The Cambodia Charitable Trust

When Denise Arnold, co-director in Tauranga law firm Lyon O’Neale Arnold, travelled to Cambodia in 2007 she had no idea where that journey would lead her.

Now, nine years later, she heads a trust that supports 6000 Cambodian children in 16 schools, as well as two teacher-training colleges.

With a sewing machine and plethora of brightly-patterned fabrics laid out in front of her, you could be forgiven for thinking that Denise is a quilting enthusiast, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Denise is, in fact, sewing sustainable sanitary products for girls in Cambodia, so that they won’t miss out on valuable days at school.

 

 

“The communities we work with are classified as ‘ultra poor’. They have next to nothing,” says Denise. “They certainly don’t have the hygiene products that we take for granted and can miss out on up to 60 days of school a year due to menstruation. Girls use anything they can find, from rags and feathers to leaves and newspaper.”

The Cambodia Charitable Trust is committed to supporting education and developing the quality of teaching in Cambodia. The Days for Girls programme is complementary to our vision and another string to our health and education bow,” says Denise.

Denise is joined by a core group of seamstresses, who have been involved with the Trust since its early days. Without their support and passion, the Trust would not have evolved to what it is today.

Students from Bethlehem College have also come on board, sewing the kits as part of their NCEA assessments. And Denise is keen to get as many others involved as she can. “We need all the help we can get – be it donations of materials or sewing power,” she says.

Changing children’s lives

Denise first travelled to Cambodia after reading a disturbing article about children being rented out from a brothel on a weekly basis.

“It was heartbreaking. I couldn’t live with my conscience, knowing that and doing nothing. I had to go and find out what I could do to help keep these children safe,” says Denise, who has two daughters, Emily, 24, and Tegan, 22.

During that initial trip it was immediately clear to her that there was both a desire and a need for education.

“Under the Khmer Rouge regime, educated people were killed, and schools and temples were destroyed,” she explains. “With children from poor families often sent away to work, and the growing problem of trafficking, I wanted to help get kids into schools, to keep them safe.”

 

While the Trust provides support for both sexes, it has a strong focus on girls and education. “When girls receive an education they marry later and have fewer children. The next generation of children are healthier and more likely to be educated. That is how the poverty cycle is broken,” says Denise.

Working closely with Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Denise has designed a programme that empowers the local community and the teaching profession to bring about the changes needed.

The Trust volunteers – the ‘worker bees’ – keep things ticking over on the ground.

 

 

Volunteers such as Devon Harland, who jumped at the opportunity to be involved.

“Making something as simple as a washable sanitary kit that helps girls and women to remain in school or work for those days of the month is a very tangible way that we can help. Days of schooling missed can’t be regained. We are helping to give these young women back their dignity and I feel privileged to play a part in this,” she says.

And Frances Wilcockson, who has worked with the Trust since returning from a trip to Cambodia in 2008.

“I couldn’t talk about what I had seen, what I had heard and what I had learnt without crying or becoming extremely emotional. I knew I had to do something, especially for the children, but I didn’t know what best to do, where to start or how to go about helping from so far away,” she says.

“I was home about two months when I read an article in a local newspaper about Denise and the work of the Trust … so I emailed Denise offering to help in whatever way I could. Thankfully she invited me to come aboard and I have been a volunteer ever since. To see the huge difference Denise and her team have made to the schools the Trust supports is mind blowing. She is way up there on my admiration tower, a truly amazing woman who I love working with.”