Promotional Booklet 2012

8/2/2019 Promotional Booklet 2012

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About Us


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About UsWe are a group of Cambridge University Hong Kong students that share vision anddrive of making a difference in the world around us. As students, we are oftenreminded of the many social issues in the world, and as responsible world citizens,we aim to do everything in our power to alleviate these issues...................................................................................................................

Values:

- Educaon is a basic human right- Educaon is the only way that an underprivileged child can escape

poverty and climb up the social ladder

Mission:To improve infrastructure for educaon in developing countries and

to smulate childrens interest in learning, through encouraging and

movang students to parcipate in voluntary service and to start upcharitable organizaons.

Vision:- To work with local NGOs and communies in various developing

countries to learn about, target, and ulmately alleviate pressing devel-

opment issues,

- To inspire and strengthen the interests of our volunteers towards is-

sues in the developing world through parcipaon in rigorous develop-

ment projects and exchange of cultural values

- To make good use of our po-

sions as privileged students

in order to gather and mobi-

lize resources as best we can,

and deliver them to places in

need through carefully tar-

geted projects


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Project 2010/11Project Review. Travel Journal.


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Project 2010/11In this project, we aimed to bring the passion of volunteers to Takeo, Cambodia,with charity work centered on education and building a rural school...................................................................................................................

Christmas trip 2010Since November 2010, we are in partnership with New Futures Organi-

zaon (NFO), a Cambodia based NGO, and from 15th to 19th Decem-ber 2010, three members of our commiee visited Cambodia for a

preliminary trip, where they met the local commiee of NFO to nego-

ate the actual details of school building.

FundraisingOur major sources of fund-

ing this year include revenuefrom the Cambridge Univer-

sity Chinese Society Variety

Showa, scholarship from the

Hong Kong Oxbridge Society,

and volunteers donaon. We

have managed to secure a

total sum of 50,000HKD.

Volunteers InvolvementWe began recruing volun-

teers since March, 2011 for

our Summer Service Trip in

September, 2011. Volunteers

were interviewed by the com-

miee, and were sorted intodierent teams.


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1) Programme Team

The team had to plan a day of educaonal acvies to play with the

children at the NFO orphanage. Two workshops were held before the

trip, where volunteers were further divided into four teams (science,

arts, events, team games), and they went through the processes of

brainstorming, proposal wring, preparing material, tesng and risk

assessment.

During the trip, a whole day was

dedicated to the planned pro-

grammes, when volunteers led and

evaluated the success and limita-

ons of their acvies.

2) Publicity Team

The team is in charge of organizing home visits, and deciding on the

material to put in the post-trip booklet, and next years promoonal

booklet. During the trip, the team took photos, conducted interviews

and organized volunteers wring for the booklet. Aer the trip, they

are in charge of pung everything together and producing the publica-on.

All volunteers were also involved in the decoraon team, and a work-

shop was held before the trip to enable volunteers to brainstorm and

plan carefully what kind of decoraon they would like to do and their

purpose. They nally decided on:

- Drawing on the surface of tables with cartoons and commonly usedEnglish phrases

- Painng the chairs with basic colours, and have the English name writ-

ten on the chairs

- Making small wooden boards with alphabets and roman numerals

and hang them around the new school.

Each volunteer was also required to indi-

vidual fundraise 50GBP donaons for the

project, which they did with their individ-

ual eort, e.g. through baking sales, etc.


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Travel JournalPreparaon (Day -2 to 0)The commiee arrived in Cambodia three days before the volunteers

to nalize plans for the construcon of furniture, purchase material

and complete the basic structures of the tables and chairs such that

volunteers can decorate them. They also met with NFO representaves

to conrm the inerary of the trip when the volunteers arrived.

Day 1Upon our arrival in Takeo, we visited the NFO orphanage and met the

children there for the rst me. The children were very friendly and

cheerful, which made us feel at home immediately. We then started

our decoraon process, which include applying a coat of red oxide

primer to the steel leg of chairs to prevent them from rusng, and

painng the wooden boards with a rst coat of varnish. It was an

interesng process as I never realized that there were so much we

have to do

to ensure that the furniture

will be durable. At the end of

the ring day, we had a de-

brief session where we talkedabout our rst impressions of

Cambodia.


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Day 2In the morning, we had the rst home visit session, which took place

at Benmao village, the village our school is built in. As we were rid-

ing tuk-tuks into the village, children, parents all turned their heads;

some waved cheerfully. A large crowd of children gathered aroundour sll empty school when we arrived,

just silently watching us, occasionally gig-

gling and talking amongst themselves. We

were divided into groups of 4, and together

with a translator (one of the older children

at the orphanage), we set o. The experi-

ence was quite inspiring, as we were able to

understand rst-hand the daily life of a villager, and also their desire to

learn English but was not yet realized because of the lack of money and

resources.

