A letter from M’Lop Tapang
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007I’m now back in London. Thanks to a lot of people’s help, I got home safely, and we raised enough money for both the Pakistan and Cambodia charity projects to be implemented.
The field teams at the two charities are now using the money which you donated to help children and communities as planned. Here’s a New Year letter from Francesco at the M’Lop Tapang centre in Cambodia, explaining how the playground for which we have raised money fits with their wider work with people in Sihanoukville:
“M’Lop Tapang (“Under the Tree”) has been working since 2003 to provide a safe haven for street children in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. M’Lop Tapang’s mission is to provide street children with protection from all types of abuse, ensuring them a happy, healthy and safe childhood as well as a better future. We hope that today’s street children will in the future become responsible parents and members of society, ensuring a safe childhood for their own children.
2006 has been an incredible year for M’Lop Tapang: in December our 55 staff and volunteers have worked with over 800 children in our 3 centres, 2 shelters and in communities reached by our outreach team. These are significant numbers for an organization born 3 and half years ago.
Nevertheless at M’Lop Tapang we prefer to measure success in terms of children whose lives have been positively changed: children who are back with their families, children who now can study, children who are not ill anymore and children who are not risking abuse of any kind.
In fact the truest measure of our work is the ability to offer a chance of a better future to the street children of Sihanoukville, so if 2006 has been a year of fast growth, our focus for 2007 will be to improve the quality of our services.
We will have a new day centre where we will be able to work with more children and offer more services, including medical care. We will have a community playground for all the children and youth of Sihanoukville. We will step up our Child Safe campaign and efforts to protect all children from sexual abuse. We will reach more children around Sihanoukville and work with families in more slums. We will continue engaging young, committed students from local universities as well as from abroad.
Wishing you a happy 2007 we want to thank you for the support that you have pledged to M’Lop Tapang. Our activity would be impossible without the support of people like you, who provide financial means but also motivation to do our very best for the street children of Sihanoukville. We are committed to ensuring transparency and accountability to our investors. This is why in 2007 we hope to see you here in Sihanoukville to see in person what we do, together.
Happy New Year and Thank you!”
That’s the letter from Sihanoukville. You can read more about M’Lop Tapang at http://www.mloptapang.org
Thankyou again for being interested in this project! All the best for 2007!
Sue
