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Kaikoura Star Wednesday, 07 January 2009
Another one's down but there are many more to go for a woman trying to raise $150,000 to build a school in Cambodia by selling seafood delights around the country's markets and festivals.
Kaikoura woman Janene McIlwrick was at the annual Richmond Market, Nelson, last week selling paua and whitebait patties to some of the thousands of patrons who lined Queen St to sample wares from vendors as far away as Whangerei and Dunedin.
Ms McIlwrick first visited Cambodia in 2003 and went back in 2006 to see what she could do to help the communities there.
She ended up volunteering to teach English in the district of Takeo, 78km south of the capital Phnom Penh.
Ms McIlwrick said she hoped to raise $150,000 to build a new school for those teachers and students.
"They got donated this land but don't have the money to do anything with it so they are renting buildings which are hugely inadequate and on very dangerous streets.
"There are floods and huge rents so they really do struggle."
She recently received a text message from a friend in Cambodia about a car accident involving a very young student outside the school building the day before Christmas eve. Three-year-old Andre Rotah died that day.
The Khmer Youth Development Project school teaches spoken English to 180 students from preschool to age 33.
Ms McIlwrick has already worked at Kaikoura Seafest and several other markets with her partner, Pete York, and hopes that next time they return to Cambodia it will be early next year with the materials and the expertise to be able to fulfil their plan.
"We are going to take two New Zealand builders with us and I will oversee the project," she said.
Ms McIlwrick hopes to bring the principal of the school to New Zealand early this year to speak to local Anglican communities.
For any further information, Ms McIlwrick can be contacted on 03 319 6599, or at neeneenarnee@yahoo.co.nz
Kaikoura Star Wednesday, 07 January 2009
Another one's down but there are many more to go for a woman trying to raise $150,000 to build a school in Cambodia by selling seafood delights around the country's markets and festivals.
Kaikoura woman Janene McIlwrick was at the annual Richmond Market, Nelson, last week selling paua and whitebait patties to some of the thousands of patrons who lined Queen St to sample wares from vendors as far away as Whangerei and Dunedin.
Ms McIlwrick first visited Cambodia in 2003 and went back in 2006 to see what she could do to help the communities there.
She ended up volunteering to teach English in the district of Takeo, 78km south of the capital Phnom Penh.
Ms McIlwrick said she hoped to raise $150,000 to build a new school for those teachers and students.
"They got donated this land but don't have the money to do anything with it so they are renting buildings which are hugely inadequate and on very dangerous streets.
"There are floods and huge rents so they really do struggle."
She recently received a text message from a friend in Cambodia about a car accident involving a very young student outside the school building the day before Christmas eve. Three-year-old Andre Rotah died that day.
The Khmer Youth Development Project school teaches spoken English to 180 students from preschool to age 33.
Ms McIlwrick has already worked at Kaikoura Seafest and several other markets with her partner, Pete York, and hopes that next time they return to Cambodia it will be early next year with the materials and the expertise to be able to fulfil their plan.
"We are going to take two New Zealand builders with us and I will oversee the project," she said.
Ms McIlwrick hopes to bring the principal of the school to New Zealand early this year to speak to local Anglican communities.
For any further information, Ms McIlwrick can be contacted on 03 319 6599, or at neeneenarnee@yahoo.co.nz
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