Carpets for Communities Project

Film Festival

2010-07-24T18:04:00.000+09:30

Testing this new blog this function on Chrome...

Guess i'm blogging again... Getting ready for moving to Cambodia and writing home about it all.

Check out our film festival fundraiser for CfC in Melbourne on Wed 28th...

Film Festival

CfC UPDATE from Cambodia trip - Feb 2010

2010-02-13T16:35:00.001+10:30

So far it's been a productive, thought provoking and also frustrating trip.

I arrived in Cambodia on Wednesday afternoon last week (3rd Feb) and spent a few days in Phnom Penh meeting people and helping Heng (our manager) to find a long arm sewing machine that we need to sew the larger rugs. This is the frustrating part....No luck there so far. We considered cutting one up and welding on a longer arm but it looks not to be possible. Still trying to find a solution to that one and it needs to be fast so we don’t hold up the shipment.

I had a good meeting with Alan Flux, a VSO volunteer designer from AAC (Artisan's Association of Cambodia). He gave me lots of names of people to talk to about different products and materials. He also talked about the need for training local Cambodian Designers as he said that after spending 2 years here developing handicrafts for lots of organisations, there seems to be no original modern local design. Everything is either copied from the past or the designs come from westerners or neighbouring countries. That would be something interesting to work on – developing local design. Alan gave me a design for making a tube scarf out of the cotton we use that will look great.

Heng and I also visited a relocated community just outside of Phnom Penh. One of the groups kicked out of Phnom Penh when the government sold slum land to developers. They were pretty poor and we’ll send someone back to get information about how many kids are out of school. There was another similar community down the road and yet another where they had grouped together all the HIV victims.

We visited a few fair trade shops looking at products we could possible make, getting some good ideas.

I'm now in Siem Reap and have been joined by Ailsa (who sells the rugs in Alice Springs) and Clay (who will move here with AYAD to work for us in July if all goes to plan). Soon (on the 19th) Frank will be with us if all goes to plan there as well – i heard something about a problem with VISAs because he’s Ghanian.

Currently we’re focused on figuring out where to expand to (visiting Projects and villages), vetting CVs to recruit a new social worker and product development and diversification (checking out fair trade shops and projects).

Ali has been working on that as well as putting together a draft village selection questionnaire to help us select our next village in Siem Reap and working on the Child protection policy for implementation.

In Siem Reap we’ve also been visiting a few NGOs who work with kids to see if we can work with them.
They include:
- Green Gecko (very nice street kids residential program most of whom still have siblings with their families who are out of school)
- http://www.greengeckoproject.org/
- New Hope Community Centre (NGO school and programs for a very poor area)
http://www.newhopecambodia.com
- Angali house (education for street children)
http://www.anjali-house.com/html/
- Pepy (focused on education)
http://pepyride.org/

We also plan to visit Angkor Butterfly Centre who employ poor women in breeding butterflies (pupae) for export.

We’ve been having our perceptions of how to work with and help kids in the most effective way challenged and been having a lot of discussion and debate on how we can best achieve our goals. We were challenged on the idea of having a simple message (we return street kids to school) at the cost of doing development in a more sustainable and empowering way. It was suggested that we could give people more credit and play a role in educating people in Australia on good development – letting our message be about the lessons we have learned.

We also realised that if we are truly going to work in an empowering way to get kids back to school and keep them there then we really need to be letting them decide the best way to improve the situation of the kids in the village.

Something else that we were aware of and that has been very obvious is that most NGOs here are not working together and that overall there is little coordination and a lot of inefficiency in addressing the problems – specifically in children’s education. We’ve been thinking on how we could help bring everyone together through partnering with the carpets project.

It’s also obvious that some NGOs, while having a lot of heart, are not working in very empowering ways for everyone involved. Clay, Ali and I discussed the possibility of working with them and helping them learn about the benefits and empowerment and community driven development as the primary model of development.

I’ve just finished reading a short book written by a Cambodian man that had a small organisation and was working with villages in the late 90’s just after the fighting. It’s all about how to do development with Cambodian communities in the Cambodian way. The quote that really stuck with me is:

“Participation means that we participate with the village folk, not that they participate with us.”

