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A new job is always cause for celebration. For Alvin from Queensland, then only 21, he celebrated by sponsoring a child with ChildFund Australia.

Five years later, Alvin now sponsors two children: 11-year-old Yayah from Sierra Leone and five-year-old Mohommed from Sri Lanka.

In 2013 Alvin decided to take his relationship with ChildFund one step further by signing up for our Sri Lanka Cycle Against Poverty, an 11-day adventure which saw a small team of dedicated supporters take on a challenging 400km cycle around Sri Lanka and raise money for families living in one of the poorest districts in the country.

“I decided that I wanted to see myself struggle at something, because I know that I could never truly understand how these families live every day. I wanted to see if I had the strength in me to do a challenge like this,” says Alvin.

“The days of cycling were full-on, we cycled all day and any time we had spare, we did tourist visits. I hated waking up early but I loved that there wasn’t any time wasted. It was an amazing trip, especially meeting lots of people from the communities supported by ChildFund and just hearing about their stories.”

While Alvin admits cycling is not really his cup of tea, that didn’t stop him from taking on some of the steepest inclines Sri Lanka has to offer. The team spent six days cycling through the Sri Lankan countryside, which involved tackling the infamous tea plantation region and climbing over 1,800 metres above sea level in just one day!

For Alvin, the trip was made even more special by taking the opportunity to visit one of his sponsored children. Alvin farewelled his cycling teammates in Colombo and embarked on a five-hour car journey to a rural village in Puttalam, where he met five-year-old Mohommed, who he has been sponsoring for the past two years.

“It was a very long trip but it was amazing when I arrived and there he was with his parents holding a garland for me,” says Alvin. “We were both very nervous but he came up to me and gave me a big hug.”

At the beginning Mohommed was very shy, but Alvin made him feel more comfortable by spending some time colouring in with him, before they headed outside to kick a ball around with a few children from Mohommed’s village.

 

K@mel is a Melbourne-based music group made up of 13 incredibly talented students. Most members of the group met whilst studying at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, at the University of Melbourne, and share a love for both classical music and helping others.

“All of our members are conscious about helping others in need and individually we were looking for ways to help less fortunate people,” says Yesool Song, one of the members of K@mel. “So, naturally the group began to focus on using our talents for good.”

After seeing the devastation Super Typhoon Haiyan caused in the Philippines, K@mel knew they wanted to help. “A lot of houses and buildings were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan and amongst those affected were many children.

“Their schools were torn away so that meant many children could not get a proper education,” says Song. “We hoped that through this concert we would be able to assist the rebuilding process of destroyed homes and schools.”

And did they ever! In February, this group of passionate young Aussies performed to a packed room and raised a huge $2,500 towards ChildFund`s work in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

This wasn`t the first time K@mel have supported ChildFund. Last year, the group raised over $1,000 for our programs supporting war-affected children and communities in Uganda.

K@mel plan to continue using their music to help others, with the group (and us!) hoping their charity concerts remain a hit for years to come.

ChildFund Australia would like to extend our special thanks to all members of K@mel for their ongoing support; Soojin An, Mary Hyunju Chun, Lucy Mikyung Ha, Mihyun Ha, Jessica Jeong, Rebekah Chaerin Kim, Peiyi Ng, Jisook Noh, Laverne Oh, Angela Park, Dana Park, Lina Heeseung Park, and Yesool Song.

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