In late 2017 a few members of our family donated a postie bike to ChildFund Australia to assist them with their work in Cambodia.

The classic postie bike, which we know so well in Australia for delivering our mail and parcels, enables ChildFund to deliver much needed supplies such as food, water and vaccinations to remote communities in Cambodia.

This year we travelled to Kratie Province, in northeast Cambodia, to deliver the bike. On that trip we visited some extremely poor and remote communities. They were some of the poorest communities in an already very poor country.

When we visited community mothers’ groups and primary schools we were stunned by the extent to which a lack of access to clean safe water impacted the lives of babies and children.

Cambodia has an extremely high level of child malnutrition and a lot of this can be attributed to not having access to clean water, which can result in extreme diarrhoea, dehydration, susceptibility to other related illnesses and, in many cases, death.

We returned from our trip, determined to help further. For a few thousand dollars we discovered we could build and install a working well that would save the lives of many children and families. It was crystal clear to Maureen, Melinda and me what we needed to do next, and so our Just Giving project was born.

Thanks to the generosity of family, friends and colleagues we exceeded our fundraising target for Just Giving and raised enough money to not only build a well for a remote community in Kratie Province, but also provide desperately needed supplies for the local medical centre. We are so excited that work on the well will commence very soon. ChildFund Australia and ChildFund Cambodia will oversee the project and have everything on the ground ready to go, now the funds have been raised.

For Maureen, Melinda and me it’s been a real eye opener, an education and also a real pleasure to spend time in Cambodia. Thank you to ChildFund Australia and to ChildFund Cambodia for your warm welcome and allowing us this extraordinary experience.

Arkoun.