It’s only 70 pages and I think we need to make this book mandatory reading for everyone in CfC!

Lots of food for thought anyway...

So moving on; Sunday night will see Chinese New Year celebrations start and the fireworks have already begun. On Monday morning we’ll head to Poipet to do a quality check of the shipment going out, to train the staff and work on improving production systems and family case management. Ali leaves on Tuesday and we’ll be back in Siem Reap on Friday to interview Social Worker candidates and finish off any last bits and pieces before returning on Feb 24th.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

2009-03-26T15:30:00.001+10:30

THE Climate Change animation.. Explains why we are so close to the "tipping point" / point of no return / mass extinction. This one brings it all together... It explains the different feedback systems and how they interact. Digg it, pass it on.. maybe we can make a difference...

read more | digg story

New Rugs, a new organisation and national TV coverage

2008-11-22T12:24:00.002+10:30

These are the three big things that happened this week.

First the carpets arrived on the back of a truck.

All 320 odd carpets from the new shipment arrived this morning and are now packed in my garage, with the exception of 10 rounds which have been sent to Cairns via greyhound.

There are lots of brilliant colours and people will love them as usual! This time we have 150 small .4 x .5m mats as well as the new .45 x .65 mats and the new .65 x 1.6m runners as well as the usual rounds, runners and some ying yang designs.

Nearly Legal.

After years of operating under partnership agreements we've taken the plunge and on Friday we lodged our application to become a legally registered organisation.

To be on national TV

Kerrie from ‘Compass’ (ABC tv show) called me for the second time this week and confirmed that they will be shooting CfC for one of their programs when we are in Sydney in the first week of December.

Next week i’m lucky enough that i'm being flown to Sydney for an interview by Foundation for Young Australians. They want to set up a program here that i participated in in Washinton D.C in 2006 (http://www.youthactionnet.org/) and are interviewing all participants.

For me next week (and the weeks after) is all about calling retailers and delivering rugs. Next Friday we'll be setting off in the van for Melbourne and Sydney to deliver rugs and help set up some market stalls.

Gearing up for some serious expansion

2008-11-11T00:52:00.004+10:30

To continue on from the post below...

And what a ride it was on the boat from Siem Reap to Battambang...

I've been back in Adelaide 2 months and I still remember that 8 hours it took to cover only about 100km.

It was also the start of a bad run I had with sunburn that trip... But it was worth it in the end. We had a good meeting with PKO (http://www.pkocambodia.org/) in Battambang about possible collaboration and if all goes well they are going to trial the CfC program with 5 of their target families.

The main highlights from the trip were the traidcraft / AAC workshop on Social Enterprizes that I spoke at and the subsequent meetings with the Ministry of Woman's affairs. They love the project and want to contract us to implement it in their target areas in Siem Reap (out the back of Angkor Thom temple).

This will expend the project and give us the funds we need to produce a lot more and keep going until we can sell them. We've already spent the Ashoka grant on bringing production back up to full levels and hiring new staff and now we are waiting on the 10k from the International Youth Foundation so we can start production in Siem Reap with another 20 families.

But first thing's first.. we need to get registered here in Australia and then in Cambodia so that we are a legal body. It's been great to work as a partnership with other organisations but we've separated from our partner in Cambodia and we're now starting to take on enough momentum and deal in big enough dollars that we need to be a legally registered entity.

I'd also like to welcome the new staff:

Mongheng SENG (Heng) who will be our new Country Manager.

Naren CHUUT who will be the office manager in Poipet.

And

Chetra CHOU who will be our logistics and procurement officer.

You can read more about them in the upcoming newsletter.

More next week on plans, names and new offices...

On a roll!

2008-08-21T01:44:00.002+09:30

What an amazing few weeks it’s been for CfC...

Friday 27th July- We were joined by a group of passionate volunteers and started doing record sales at the market stall in Adelaide (15 in one day! Then at the WYI leadership program in the evening the volunteers bought another 15!).

