Hello,
I have some exciting news to share.
The last few days, I’ve been working on a plan to set up a Canadian Registered Charity that can support my special projects in Cambodia. The benefit of getting charity status is that all donations made to these projects could be tax deductible in Canada. This would make a huge difference in my fundraising activities. I’m close to having a structure in place that would quality as a Canadian Registered Charity. Please stay tuned.
Why am I so excited about getting this organization established?
A new home for CCH children!!!!!!!!
I was planning on returning to the dump on the last few days of my trip. I made a decision not to go to the dump, because I realized that I couldn’t do anything for those children right now. My time would be better spent at CCH, with the children I could impact.
The hardest part about being at the dump was the realization that there is nothing we could do to help those children. All the rooms at CCH are full and we aren’t able to bring any more of them to the centre. I have been thinking about this non stop.
At CCH, I started working on a plan with the Director for a new CCH home. We started a draft plan and even identified property where it could be built. My dream is to build a new CCH home with money from Canada. This new home would free up space for approximately 32 more children over the next couple years.
The plan is actually to open a centre for the transition of the older children to life outside of the orphanage. There are a number of children that will reach the age of 17 or 18 in the next couple of years. Our plan involves setting up a transition home, where the youth will be charged a very low rent that increases as they stay over a five year period. The plan would also combine other efforts such as job experience, training, micro businesses and counselling with the youth. We hope to also have life skills program. These children have done so well getting to this stage in life. The youth can also work at CCH on construction, cooking and tutoring to earn income to pay the low rent. It is a first step towards independent living. They are family and you don’t leave family members when they turn 18. And I have to tell you, the specific youth I know around this age are the most incredible loving people. They all study very hard and I will do everything I can to help them through this next phase of their life.
The other benefit is that the free rooms at CCH will be used immediately to bring back many more children from the dump. This literally means turning a persons life around 360 degrees. In my mind, there can be nothing more important.
Please consider offering your support. I can guarantee you not one cent will be wasted. This is a great place and I had the chance to see everything about how it works. I’m directly invovled in running this project and all donations to this project will be used specifically for the new centre. There are no administration fees at all. 100% will be used on the project. I will personally pay all administration related fees including costs to set up a charity, fund transfer fees, bank charges and any other administrative costs. Your donation will literally be used to buy the land and build the home where these children sleep.
Please stay tuned for more information.
Thank you for caring.
Love Gerry
PS: I get many letters from the children. I will share some of their letters with you later. They are very precious. I’m so lonely and will be visiting there again soon. I’m going out to a few schools in the next couple weeks to talk about my experiences and about the children they helped to sponsor. I have a picture show and many videos to show them. I can’t wait to tell you about talking to these Grade one classes.
