KCF

Kampot Children's Fund

Version info:

v1.1 (Jul 11, 2007)

KCF

Kampot Childrens' Fund

Charter and Regulations

Introduction

The Kampot Children's Fund (KCF) is a small fund, raised from donations by private individuals, which aims to help disadvantaged children to complete their basic education. It is not intended to replace the work done by Projects and NGOs, but to supplement it by providing help for individual children in specific response to their needs. The need for this fund has become clear to VSO volunteers working in Kampot, who have the resources to support organizations and systems, but have no money to help the individual children they meet.

The KCF will cover individual cases anywhere within Kampot Province, but it is not intended to cover work in any other province or location.

Aims of the fund

The Fund will not give money donations to children or their families. The Fund will provide help in kind, directly focused to allow the child to complete their education. The following categories of help all fall within the scope of the KCF:

• Transport - purchase of bicycles for children to go to school, funding motor taxis for children who are unable to ride a bicycle because of disability, organizing transport-sharing for children going to the same school or other help with getting to and from school.
• Mobility - in conjunction with the Cambodia Trust where appropriate, to provide wheelchairs, callipers, crutches or other mobility aids to disabled children.
• Educational Resources - purchasing books, study materials, writing materials and textbooks for children who cannot afford them.
• Tuition - funding extra tuition for a period of up to 20 hours for one subject through teachers approved by VSO volunteers, for those children who have missed school lessons, who have a learning disability, or who are at risk of dropping out of school because of repetition of their school grade.
• Medical - where a child's health is causing them to miss school, to fall behind in their work or to suffer other problems at school, the KCF can provide medicines, appointments with a doctor or visits to a hospital or clinic.
• Nutrition - where a child is suffering poor diet or malnutrition affecting their school career and progress, the KCF may provide additional foodstuffs for that child. This is also true where a child has to work to earn money for food and will not be able to attend school full time.

The Fund is not intended to provide help to groups, organizations or NGOs. Where help is best provided through the child's family, resources can be spent to improve the overall condition of the child's family and therefore improve that child's chances of finishing school.

The Fund is particularly intended to support children who are disabled, who suffer from poor health, who come from a very disadvantaged family background, who are orphans, who have to support younger siblings, who belong to a minority group or who are disadvantaged for any other reason. It is not intended to provide support to children who have alternate means of support.

Fund Regulations

• I. Procedures to recommend a child

  1. Any person or persons may recommend a child for support by the Fund, as long as that child is aged between 5 and 16 years, is resident in Kampot Province and intends to continue their schooling.

  2. Any member may recommend a child for support by the Fund but must give supporting evidence.

• II. Who are members

  3. At least one of the members of the KCF board will be a VSO volunteer working in Kampot Province as long as the VSO is present in Kampot province.

  4. At least one member must be a Khmer national, resident in Kampot Province.

  5. Any other members may be accepted as long as they are donors to the Fund or current and former residents of Kampot Province. If you want to be a member of the KCF without donating, you have to give a written and signed notice to the Secretary.

  6. A meeting must have at least three members in attendance including the Chair and should not have more than twenty.

• III. Meetings of the members

  7. Recommendations of a child must be made at a chaired meeting of the members of the KCF.

  8. Chaired meetings will be held not more than once a month, and at least once every three months.

  9. Meetings will be announced and minuted under responsibility of the Secretary.

  10. Meetings will begin with the reading of minutes from the last meeting.

  11. Minutes for the Fund will be kept at the VSO Office at the Provincial Office of Education in Kampot as long as VSO is present in Kampot province.

• IV. Procedure funding a child

  12. When the recommendation is accepted, a VSO volunteer must go to visit that child at home or at school to find substantiating evidence for support within at least two months of the recommendation.

  13. Such substantiating evidence must be put to the next meeting of the KCF and then put to a majority vote.

  14. A VSO volunteer or other member of the Fund must revisit the child concerned within three months of disbursement to interview the child and review their circumstances. This may lead to further support as long as this is discussed at the next meeting of the member.

  15. The Fund should not support children already receiving personal support from another NGO but may work with children in villages receiving NGO input.

• V. Finance

  16. When a vote is in favour of supporting the case, money may be disbursed directly to the member taking responsibility for that case, but they must spend the money and bring back receipts to the next meeting of the Fund members.

  17. All members of the KCF must respect confidentiality and should not share details of children's personal background and history or photos of the child outside the Fund meetings without permission of the child and their guardians.

  18. The maximum amount which can be disbursed for any one case is $100. There is no minimum.

  19. The balance of the bank account should never be less than $100.

  20. Money may also be disbursed to purchase items for sale by the Fund, such as postcards or handicrafts. Any such expenditure must be approved at a meeting of the members and must be receipted at the next meeting.

  21. The Treasurer will take responsibility for entering debits and credits into the accounts. The other signatory on the bank account can only withdraw money with a written permission of the Treasurer.

  22. Any member of the fund may receive donations, but they must declare the donations at the next meeting and these must be noted in the accounts.

  23. A year from the date of the first meeting, a further meeting must be held to discuss the review of the accounts of the Fund, made by the Treasurer. This will include a simple account of receipts and outgoings for the Fund for the last twelve months. This account must be in the form of an Excel Spreadsheet and must be entered into the minutes.

• VI. Changes of the regulations

  24. These regulations may be amended and updated by members at any meeting, as long as there are at least four members present and there is a majority in favour.

• VII. The Executive Committee

  25. There will be an Executive Committee of the KCF existing of Chair, Secretary, Treasurer.

  26. The Executive Committee will be chosen at a meeting, written announced to all members of the KCF at least two weeks before the election.

  27. Every member of the KCF can be elected. Members are candidate when they give a written and signed declaration to the secretary, at least 15 minutes before the meeting will start.

  28. The members of the Executive Committee are voting by secret ballot, one by one.

  29. A member of the Executive Committee will be elected for one year, after one year the member of the committee can run for a new period of one year.

  30. The responsibilities of the Chair are:

  • That all activities of the KCF are executed according to the Regulations of the KCF
  • Keep in contact with all members of the Executive Committee
  • Convene the meetings according to the KCF Regulations
  • Keep in contact with all the stakeholders of the KCF
  • Solving problems to do with the KCF or refer to the right person

  31. The responsibilities of the Secretary are:

  • Announce the meetings to all members of the KCF in time
  • Making the minutes of every meeting
  • Reading the minutes of the last meeting at the following meeting
  • Keep a file of all documents electronically and/or on paper
  • Keep an actual list of all members with address, phone number, e-mail address

  32. The responsibilities of the Treasurer are:

  • That money for the KCF is held in a savings account at the Canadia Bank in Kampot
  • That the account has two co-signatories. One is the Treasurer and the other is another member of KCF. Either of these two people may withdraw money for a specific purpose, according to the Regulations of the KCF.
  • Making once a year a review of all the finances and discuss this in a KCF Meeting.
  • Giving information about the financial situation of the fund to the Executive Committee members and at any time during a KCF Meeting.
  • Notifying the Executive Committee members and the members of the KCF when a healthy financial situation of the fund is in danger.

  33. Once a year during a Meeting the members of KCF point out a commission of two members, not members of the Executive Committee , which controls all the activities and files of the Executive Committee.

  34. This commission gives a written and signed report to the Meeting of members; in this report the commission declares that all actions of the Executive Committee are according to the Regulations of KCF and that they approve the financial review of the Treasurer.

Agreed on the Meeting of the Kampot Child Fund of 15th of February 2007

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