Soon with the help of these guys we are going to have stalls in Sydney, Melbourne, Airlie beach and Alice Springs!

Welcome to Tash! – our brand new stall manager for Adelaide and to Tanya! – our stall new assistant who will be Tash’s right hand girl.

5th August - Indira Naidoo joined as essentially a patron for CfC. She is an ex SBS news presenter and now working for www.generationalliance.com, a high level communications consultancy. She wants to help us have a celebrity stall at Paddington markets in Sydney before Christmas, then to get famous designers to design some carpets for us to auction in February and also possibly ask a friend to do a doco on the project!

August 6th - We won the Ashoka Changemakers Ending Global slavery completion against 236 other entries and 5,000 in cash.

August 19th - We were granted another $10,000 toward our expansion plans by a donor agency!!! (Can’t say who until they give us some communications guidelines or something in September)

I’m writing from Cambodia where i’m generally working on expanding the project. Originally I had planned to work more on quality and design (and expansion in the number of families) this trip but as it turned out we separated from our local partner organisation earlier than we had planned (the timing is something to do with their strategic plan that had to be signed by some Ministry tomorrow). So it’s been all about recruitment interviews and office hunting so that we can open our own head office before i leave.

Better get some sleep.. early boat ride from Siem Reap to Battambong tomorrow.

VOTE FOR US!!!!

2008-08-01T17:14:00.001+09:30

Hi Everyone,

Help us free children in Cambodia from exploitation.

To help please vote for the Carpets for Communities project in an
online charity competition by going to (www.carpetsforcommunities.org/
vote-for-us) and following the instructions to register and vote. It
will take less than 2 minutes and the $5,000 prize money (and more
importantly world-wide exposure) will all go towards freeing children
from exploitation and getting them back to school in Cambodia.

I started this project with some friends while I was living in Bangkok
in 2004 and now our innovative development project has been selected
as a finalist in the Changemakers "Ending Global Slavery" competition
by a prestigious panel of judges, from over 200 entries world wide.
The winner will be decided by popular vote...you can help us win! Only
4 days to go! vote NOW!!!

We also have a facebook group: "Im voting for CfC to win Changemakers
End Slavery Award"

We are already making a big difference in Cambodia. Please help us
reach more families by forwarding this email to everyone you know...
don't hold back..you'll feel better for it!

Thank you for your kind support,

David Bacon

I also invite you to visit our site at www.carpetsforcommunities.org
and find out all about our project.

--
Founder
Carpets for Communities (Cambodia)
http://www.carpetsforcommunities.org
"Empowering Mothers to break the cycle of Poverty"
Email: davidba...@carpetsforcommunities.org
Mobile: +61 (0)424 511 155

Check out Carpets for Communities project in Cambodia on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvG9e8mWSFc

www.Givle.com - Givle (Google custom Search) Save the Environment and
donate to Charity for Free!
Set your Mum's home page.. I set my Mum's already!

Givle.com. Like Blackle with Charitable Giving (Beta)

2008-01-22T22:50:00.001+10:30

The latest entry into the Google front-end arena promises to give money to charities.

---

And who do they donate to? US!

Woohoo!

If you want to help raise funds for us set givle.com as you home page (and your mum's) and go to http://digg.com/tech_news/Givle_com_Like_Blackle_with_Charitable_Giving_Beta to help make it popular!

read more | digg story

Update Dec 2007

2007-12-12T12:38:00.000+10:30

I interviewed one of our families last week when i visited the project. You can see Thea, our office manager, laughing with them as they tell us how their house fell down in the middle of a storm 3 weeks ago.

They might be laughing now but only because the new house is almost built. The mother is happy to be making carpets as her husband has been sick for the last few months and unable to work. This is the sort of set of circumstances that can break a poor family but they are happy in the knowledge that they have consistent work making carpets and when the bill for rebuilding their house comes they can get a no interest loan from us to cover it.

I interviewed 7 of the 12 families in the last 4 weeks and nearly all of them have a new story so stay tuned for the next edition of our newsletter for their stories.

