23/12/2009
Passionate plea for Cambodia
Cambodia is a beautiful country with warm people, but 30 years of brutal wars made Cambodia one of the poorest countries in the world. Tommy Bekaert, a young guy from Ghent (Belgium), wanted to contribute to the rebuilding of this country. And given children are the foundation of any society, he helps building on the field a training project for disadvantaged youngsters. Below you find his call.
Dear all,
After working as a volunteer for more than 3 mounts at the organisation ConCERT (www.concertcambodia.org) in Siem Reap (Cambodia) something became very clear to me.
A big amount of local NGO’s deliver already very good work in several different areas like education, child welfare, agriculture, landmine clearance, healthcare, vocational training programmes and many other areas.
After a small research and talking to the right people, I found out that there are still many things to do in the field of vocational training.
So, drawing on my skills and background in the screen printing business, I came up with the idea to start up a vocational training class to teach these skills.
Thanks to Michael Horton (the founder and chairman of ConCERT) I came in contact with Nick Griffin from COF Cambodia (Cambodia Orphan Fund – www.cofcambodia.org). Nick was looking for people with specific skills that they could bring and teach to the young adults in his vocational training centre in Siem Reap.
After a good talk we came to an agreement that Nick would provide the accommodation and I would try to get the funds for the machines, materials, products and provide the courses themselves, teaching the students.
The first plan is to start up a course where the young adults of COF and other NGO’s who are interested in this area can learn the screen-printing skills on textiles, but also on paper, glass, wood or other printable materials. The goal is to provide them with a solid training in these Graphical Arts, so they can more easily find a job in this area.
Our second goal is using our printing facilities to print our own T-shirts with own designs, designs of the children and we will also take commissions and orders from other NGO’s or responsible businesses, so the school can be self sufficient for its daily costs.
Some interesting facts about Cambodia: Cambodia is still one of the poorest nations in the world The civil war from 1970 till 1975, the Khmer Rouge genocide which took place from 1975 until 1979, and the Cambodia-Vietnam war from 1978 till 1979 brought the Cambodia economy to its knees. The provinces with the highest poverty rates are Kompong Speu (57.2%) followed by Kompong Thom (52.4%) and Siem Reap (51.8%)(figures from the ConCERT website).
The good news is that Cambodia is slowly recovering from its painful history.
Part of this progress is due to the growth of tourism as people visit attractions such as Angkor Wat Temples in Siem Reap, the pretty capital Phnom Penh, the coast including the lively town Sihanoukville, the quiet resorts of Kampot and Kep, and much more. On top off all this you get the warm hospitality of the Cambodia people, with their never ending smiles. For the moment the tourism growth has been checked by the worldwide financial crisis and the World Bank estimates that the crisis will result in 200,000 Cambodians falling below the poverty line by the end of 2009. Families literally end up living on the streets.
But tourism is only one factor in Cambodia’s development. The key to people being able to escape from the poverty cycle is education. Therefore our plan is to do more!
Our screen-printing project will bring give young adults the skills necessary to find good jobs in the graphical business, or to start their own businesses.
To be able to go on with this project, we are looking for people who are interested and wanting to help us.
COF has rented land near the Siem Reap city center, where they are now building some classrooms (1st picture) and the place for the screen-printing workshop (2nd and 3rd pictures) in the last picture you can see we finished the floor, and the first student arrived.
My job is to provide the machines, materials and startup products, as well as the courses for the training itself.
Therefore I am looking for people/companies who want to help.
Every help small or big is more than welcome.
The list of machines/materials which are required to start up the vocational trainings.
- UV Exposure Machine 1500 US (992€)
- Heat press 500 US (330€)
- IR Tunnel Dryer 3500 US (2316€)
- Printing machine 200 US (132€)
- Screens (20pcs.) 180 US (119€)
- Small equipments 250 US (165€)
- Start package inks 728 US (481€)
- Start package adhesives-inks 303 US (200€)
- Screenwash products 449 US (296€)
- Emulsions 159 US (105€)
The IR Tunnel Dryer is not necessary in the first part of the startup but the rest of the materials are the minimum needed to start the classes.
This is my step in your direction.
Maybe we can make the next step together and establish a project for the young adults in Siem Reap.
For those who are interested to help, and need some more information?
Feel free to contact me:
Mail: tommy.bekaert@gmail.com
Phone: +855 77 413302 (my Cambodian mobile number)
Skype: tommybek1973
For each donation big or small we can provide an official COF receipt!
Already many thanks for your interest.
With Kind Regards,
Tommy
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