Kampot Children’s Fund Minutes Date: 8 May 2010 Present: Yin Sam At (President), Charlene (secretary and temporary treasurer), Claire, Hans, Vannak Purpose: To update each other on activities, and to talk about the future of the Fund Agenda: 1. Review of minutes from last time 2. Update on finances 3. Annual Report presentation 4. Discussion of future direction of KCF Topic Action/person 1. Review minutes. Comments are recorded here. Update on Children: All the 30 children supported last year have been supported again this year. Mairead’s village will need support next year. We need to get information on these children and enter it in the database and talk to the school director again. Charlene and At will go to school next week. These children are further out and are more difficult to get to but need to be followed up more regularly. At agrees to do this. Postcards: We need to focus more on where we will put the postcards. There are too many guesthouses and this takes a lot of time. We will put post cards at Ta Eng, Bookstore, and Sarom’s shop. Money made from post cards: $3.00 from Ta Eng $15.00 from Book Store T-shirt: At suggested having a contest for a KCF t-shirt that kids would design. We will have the contest in 2 schools in Kampot in October. All children who wish to participate can draw a picture. The KCF members will choose the finalists and the children will vote at the school for the winner. The winner will receive a t-shirt and a certificate at a ceremony in October. The t-shirts and postcards are a small source of earning money for the fund. Mainly they are for awareness-raising and advertising the fund. Database: At designed the database for all the children. At has entered the children’s names and information from this year. This database will enable us to keep track of the children more easily and to monitor follow up. It will make the KCF more transparent and organized. New members: We need to recruit new members to the KCF, especially Khmer people. People suggested partnering with other NGOs for members. Maybe the Outreach programme at Epic Arts would be interested. We will ask school directors of children who are helped with the fund to join. At suggested active and sub-members. A sub-member would be kept informed of the activities. For example, the book store owner. Disseminating information: We have a lot of money and now we need to find children to support. Many school directors know about the fund but have not requested any support. We will partner with other organizations too. Vannak from the Buddhist Library Project will alert school directors in Kampot about the fund. Epic Arts Outreach programme could help. Lower secondary and Secondary students: We discussed amending the constitution to include all students. People think this is a good idea. Hans points out that the MIE project from VSO is finished and the focus on basic education is broadening to high school too. We agree that we will follow the children we currently support through their schooling. When the first ones reach high school, we can start supporting other poor students in high school if we are approached. Or if we are approached through our normal work with the primary school kids, we can investigate supporting older students. We will not actively recruit high school students now. We will review and discuss the constitution at next meeting. 2. Finances We spent $214.34 to help 7 children in 2009. The average cost per child (including bike repair and rice) is $31.00. Hans has fund raised $4727.70 for the fund. It is the last time he can fund raise for the fund. We thank him for all the fund raising he has done. This fund has grown to be able to support many more children than first thought. It is very exciting that we can help so many children in a sustained way. Given the current finances in the account, $10,003, we can help about 20 children go from grade 1 to grade 12. Given drop out and the fact that not all kids are supported starting in first grade, we can help 30 kids comfortably and even up to 40 if we assess correctly. 3. Annual Report Claire presented her annual report. Everything is in order. We approved the annual report. The next report will be written in November, so that this will include most of the children supported that school year (we buy things in Sept-Oct). 4. Future of KCF Given the strong financial position of the Fund, we need to actively recruit more students. We all agree we need to have a focus area so that the follow-up can be done. Right now and for next year, Charlene and At will do the follow-up using money from their small NGO, “Keep Going”. In a year’s time, we should review how follow up is going. We might have to discuss putting a small allowance in for someone to do follow up, especially if VSO leaves Kampot. When we start to support a child, we will tell the parents and child that this support can continue as long as they stay in school. The additional length of the support might encourage more children to stay in school. We need to partner with other NGOs to find children and promote the fund. We also need to partner with them for supplies (Buddhist Library Project can give books and pencils, for example). Hans says we should keep track of the new NGO laws in Cambodia, in case the fund could be impacted. Right now we think it is OK because KCF is not an NGO, it is strictly a fund. New project At has found a village very far from Trey Kosh that has many first and second grade students who cannot go to school. We agree that it is a good idea to pay the teacher to teach a class in that village. When the children are older, they can go to Trey Kosh and the class they took in the village will count. At and Charlene will work with the school director, DOE, POE and village to set this up. The village will contribute the room and also a small amount of money for the teacher. The cost of this will not be more expensive than supporting the kids to go to school, as they would all need bikes and supplies. Instead, we will pay a teacher to come to the students. Next meeting We will have a meeting in August, as it is every three months, unless we need to meet before that.