Click here for a few pictures from my recent trip.

If you're not signed up to the mailing list please email: carpetsforcommunities at carpetsforcommunities.org

Things are starting to hot up now with CfC!

120 new carpets arrive in Adelaide!
Click here to see the latest carpets.

And it's all thanks to the Carpets for Communities Committee. A few friends were inspired by the project and we have formed a committee to help promote the project and sell more carpets so we can reach more families.

Big thanks to: Serena, Kev, Lucy, Mel, Richie, Danny, Kylea, Tyson and Ben who have all been helping lots! Also thanks to Alicia, Jess, Siobahn and everyone else for your input and support. The next few months are going to be big for CfC!

Together, we're working on a new website, promoting the project and getting corporate sponsorship, selling to small shops and generally developing the project and products.

Contact: davidbacon at carpetsforcommunities.org if you'd like to help in any way.

Update Oct 2007

2007-10-10T20:28:00.000+09:30

Sales
- We have just shipped 59 carpets to Australia so send in your orders to carpetsforcommunities@carpetsforcommunities.org

Publicity
- 5AA radio profiled CfC
- Sunday Mail Magazine advertised one of our carpets and the 3rDimension shop in Semaphore where they are sold.

Support
- Social Entrepreneurs Richie Khoo and Kevin Chan who's day jobs are as a Financial Advisor and Marketing Manager designed a website that donates money to CfC.

Check out www.givle.com and follow the instructions to make it your new home page for all your google searches. Now you can donate to CfC with every Search!

- Melissa Willoughby has come on board to volunteer her excellent Sales and Marketing skills.

- Danny Connor (Founder of New Agency of Design) has offered his design and photography skills

Lots of news since the last update

2006-09-18T13:48:00.000+09:30

Mainly we have been communicating about the project through newsletters thesedays.

Until i find out how to upload files on here you'll have to email carpetsforcommunities@gmail.com for a copy of the May and August newsletters.

In good news:

- We have finished consolidating our production model and have finished the first expansion expanded from 6 families to 18 families and over 50 children.

- We are redeveloping the website and now have free independant hosting by qikdraw systems so you can see it and soon the new one at http://www.carpetsforcommunities.org

- We are at a point with the project where we can really spingboard from here and have been approached by the Asian Foundation as a finalist for $25,000 USD of funding and a lot of technichal support.

- We won an award from the International Youth Foundation wichi gave us $500 and means they will fly me to Washington for training and networking in November.

- We have been approved by AusAID for funding for an Ausrtalian Youth Ambasidor for Development for 12 months. This means that the Australian Government will pay (19,000) for an Austrailan to go over there for 12 months and work on our project starting in April!

- We are working with them to get another one approved to start before christmas. The positions are:

April 2006 to 2007 - Product Development and Marketing
November 2006 to 2008 - Program Development

Please email carpetsforcommunities@gmail.com for a job description.

Dave is back in town

2005-12-08T12:10:00.000+10:30

Finally i'm back in Bangkok!
Today is one year exactly since i left and it's great to be back. This time i'm only away for about 6 weeks and tomorrow i head down to the Cambodian border for a month or so.

A short update on the project situation:

We have secured grants from; LOMEF, UNESCO, TEAR Fund Australia, Friends and Family and Personal fundraising totaling over $20,000 AUD (600,000 THB), which is enough to cover the set up of the project to include 100 families on the original budget.

Out of our own pockets we are sponsoring a girl how helped us out a lot to finish school and go to uni if she wants. I have raised a little money for this and we hope that she can work for us as well as a social worker.

We had to let our Khmer project helper go but this week we are hiring 3 more staff so i'm going to have an interesting time trying to scale up the project while Andrea goes home for xmas. It might be a little like the blind leading the blind for a while but i will have Julian, a friend of Leigh’s down there for a while to help so it should be fine.

We are expanding to include 15 more families soon and we are starting to work on building some sort of co-op structure so that the project will almost run itself eventually.

