Welcome to KDFO Sponsorship
Raising money for the KDFO organisation
Dear Potential Sponsor,
Thank you on behalf of the children at KDFO for your interest in the organisation. In the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970's, which by many accounts wiped out up to a third of the population, Cambodia has been left crippled by poverty, disease, corruption, and the reality of up to 10 million remaining landmines. Not many people think of Cambodia as featuring highly on the list of the world's poorest countries. Yet more than 40% of the population still lives below the poverty line with 20% experiencing regular food shortages. The demographic imbalance is shocking; by recent estimates Cambodia's population totals around 13 million; about three quarters of whom are too young to remember the Khmer Rouge, half of whom are under the age of 18. Close to half a million Cambodian children were orphaned in 2006, and it is estimated that a further 300 thousand will become orphans this year through AIDS alone. Cambodia is burdened by the weight of so many children, many of them parentless.
In spite of crippling circumstances which leave many families struggling to lift themselves out of poverty, there emerges a remarkable will to survive amongst the poorest communities. Whole families, and lone children, many orphaned, make their way to Phnom Penh; the city of ambitions and dreams, to live and work on the city's vast municipal rubbish dump. Children as young as 5 or 6 have been found working as garbage pickers on the dump, where their hands and feet are exposed to a whole city's worth of rubbish, un-separated and untreated. They are open to exploitation and abuse by violent gangs, and countless diseases which fester in the piles.
The Khmer Development of Freedom Organization is a Cambodian Non -government organisation which reaches out to these members of the community; offering training and small business loans to adults, and a home to many orphaned or abandoned children found living on the dump. At the KDFO centre; located 150 metres from the dump, children receive food, shelter and non-formal education which includes hygiene lessons, HIV/Aids education, and skills training. They also attend Christian Sunday school every week.
However, KDFO lacks the funding to send the children to school and subsequently these children will be trapped in a cycle of poverty, and much of the country will remain illiterate. This is something unthinkable in the UK today, where a free education is something we take for granted. With your help this cycle can be broken, the children will have a future and the country can move forward.
On this site you will find more information on the background of the Khmer Development of Freedom Organization which we hope will familiarise you with the important work of the centre. In addition to this, we would like to inform you exactly how your support could benefit the children.
