Help me to help others...

Earlier this year I was reading a fantastic book, Balance by Rachel Grunwell, about motivational people when I came across a story about the Cambodian Charitable Trust, set up by local Tauranga mum and lawyer Denise Arnold. This story stuck with me as years before I had watched a rather eye opening movie about the sex trade and wondered what could I do.

To be honest it all got a bit hard and I moved on. After reading the story I once again thought about what can I do to help these kids and got in touch and asked the question.

To run the Rotorua marathon for the Cambodian Charitable Trust is an honour and here is why.

The Trust was set up by a mother who wanted to make a difference, she saw a need to help these children have what we take for granted as a normal life something most of us give our children without really considering it a luxury.

This trust works to help provide free education to children in Cambodia. This is a country where children live in extreme poverty and are often trafficked to help support families and take pressure off the limited resources they have.

So how can your little donation help?

Since the charity was set up in 2008 it has helped to train teachers and provide classroom resources and they now support 23 schools. Education makes a huge difference to the lives of these children it provides opportunities for them to have a brighter future where they can start to break the poverty cycle. 100% of donations go back to the charity so even a small donation of even a few dollars can provide school books or calculators, $80 can provide a bike for children to use to get to school which can often be a long walk away from their home.

I have thought about why it is important to help these children over others and to be honest it’s a question I think about as I write this. It’s hard to ask for financial help from people for any charity but this is my why, why help them... If my children were to be born into a life where they needed to be trafficked in order for me or others in my family to survive it would break my heart. My children go to school and live a comfortable life due to choices that we make, these families are left without these choices. So for that reason this is my reason for running the Rotorua marathon for these kids.