The aernoon saw a heavy downpour as we were trying to catch up

with some decoraon work at the orphanage. Nonetheless it did not

damage our spirit and the soaking children tried to drag us into the

rain, to join them in a game of football in the puddles. Compared to us,these children are so much tougher, so much more content with their

lives, that under whatever weather they learn to have fun and enjoy

life.

Day 3Today was a full day of

decoraon work: draw-ing cartoons on tables,

painng the chairs the

children were all eager to

help: they helped trans-

lated the English vocab

on the drawings into Khmer, and even

helped painng! One of the girls sketcheda picture of a tree with owers, and it

was such a refreshing image that we


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decided to transform it into one of our table drawings. The result was

so stunning that everyone began to forget how exhausted they were

aer a whole days work. Everything was nally shaping up, and all of

us watched our careful work with pride.

Some of us also taught the children some basic English phonics. See-

ing their faces concentrang, trying hard to make the correct sounds, I

reected on my own learning atude. At the end, the children success-

fully disnguished between similar consonants, which we are sure will

be useful for all their lives.

Day 4It was blazing hot when we carried out the

rst part of our acvies, science demon-

straons and art workshops. For science,

we tried to demonstrate water tension us-

ing a ny paper boat and detergent, unfor-

tunately it did not work out as we planned.

We then quickly switched plan: introducing periscopes, oang discs

and paper dragonies, all of which worked out beaufully. Finally, weshowcased our masterpiece: the water rocket, and the children were

all impressed by how it managed to y straight across the play area.

For arts, the children had a great me designing t-shirts and covering

them with their favourite cartoons and names of famous footballers.

In the aernoon, some of us taught the older children how to build a

catapult using ropes and PVC pipes, while others got the children com-

peve in challenging group games, tesng their abilies in English andmaths. Aer a ring day we all reected on the acvies we planned in

the past two months, and how we can improve them; it was a fun and

fruiul day.

Day 5We took a day o work to

visit some nearby villages, tounderstand how life is like in

rural areas of Cambodia. Aer


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a very bumpy 45-minute ride we arrived in a village far away from

town. Children in the village gaped at us when we rst arrived, as we

learnt later that they had not seen many people outside of their village

before. When we showed them photos of our new school with a digital

camera, they were delighted- but mostly because they have never seen

a camera in their lives. Nonetheless, they expressed the wish to have a

rural school in the village, and to interact more with the outside world.

We feel privileged that we could be the ones acng as the bridge be-

tween them and all the people out there.

We were faced

with an en-

re dierentscenario in

the aernoon.

In the village

called Lile

Poh, we saw

how an English school can transform the lives of the villagers. As soon

as we arrived the children greeted us in English with How are you?and What is your name?, which greatly surprises us. However, we

slowly discovered that most of the English conversaons with them

were almost roboc: if we change our replies slightly, they would not

understand us. That evening, we had a great debate about whether the

mechanical English of the students was a problem, and if it was what

the causes were. We realized that as much as we would like to change

everything, we could do lile to problems such as poor teaching qual-ity.

Day 6The BIG DAY- the opening of the school. The school was surrounded by

excited students and parents as we were

moving things in and doing some last bits

of decoraon, and some of us decide tostart teaching English. Without any lesson

plans in mind, we started teaching the


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children about boys and girls by sorng them into groups. It was

dicult, but nally using the universal language (sign language), they

understood. We then moved onto head and shoulders, knees and

toes, which was a great success. Finally our school was ready, and we

cut the red ribbon barring the entrance to the school, children rushed

in, hoping to secure a seat. Seeing the whole place crowded with chil-

dren and many sll outside, unable to get in, we understand that there

is a lot more to be done, but at least we have made a small dierence.

That night, we say farewell to the children at the orphanage. It was

raining outside, but we had a lot of fun taking Polaroid photos with

them, and playing glow scks. The goodbye was teary, and we ex-

changed contact informaon with the children, hoping to keep in touchand wishing them the very best in the future.

Day 7We le Takeo early in the morning. In Phnom

Penh, we visited S21, a prison for polical

criminals during the Red Khmer regime.

We were shocked and greatly saddened tosee how the dictator had transformed a school into

such a horrendous scene of crime, and reected on the fact that

Cambodian educaon level had greatly declined during that period

of me as the educated were targeted, and many were tortured and

killed. Aer a tradional Cambodian meal, we shopped for last minute

souvenir for family and friends at the Russian Market. Then, we spent

an hour at the Choeung Ek Killing Field, where prisoners from S21 andother camps all over Phnom Penh were transported here and killed.

