Crowdfunding for our Cambodia Sensory Spaces

Hi everyone,

It doesn't seem five minutes since we were writing the last SicKids update as time has flown by. We are really grateful for the support that you have given us, so much so that at our last meeting of the Board of Trustees we have reviewed our finances and now have raised enough money to make an additional donation of Sensory Equipment to a new programme in Cambodia!

This is fantastic news and has only been possible because of your support. We can't tell you the exact location yet as we're keeping things under wraps until we have confirmation of the arrangements but as soon as we are able to let you know, we will!

In other news, we heard last week that our Sensory Space in Battambang (opened in partnership with THC charity) is working really well! We've had very positive feedback and the local team have reported seeing the benefits for the children and young people. Thank you again for all of your support with that project.

We'll be back in touch with information about the plans we're currently making for our next donation and, in the meantime, thank you so much for your fabulous support of SicKids.

Cheers,

Andrew, Den, Dianne and Jenny

Trustees - SicKids charity

Seasons greetings from Cambodia!

Cambodian people have just celebrated the water festival which happens towards the end of the rainy season. The past few months have been terrible for the children and young people living in South West Cambodia.

Major flooding in Sihanoukville, where three of our Sensory Spaces are located, has caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage and over 2000 homes have been destroyed.

One of our Sensory Spaces has had to be relocated to another building as at one point it was knee-deep in dirty water.

Things are very slowly getting better but with so much devastation it is going to take a long time to even get back to what was normal.

We’ve brought another two bubble tubes out with us on this trip - thanks to your generous donations - and these are already being put to good use.

In partnership with the University of Salford, and three volunteers from the UK (Diana a speech and language therapist, Lesley a physiotherapist and David a General Practitioner), a very busy week of clinics, outreach visits and teaching has taken place.

Our Chair, Andrew, has been seeing the impact of our Sensory Equipment and the fab special needs team are having on children’s development.

For example, we’ve seen the superb progress of a five year old child with developmental delay who two years ago couldn’t hold a crayon properly, didn’t know colours or shapes, and couldn’t say more than a few words, and who came into clinic this week happy and smiling, able to talk in short sentences, to draw and name shapes and colours, and to talk with a much bigger vocabulary than two years ago. He’s had a huge improvement and is now attending school every day.

This was lovely to see, and we’ve attached his drawing from two years ago with the one from this week to show the big improvement to you too!

It has been fantastic to see the impact that Sensory Equipment, play and a focus on early years health & education has had on so many children.

This wouldn’t have been possible without your support so please do accept our sincere thanks. Or as we would say in Khmer (the Cambodian language), “Arkoun Chraen”.

Our aim is to continue to raise funds over the next 12 months, aiming to be able to provide more Sensory Equipment and hopefully a brand new Sensory Space (making our 5th in Cambodia) within the next 2 years.

All of the trustees of SicKids send you good wishes for the festive season, and for a very happy new year! We’ll be back in touch in early 2020...

Kind regards,


Andrew, Den, Dianne & Jenny


The Board of Trustees
SicKids Charity (1164131)