One of my personal goals while i'm there is to make a serious effort at getting the girls who inspired the whole thing into the project. So far we have help off until everything was stable because we didn't want to scare them off if things were not working 100% but not all is flowing and finally, over 2 years since i first met them we are finally in the position to really help them.

Can't wait to get down there and get into it.. exciting times. Stay posted for pictures and day by day updates from the ground.

One of the CfC family children

2005-09-21T14:24:00.000+09:30

DSC01226
Originally uploaded by davidnbacon.

This was a test to decide which grade he would go in to. Apparently the teacher just gave him one long multiplication question and that decided which grade he should go in. At least he's in school.

Kids in Class

2005-09-20T20:56:00.000+09:30

Kids in Class
Originally uploaded by davidnbacon.

Finally - Children in School!

In the latest report from Andrea - our fantastic project manager / Managing Director she told us that we have a 100% school enrolment rate and a pretty damn good attendance rate (taking into account the rainy season) for all families involved. That would be thanks to the good work of our newest team member and social worker Sokdet.

What's more we managed to raise $500 AUD this week for the project from a Fair trade event in Adelaide, taking us closer to our $12,500 target. Thanks Fair Trade Flinders!

In other exciting news i will be travelling to Cambodia in December to hold the fort while Andrea is home in the US for Xmas and do what i can to help for 2-3 months. You can except lots of cool pictures direct from the source.

Finally if anyone is ever interested in helping out we love volunteers here or in Cambodia and we are always looking for new sales channels to sell carpets in Australia.

Samon

2005-09-20T20:31:00.000+09:30

index_samon1
Originally uploaded by davidnbacon.

Finaly i am able to upload some more pictures. Below you can see what's been going on from the figures and now you can acctaully 'see' waht's been going on.

The Project is really rolling now

2005-09-16T23:46:00.000+09:30

The Blog gives some updates and pics about the project that we are working on in Cambodia. Dubed the Carpets for Communities project you can read more about it at the website: http://carpets.wyps.org.

For the first time reader you should read from the bottom first if you want to to understand all this.

Update September 05

2005-09-16T23:38:00.000+09:30

We have a new website so check it out!

http://carpets.wyps.org

Excepts from the September report for those interested int eh details of what we are doing and achieving:

# Participant Families
(# school-aged children)

July..................................7

August/August Goal.............8/11

Project expansion was delayed due to issues with the mat and stitching material. The issues must be resolved before CfC can guarantee regular work to more than its current participants.

Avg Monthly Income from CfC

July.................................600B

August/August Goal........1065B/1200B

Income increased dramatically from July, as August was the first full month that participants had regular work. CfC fell short of its goal, as some women opted not to work on carpets full-time; some balance carpets with other work. Ngean Ouk earned the most money in August with 2085 B; Sreymom, a new participant, the least, with 470 B.

[Note: $1 AUD = 31B THB]

% Children Enrolled in School

July................................100%

August/August Goal........85%/80%

As of August, Sreymom’s four siblings had not been enrolled in school. Their school, Wat Thmey, is on holiday and will resume at the end of September.

Average Attendance Rate

July...............................85%

August/August Goal.......89%/85%

Overall, the children’s attendance is regular. Some have missed school due to illness.

Participants are generally happy with the program. All continue to be interested in making carpets and look for ways to improve their productivity and maximize their income. More importantly, all see the value in sending their children to school and take this aspect of CfC seriously. On several occasions, the husbands of CfC participants have thanked CfC staff, indicating that their livelihoods have improved since their wives have been making carpets and that their children are happy to be attending school regularly.

September Objectives (in order of priority)

• Achieve 100% school enrollment and 90% average school attendance for participant children
• Test new materials in the field and provide results, in the form of 3 finished 2.4x1.7m carpets, to Inter Krai.
• Matting with better uniformity and less elasticity
• Stitching materials that Inter Krai cannot machine
• Determine and implement payment structure that will minimize taxes for all CfC partners
• Resolve pricing issue with Inter Krai
• Hire a social worker
• Conduct a baseline survey through interviews with at least 100 families in CfC target areas
• Interview at least 40 families as potential participants
• Get Cambodian Customs’ approval to waive all import and export duties
• Finalize the process for backing cotton carpets

Let us know if you are passing through Cambodia, we love to host volunteers.