Once again, we witnessed the damage of the Pol Pot reign, and really

failed to understand what

could have prompted those

merciless ocials to take

the lives of some many that

were innocent. Exhausted yetcontent, we boarded our ight

back to Hong Kong, concluding

our 7-day trip.


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Project 2011/12Project Preview. Summer Service Trip 2012.


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Project 2011/12Our PartnerAngkor Kids Center (AKC), founded in 2002,

is a private, non-prot, non-polical, non-

religious educaonal structure established

to help educate children in Samrong Village,

Lieng Dai Commune, Angkor Thom District,

Siem Rep Province, Cambodia. The center based in Eastern

part of Samrong village, 40km away from the provincial center with apopulaon of approximately 2,600 people.

AKCs mission is to aid rural communies in improving their own stand-

ards of living, with a focus on increasing access to quality educaon.

Informal educaon takes iniaves; AKC is supporng educaon for

over 550 families in one village, primarily. They believe that educaon

is the key to sustainable change, and are commied to a holisc devel-

opmental approach which empowers children, parents, teachers, and

communies to make the posive changes they want to see in their

lives. Specically, English language is a potenal key to suit the modern

naonal educaonal system.

The project coordinator of and one of the teachers at AKC, Mr. Sam-

nang, is a passionate young man whose

dream is to build AKC successfully. To-gether with the others teachers, many

of whom are sll studying at

school themselves, they cur-

rently all teach voluntarily and

try their best to sustain the

school, somemes even con-

tribung their own resources.


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How are we helping?AKC is hardly a school at the moment: it is a shabby shelter, with a

ceiling of hay supported by wooden poles. Due to ever increasing de-

mands for English learning, the Centre was forced to run two classes in

parallel, and while the exisng infrastructure could barely t one class,children from the beginners class had to learn on the oor, in a cov-

ered area outside a house. During the rainy seasons, classes have to be

suspended as water oods the shelter. Furthermore, many classes take

place at night, and in the dark it is almost impossible to read.

Having witnessed the situaon during our trip to Siem Reap in January,

2012, the commiee strives to raise 8000USD this year to help allevi-

ate the situaon, by funding the construcon of a more stable wooden

building with three classrooms, proper desks and chairs and sucient

lighng. (See fundraising)

Summer Service Trip 2012We are planning to bring around 30 volunteers to Siem Reap for charity workcentered on education and building a rural school...................................................................................................................

What we hope to AchieveOur intenons of our visit to Siem Reap are:

- To interact with and enlighten children through various engagingclassroom and outdoor acvies;

- To involve volunteers with various dierent interests (such as art, sci-

ence and sports) in the designing of those acvies;

- To share our passion towards learning with rural areas and inspire

those we come into contact with;

- To become more aware of development

issues through rst-hand experience and

exchange of cultural values with the host

community


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FeesSelected Parcipants will pay a fee ofHK $5,500for the week in Cam-

bodia. The fee includes a contribuon toward air-ckets, local trans-

port, meals, accommodaon, insurance and other programme ex-

penses. Selected parcipants must cover fees for their visas and otherpersonal expense themselves.

Please note that the exact fee will be subjected to minor changes due

to the uctuaon of air-cket prices and exchange rates. Prices will be

conrmed in July.

Programme HighlightsOn our weeklong charity trip in Septem-ber, you will have the chance to:

1) Construct new furniture from scratch

Aer local contractors have built the basic

framework of our school, we will be build

the desks and chairs ourselves from wood

and steel; this means you will have the op-

portunity to get involved in sourcing materi-

als, construcng, and painng the furniture

on which the children will read and write

2) Design and decorate

the interiors of the our new school

You will be brainstorming ideas to createan inspiring and creave learning envi-

ronment, and ensuring that our impact

could be sustainable. This

includes painng the walls,

drawing on the surfaces of

tables and chairs, and arrang-

ing educaonal posters andother materials around the

classrooms.


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3) Create your own acvies

Love languages? Music? Science? This is the perfect chance for you

to share your passion to the local children. You will be completely in

charge of coming up with ideas and tesng them, making sure that

they are safe and fun.

4) Conduct home visits

We will visit rural Cambodian villages and talk to the villagers, so you

can know rst-hand the people that you are helping and their families

5) Explore the Siem Reap Region

We feel that it is important to visit culturally signicant sites such as

the Angkor Wat in order to understand the naons past and how it hasinuenced modern Cambodia. Of course, we will also engage ourselves

in the local culture by vising locaons such as the local night market.


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Getting InvolvedVolunteering. Fundraising. FAQ.


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VolunteeringHow we view our volunteersYour opinion and ideas are just as important as those of our commiee

members and will help us develop both our future projects as well as

our organizaon.

