Cycling for African Australians and Cambodians

I'm cycling in the Murray to Moyne event as part of a team that will cycle 520km in 24 hours. I'll do 260km+.

My team is raising money for a program that I'm involved in - cohealth Arts Generator - that uses arts to work with young African Australians to help them deal with a past of civil war and sometimes child soldiering whilst living in a country that they can feel alienated from. They make and perform music in public space with sessions using song and freestyling to talk about issues important to them and their community, telling stories of their culture and their lives, in a country where understanding can be pretty low. The music video above was produced by Arts Generator with those young people and is entitled See What I’ve Seen.

I'm also going to match every dollar donated by my friends and family by giving to a VSO Cambodia project to help education there. I lived and worked there for nearly 3 years and was inspired by some of the work being done by people there.

One of these people is a VSO volunteer, Pamela, who has been training teachers since 2005. For years, she has been helping the Ministry of Education develop a curriculum, teaching manuals, textbooks and training to enable kids to learn English. More than that, in a country where virtually every teacher died during the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war, she’s been rebuilding the knowledge lost of teaching methods and how they can be applied.

The Minister of Education and wider Government view teaching English as crucial to helping people in jobs and earning a living. But in a country where very few are able to speak English, teaching it becomes a rather large problem. Pamela is working with teacher training colleges is to help newly qualified teachers be prepared to teach English.

I’ve made a promise to support that work, but short of cycling cycling 260km twice, I need your help.

Sponsor me to do the cycle, and I’ll match what is given by donating to Cambodia. I want to give $2k; the more you give, the closer I’ll get to that target. Give and you’ll be supporting young Africans Australians and young Cambodians. It’s the best 2 for 1 deal you will find.