Check out our project

2005-02-05T22:03:00.000+10:30

After you have read this posting this blog is best read from the bottom first.

To dowload the brochure please access this link (http://www.wyps.org/pdf/5-Carpets.pdf) from the WYPS web page http://www.wyps.org.

Here is a brief history of the project.

It started after I had made several trips to the Cambodian-Thai border to extend my visa. On each trip I had met and started to make friends with a small group of children who were begging from tourists. They triggered something inside me that has been waiting to go off for a long time and after I learned more about their situation I decided I wanted to do more to help them than buy them a meal once a month when I was extending my visa.

I spent several trips trying to find out more about them and their situation, going to visit their families, having a meeting with the village women etc to see what could be done to help their situation.

Early on when I asked the village women what would be best for them they said money or work. They said that starting a factory and employing them or training people in skills like sewing and electronics would be best.

My main idea was to try and help the children I had befriended to have proper educations and eventually access some of the opportunities I have had. So I simply put two and two together and decided to try and help the parents or families earn money so that the children no longer needed to beg.

Initially I though that sewing would be the way to go. I started trying to raise money to buy used sewing machines so that we could train them through one of the NGO's already there and let them then hire or buy them on credit and use them to generate income. However this approach bumped into a few obstacles.. Some of the biggest were that:

1) The mothers from this group would not be able to take time unpaid to do training as they had too many children to take care of.
2) The sewing and garment industry and market, while open, is becoming increasingly competitive
3) They did not have the networks for buying and selling (Finding the market is the key and has proven difficult for similar projects)

While investigating this earlier in 2004 with a friend and colleague (Jay) we had a golden opportunity dropped in our laps.

Our Executive Director (K. Sukanya) at the foundation I was working for had sent some emails out about finding second hand sewing machines and one reply came from a factory that made carpets who had a show room downstairs from our office. They sent us some wool scraps to see if we could make use of them and then we had a meeting with the Managing Director (K. DuanKeaw) who said they had lots of this and that she had researched a technique for turning these scraps into carpets by hand. She also said that if we can make it in the villages she would supply all the material and buy back all the finished products.

The technique is called "latch hooking" and seems to be a common pastime in many western homes (my Nannamade a big rug like this) as there are websites about it everywhere. The great thing is that this technique requires only a small wood and metal latch hook (or even a crochet hook), the wool and what is basically a net to knot the wool onto. So the capital required to run the project is minimal and only really requires an administrator and a case worker as running costs.

Where are we now? (June 2005)

Regarding the children:

Initially we had employed (out of pocket) a girl we trust to meet the children everyday after they finished on the border, help them when needed, spend time with them and report to us. She was payed 50 Thai Baht (less then $2 AUD) per day for about 1-3 hours work. Unfortunately her fulltime employer wouldn’t let her continue and so after 3 months this stopped. We decided to get the production side of the project up and running first so taht we could use the revenue from that on the out reach aspect with the kids rather than pay out of pocket.

Production side:

We completed initial rounds of testing where we made small carpets of different size and materials. You can see the result of the first and second rounds I the “Original Flier” and “CfC_Brochure” Respectively.

We have now demonstrated the ability to turn out quality pieces and found the right materials to satisfy the Carpet factory’s requirements.

This week we have just reached an agreement with Carpet Maker as to what the best product is, what price they should pay us for the finished product and how many square meters they will buy from us per month.

They will buy a maximum of 40sqm in July and August, 80sqm (max) in September and October and a minimum of 80sqm in November and December.

See “resource_planning – june 2005.xls” for the details and figures.

We are currently fundraising to cover the salary for the extra staff that will be required for managing production and outreach and cover participants wages.

