struggles to overcome hardship and receive an education, and for Sochen, all that hard work paid off!  Sochen joined our program when she was in the 10th grade.  Both of her parents are farmers, and her mother is often ill.  After high school, she was accepted into the Vanda Institute of Accounting.  Through her hard work and dedication and support from Friendship with Cambodia, she will graduate in October 2012 with a degree in accounting.

Using skills she learned in school and through extracurricular training classes provided by Friendship with Cambodia’s partner organization, SADP, Sochen used the Internet to apply to jobs in Cambodia.  After completing the interview process, Sochen was offered a position as an accountant for a garment factory in Phnom Penh.

Sochen’s story exemplifies how becoming a student sponsor empowers Cambodian women to help themselves.  The support provided by Friendship with Cambodia enabled Sochen to develop the skills needed to find a job and the qualifications to succeed in her career.  Today, she is an independent young woman who is not only able to provide for herself but also build a satisfying career.

Congratulations, Sochen!

To learn more about Friendship with Cambodia’s Sponsorship Program, visit http://www.friendshipwithcambodia.org/donate_sponsor.php