But life has played a cruel joke on Cambodia this year.  Too much rain, way too much rain – causing wide spread flooding, leaving desolation and destruction in its wake.   The goal of Cambodian Hope Organization (CHO) is to be self sustaining.  To raise the crops and live stock necessary to feed the children housed at Safe Haven, and perhaps sell the remaining.  For a year they have labored: to plant their first rice crop, to harvest their first garden, to raise their own fish, chicken and eggs.

And now it is gone.  Washed away.  Can you help?  Would you help CHO feed these children until another crop can be planted?  Help them replace the seed?  Help them restock the fish pond and the chicken coop?

Cerebral Palsy is a major cause of disability in the and thousands of children suffer from its effects. Cerebral Palsy describes a group of disorders that affect muscle movement control. Cerebral Palsy results from injuries to the child’s brain during birth, from a brain infection (bacterial meningitis, viral encephalitis) or from a head injury.

Many of these children come from the poorest segment of the population and have limited access to competent medical care.  Early intervention in the form of physical therapy can greatly improve the lives of these children, helping them to develop muscle movement, strength and motor skills in limbs that would otherwise atrophy. Since early 2008, the AFF has helped to provide physical therapy to over 100 children and practical help to their families twice weekly. Parents have been trained in the best care for their children and the kids are making great improvements. We thank you for your gifts towards this life changing project.

The Next Stage

The success of the project has caused the small location where the clinic began to become overcrowded and unsuitable for future growth.  At this moment over 30 children are on a waiting list and are unable to get treatment due to the limited space.  The local government has noticed how effective the clinic is in reaching the needs of the community.  The city council recently voted to give the clinic free use of new location in the center of town.  This new location will allow the clinic to serve every child that is currently on the waiting list.  It will be more accessible for the families who benefit from the clinic and it is also rent free.

Renovations will be required to turn the large space the clinic has been given into a Physical Therapy Center. Today, The American Friendship Foundation is seeking partners to cover the costs of the renovation of this new location. $15,000 is required to make renovations, purchase materials and expand the scope of the clinic.  The transformation will require structural, electrical and plumbing changes. Additional and updated equipment is also required as the clinic seeks to serve even more children and to meet more of their needs.

Strategy

AFF strategy is to sponsor a community clinic providing physical therapy, family training and support for these children and families. An integral part of the program is for the family to be educated on Cerebral Palsy. A family caregiver is required to attend all of the sessions, learn the basic exercises, and continue therapy at home. The clinic also provides employment for six Moroccan women who have been trained in physical therapy in a country where unemployment rates are high. An important component of this project is to work alongside a Moroccan association of handicapped people to assist their efforts in helping the Moroccan people.

They have been granted the land that they live on by the government, but must actively maintain the land or lose it. Men, women, and  children work the fields. They are committed to not begging on the street so therefore they plant and harvest in order to eat and survive.

A tractor would greatly ease the back-breaking work of plowing and preparing the soil of the 12 colonies in the Indore area. It would provide the opportunity to grow more crops and to increase productivity in order to provide for the entire leper community.

The Kharwakala Children’s Home houses orphans, children of lepers and children at high risk from all around Indore.  It is a safe home for children who have no home to go to.  These children lack many things but one key item is that the boys dorm  needs a bathroom facility.

In conjunction with committed partners in India, you can help provide this tractor and build this bathroom. The estimated total for these projects is $25,000. Would you please consider contributing to these pressing needs?

Thank you for your support of these people school.  AFF’s commitment is that 100% of your gift will be sent to the Indore project.   AFF is 100% volunteer managed and run.

A staggering 25% of children die before reaching their 5th birthday, primarily from diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. Throughout Afghanistan, only 30% of the rural population has a sustainable supply of safe water, while just 29% have the dignity and privacy of a place to use the bathroom (UNICEF).

One-time giving supports these types of efforts:

• $10,000 – Purchase of drilling machines and associated tools & replacement parts
• $2000 – $4000 – Per borehole, covers the cost of drilling materials, cement pad and drainage channel, transport to and from the drilling sites, etc.
• $1000 – Per training session in modules such as cable tool drilling and hand pump repair, covers cost of material prep, translation and duplication, meals and transport for trainees, oral translation
• $100 – Each set of simple tools for repairing locally used hand pumps.

Operation Crocs was a project that delivered 2,000 pairs of Crocs to a remote village in northern Nicaragua.  Providing footwear for children who are to prevent parasites from walking barefoot in the mud with dogs and pigs.

Operation Crocs was a project that delivered 2,000 pairs of Crocs to a remote village in northern Nicaragua.  

Spinning used to be very much a part of the Bedouin culture, unfortunately the older women have stopped and the younger women are not being taught the skill. AFF as  part of our desire for economic opportinities is teaching them how to produce a yarn that is marketable.

A basic spinning wheel can be made from materials available in the village. The AFF Associate will also show them how to use the yarn and the wool in their daily lives, and to generate income. This is AFF promoting cross-cultural friendship funding a program that address pressing need for economic opportunities.

Gandhi believed that hand spinning, combined with weaving on hand looms, was a way for the people to become self-sufficient and independent. He claimed that if people worked at spinning wool, poverty would be greatly reduced if not totally eliminated. Gandhi was convinced that the revival of hand-spinning and hand-weaving could make a large contribution to the economic and the moral regeneration of the country. AFF believes this still true today.