People who are working on this project:

Andrea – Project manager (in Bangkok / Poi pet, Cambodia – Paid a stipend by WYPS)

Dave - Founder (Finishing his studies In Australia now)

Jay - Director (working for WYPS (Same small foundation) in Bangkok)

Leigh - Volunteer (In Bangkok – Working for an NGO)

Associated
Chomno - Founder and Director of CHO (and his staff)

Contact: david@wyps.org or regarding the production side: Andrea on carpets@wyps.org

2005-02-05T22:01:00.000+10:30

Dave, Lary, Jay and some of the cheecky crew.

2005-02-05T21:58:00.000+10:30

A road in the village where most of the girls familes live.

2005-02-05T21:54:00.000+10:30

On a ride at the local fair.

2005-02-05T21:53:00.000+10:30

A typical Poi Pet street. If it rains it is almost impossible to get arround through the mud and one effrot at getting to one of the surrounding villages where some of the families live ended with us bogged and pushing the Tuktuk.

2005-02-05T21:50:00.000+10:30

We took them all out for dinner and rides on the amusemant park.

2005-02-05T21:45:00.000+10:30

We take them out to lunch or dinner most days we are down there if we can. They also act as our guides much of the time although it's aften hard to communicate in basic Thai if we don't have an interpreter or a Thai friend with us.

2005-02-05T21:25:00.000+10:30

The latest finished test product using spare wool. Their own funky design. Please contact me if you are interested in buying one and donating some money to help get the project up and running. david@wyps.org

2005-02-05T21:21:00.000+10:30

Jay (Journalist at large and current project manager working from Bangkok) - Interviewing one of the participants of the wool carpet testing phase. She was very happy to have the opportunity to work from home as she had to stay and loook after the children and couldn't do other work.

2005-02-05T21:18:00.000+10:30

Another participant in ths wool carpets test phase.

2005-02-05T21:16:00.000+10:30

Another participant in the Wool carpets test phase.

2005-02-05T21:15:00.000+10:30

Lary's Mum's friend. Participating in the test phase for making wool carpets (bath mats).

2005-02-05T21:12:00.000+10:30

Me in World vison with Lumduan, Cheing and Sarm (From left)

2005-02-05T21:09:00.000+10:30

Goodbye dinner on my last trip with all the girls, Lary, her mum and friend. Thanks for paying Jay!

2005-02-05T21:06:00.000+10:30

Lary (with Lii and Chen)- Our fantastic social worker. We employ her part time (and currently out of pocket) to meet with the children everyday after work (when the border closes).

2005-02-05T21:04:00.000+10:30

Some of Chieng and Chen's family - There are 8 children all together. Their dad works on some land they own but is apparently a drunk.

2005-02-05T21:01:00.000+10:30

Dee (On my shoulder) - She's probably my favorite along with Chieng but is somewhat of an enigma. Her family won't talk to us if we are not giving them money and i think they are possibly the poorest.

2005-02-05T20:58:00.000+10:30

Sarm (at World Vision again) - She is the most worldly of the girls and also the cutest. From the reports our cambodian Case/Social worker has been sending us we have learned that she works the hardest (as late as 12am) and also earns the most from begging.

2005-02-05T20:54:00.000+10:30

Onn - One of the sweetest girls, also cheecky. She acctually attends school occasionally with Lumduan.

2005-02-05T20:49:00.000+10:30

Lumduan - The most spontainiously happy and cheeky of all the girls. She attends school occasionally and loves to play.

2005-02-05T20:45:00.000+10:30

Lii - A recent addition to the group, bringing the number to 7.

2005-02-05T20:41:00.000+10:30

Cheing in the World Vision day centre. Cheing is the "leader" of our little group and a real live wire.

2005-02-05T20:35:00.000+10:30

Onn, Chen, Chieng, Lumduan, Dee. 5 of the 7 children we are trying to help.

I wanted to help some children i made friends with.

2005-02-05T20:34:00.000+10:30

So I started a project that I hope will soon let them stop begging from tourists, keep them away from the dangers of human trafficking and eventually help them to have full educations.

To download the brochure for the project you can simply access this link.

http://www.wyps.org/pdf/5-Carpets.pdf

(You will need Adobe pdf reader to view the file which you can get from here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)

Please email me at david@wyps.org if you have any questions.