How It Started

Donna and Sam Cooper travelled to Cambodia in 2006, hoping to spend a couple of weeks helping out an orphanage, as so many other volunteer - tourists do.
They fell in love with the country and the people, but were horrified by some of the orphanages and other aid organisations that were working there.
They decided to start their own foundation and run it the right way. The entire Cooper family jumped on board, and with the help of the Woodend community, they started raising funds to build all of the amazing projects that exist today.

What Do We Want?

There are many things that need to be corrected for Cambodia to become a better place. There is a general lack of education, poor health and low income. This comes from poor schools and hospitals and infrastructure in general, which in turn is caused by poor government. As you follow the problem up to the highest level, it becomes evident that we need to attack the problem at the source and create better leaders.
The way we see it, there is only one way to tackle this problem. First, we raise our children up with good values, show them the issues and tell them what’s going on and why. Make it clear to them that they are capable of making a change to their own country. Next, we give them all the tools they need to achieve great things”. We will support them through school and university until they are able to reach those positions where they can make a big impact. Whatever they choose to do, they’ll still be doing good things at a community level, and will have the ability to create a better life.
All we want is for more good people to have more opportunities to do something good.

What Makes Us Different?

There are a million things that make CKF stand out from the rest, but they usually come back to one key factor, and that is that everyone involved is a 100% volunteer.

Why is that so significant? Because nobody involved in CKF has any vested interest or agenda, except the common love for the people of Cambodia and the desire to help make a difference to their lives. You can trust CKF because all we care about is helping the children. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.

Other organisations, particularly those with paid employees, have a tendency to draw out projects and create new work by over-complicating things. The sad truth is, poverty has become an industry, and many people who claim to be working to end it, are actually relying on it for a job. They might never end poverty, because nobody is truly willing to work themselves out of a job.

CKF thinks differently - In Cambodia, the buck stops with us. Success will come the day that we are no longer needed.

Where Are We?

We are everywhere! All of our projects are based in Cambodia - Predominantly, in Soksan Village in Kampong Thom province and in the capital city Phnom Penh. We also have smaller projects in other provinces, but these are generally not ongoing.

Whilst our hearts are in Cambodia, CKFs home is in Australia. Woodend, and the Macedon Ranges, is where CKF began, and it is where 90% of our support base, and much of our funding, comes from.

CKF is a deeply ingrained part of the Macedon ranges community and we are very grateful for their help. We now have a growing support base in Australia outside the Macedon Ranges, and globally we have supporters in the USA, Germany, Canada and Singapore, amongst other places.