Expectaons of volunteers1) Fundraise for the project

The preschool cannot be built without your eort in mobilizing nan-

cial resources from our community. Every volunteer is both expected

and responsible for raising 100- this way you will be involved in the

project from the beginning to the very end. The CHOICE commiee will

provide help to every volunteer for this cause.

2) Parcipate in pre-trip workshops

Rather than a simple one-week trip, we expect volunteers to parci-

pate in the development of the project. In around three pre-trip work-shops during July and August, we hope that volunteers will be able to

contribute their ideas to the interior design of the school, and also to

design the own programmes for children according to their own inter-

est.

How do I apply?

RegistraonYou are eligible for registraon if you are university student or a univer-

sity oer holder who is over the age of 18. The registraon form can

be found online, and only takes a minute to complete. Please do not

hesitate to give yourself a chance to build a school for those in need!

Interview

Following your registraon, our commit-

tee will contact you to arrange an inter-

view. For Cambridge students, the inter-


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view will mostly likely happen during the last week of Lent term, and

for registrants outside Cambridge, a Skype interview will be arranged

during your provided dates of preference.

Rather than a selecon stage, these interviews are an opportunity for

you and CHOICE to understand each other. In the interview, we will be

looking to learn more about:

- Your past experiences in community service

- What contribuons you might bring to our group, including skills such

as sports or video making

- Your expectaons for such a project

Successful applicants will receive an invitaon leer outlining the termsof their parcipaon and a consent form.

FundraisingThroughout this year, we will hold various fundraising events. The money raised willgo directly towards the construction of our rural school and its furnishing to createa friendly learning environment. Any additional funds will go directly towards themaintenance costs of the school.........................................................................................................

How will donaons be spent?According to our partner, AKC, the

cost of building a rural school is ap-

proximately US$7900 in total. This

includes: the hiring of local

contractors and workers, the

cost of materials and other

managerial costs. In addion,

we will also spend some of

our donaons on paint, furni-ture and educaon materials

for the children.

Personnel,1620 co

ordinating

cost,110

Foundation,1909

building,3,758

furniture&

decoration,498


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Cambridge University Chinese Society Variety Show 2012

FundraiserOur friends from the Cambridge University Chinese Society (CUCS) an-

nually holds a charity Variety Show of which the prots are donated tocharity. For the second year, CHOICE has become their designated char-

ity. We hope that the show will serve as an outlet to other university

students in the UK to help spread the name of CHOICE and its aims.

Charity Punng with Oysters and WineIt is an old Cambridge tradion to punt in the beauful River Cam and

enjoy the beauful sceneries. CHOICE hopes to add an extra twist tothis by taking oysters and wine onto the punts to oer parcipants an

enjoyable and relaxing aernoon.

All proceeds will go to the Project funds.

What you can do to help

Even if you are not interested in volunteering, you are sll more thanwelcome to show your support at these two events!

Please also support your friends who will be volunteering- they will be

designing their own fundraisers and they will surely welcome encour-

agement and commendaon for their eort.

To apply, visit our website: www.cambridgechoice.comor our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Cam-

bridge-Hong-Kong-Operaon-for-Internaonal-Childrens-

Educaon/177240242296114


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FAQDoes your team have you own administrave costs?

Of course we have our own administrave costs! However we havemanaged to keep it extremely low. A small percentage of your trip fees

will inevitably be going to our operaonal cost to keep us running, but

we guarantee that the fees you pay to be on our trip will not be more

expensive than the money you will have to spend to go on holiday to

Cambodia for a week.

Will I need injecons?We are not in a posion to provide you with medical advice, but it isimperave that you discuss your needs with your doctor and plan your

injecons in advance of the trip. However, travelers to Cambodia are

usually vaccinated with Hepas A and Thyroid vaccines. In addion,

malaria drugs are commonly taken, and family doctors will be able to

prescribe the appropriate drugs according to your medical records and

health condions.

Is Cambodia safe?The situaon of Cambodia has improved signicantly in recent years.

We will be under guidance of local guides and members of our local

partner- Angkor Kids Centre. We will also nofy the Chinese embassy in

Cambodia about our trip before we depart.

Will I need a VISA?Yes. For Hong Kong SAR, BN(O) and Brish Passport holders, Landing

Visas can be obtained upon ar-

riving at Cambodia for 20 USD.

Volunteers can also apply for a

travel visa through the Cambo-

dia Embassy in Hong Kong.


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enquiries:[email protected]

orConnie Leung [email protected]

Emmy Tsang [email protected] Yan [email protected]

website:www.cambridgechoice.com

updates:www.facebook.com/pages/Cambridge-Hong-Kong-Operation-for-

International-Childrens-Education/177240242296114See you in the Summer (:

Documents

Promotional Booklet 2012