Items

Points raised

Action points

1.reading minutes

The minutes are read individually and commented on.

Change minutes to reflect Claire and At attended and Chenda and Mairead could not.

2. Who takes the minutes

Charlene will take the minutes

3. Update on activities

  Chenda, Mairead, Claire, Charlene will recheck post cards. Chenda mentions Bodivilla needs more postcards and Claire has some to give her.

Charlene and Claire have money from postcards to give to Sim/Chenda

Leaflet in Khmer was given to all cluster school directors in Tek Chhou district (Claire).

There can be a link with the Girls Support Network that Claire is working on because it is to help girls stay in school and one reason for dropping out is poverty, so KCF may be able to help with that.

We will check postcard status at establishments before next meeting.

Sim and Chenda will meet to change over the bank book

Deliver the leaflet to more directors we work with.

4.a. Recommendation of Children

Claire, Mairead and Charlene recommend children.

Claire:

1 girl, age 10 whose father is gone and who lives with her mother and baby sister under someone’s house. She is absent from school because she has to watch the baby when her mother cleans other people’s houses. The head teacher recommended her to the KCF.

Support needed:

o       clothes

o       school supplies

o       baby milk

The group discussed the baby milk and decided against providing it because it would make the mother and baby dependent on the milk. Claire will talk to community liason about encouraging breast feeding the baby longer. The mom is pregnant again and would need a lot of milk if we started this, and we worry that we would endanger the next baby by making them dependent on the milk.

Another Girl is 13 and is HIV positive. She also lives with her family under someone’s house.

Support requested:

• rice
• school supplies
• uniforms
• bike
• mosquito net
• water filter

The group discussed the water filter and mosquito net and these are health –related and so we think that it would be good to see if she needs them and get them.

Mairead:

2 girls (sisters) whose parents have died and their older sibling dropped out of school to support them. Grades 6 and 3. The community is collecting some money for them once in a while. They were supported by Red Cross before but now the support stopped.

Support requested:

• uniforms
• bike (1 to share)
• rice
• school supplies

The group decided to support all these items.

Charlene:

1 boy, age 10 in second grade. His father died this July and his mother cannot work. They live in the middle of a rice field but do not own any land beyond the house.

Support requested:

• bike
• uniforms
• school supplies

Vote to support all children accepted.

We will withdraw money to support all the children requested. We will not provide milk to the mother for the baby but will provide everything else requested.

This led to a discussion (see below) about protein and food security.

4.b. Further discussion about supporting children

With all the families requesting support this time, they may have adequate access to rice but not to protein. All reported eating rice with fish sauce as their main meals. The lack of protein impacts health of children. We discussed possible sources of protein, with the following ideas:

• It needs to be cheap, easily stored, and not requiring refridgeration.

• beans/lentils: not a good idea because Khmer people use these only for dessert and not for regular meals. So although it would be cheap, they would not make meals from this.
• dried fish: We will look into cheap dried fish because people can/will use this. It is part of a regular Khmer diet.
• peanuts: No good because people do have peanut allergies here.
• Another Idea: Buy ducks/chickens for families to keep so that they would have a renewable source of protein. This requires more research and accounting for individual family situations: do they have space and ability to raise ducks/chickens.

At and Charlene will go to the market and investigate cheap dried fish as a source of possible protein to give to families.

We will continue thinking about this idea of providing a renewable protein source: ducks and chickens. Mairead will see how much this would cost.

5. Access database of children helped

At will make an access database of all the children helped so far. It should include:

• where—directions to house
• names of kids, ages, grades
• associated school and contact information
• support given and cost
• time support given (date)
• follow up results (date too)
• time follow up should be done again
• person responsible
• status of children (ie still supported, finished, etc)
• description of family situation
• projected cost if child supported all the way through school (currently 9^th grade)

At will start working on this and have something for the next meeting

We can use this to show donors what we have done and how expensive supporting a child is.

We can use this to keep track of the kids so that support is reliable.

We can use this  to project costs so that we do not run out of money before the kids finish school!

6. Update on finances

Hans has raised nearly $5,000 for the KCF fund. He will talk to Sim/Chenda about putting it into the bank account. Charlene will write a letter stating we have received the money.

Thank you to Hans for amazing amounts of fund raising and support.

Sim/Chenda will go to bank with Hans.

Charlene will write letter to confirm we received the money into the account.

7. Other things:

End of Year Report: We should have the end-of-year report and review occur in July or August so that we are ready to start support for the new school year. Families should be buying supplies and uniforms at the beginning of September to avoid the price hike towards the end of September.

Hans mentions that it was delayed last year but that this timing is a good idea. 

Website and email: We should check this

Files on computer: We should make a back-up

Recruiting new members: Hans is leaving, Mairead will be leaving, so will Claire and Charlene eventually. We need to recruit Khmer people to join and run the KCF.

We will discuss this at the next meeting and find someone to conduct the review.

Charlene will talk to Kim Hong and check both email and website.

Claire and Charlene will get files from Hans or from At’s computer.

We will invite community members and others we think will be interested to the next meeting.

8. Next meeting date

 We will meet Saturday,  May 23, 2009

5:00 Coco’s