So what's all this about then?

By Kathryn Baldacchino

Here is the story of how this 

became this

And then became this

Steve and I volunteered for a Cambodian NGO called Yodifee. This NGO went to staggering lengths to support youth with disabilities. Yodifee has experienced that people with disabilities have huge obstacles to overcome within the Cambodian context, and discrimination against people with disabilities in Cambodia is rife, and this leads to their social exclusion. The exclusion of children and youth with disabilities from education, results in their forfeiting opportunities for further development, decreasing their access to vocational training, employment and income generation. Failure to benefit from education and training prevents the full inclusion of children and youth with disabilities into society, and ultimately increases their vulnerability to poverty.

Based in Takhmao, which is just a short while out of the city Phnom Penh, but is pretty rural, Yodifee has its headquarters - Villa Maria. Here they house some youth who for whatever reasons cannot remain at home if they want to pursue their studies and careers. Some have lost their family, others live too far away from a school and in wheelchairs would never manage to travel the distance, others have families who are too poor to support them. When possible, Yodifee also supports youth to remain with their families in their own villages - by providing financial or material support.

The high-school group living at Villa Maria when we volunteered there

Two of the high-school students

Nimul, the founder and director of Yodifee soon realised that equipping youth with education does not guarantee their employment and self-reliance. So he developed business support initiatives which trained youth with disabilitites in trades and professions, and then supported them to set up their own businesses.

One of the youth who was trained to repair televisions, and now has his own business.

Yodifee always aims to respond to whatever need is identified. Nimul explained to us that he had noted that many children in the rural area of Kampot had Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities, and he noted that there was no medical center near enough to support these families. He understood that some disabilities could be avoided if there was assisted childbirth and antenatal care, as well as access to immunisations.

With this in mind, he procurred a plot of land in Kampot and commenced planning to create a medical center. Alexandra White and others in Australia fund-raised to help make this building a reality. 

The beginning of structures

The beginnings of some building work

Nimul (third from left) and the others involved in developing this land

 When funds came in, more building continued, eventually resulting in the bones of a structure:

And finally, the medical center was completed. Here it stands in all its glory:

Amplify has endeavoured to continue supporting this center and the other work of Yodifee since this time. For example, Amplify has recently purchased a tuk-tuk to help students commute to school. Amplify maintains close interaction with Yodifee to try to support its needs. 

Menu Ideas for the 1.21 Challenge

By Alexandra White

Preparing some menu ideas for this weeks challenge is proving to be challenging indeed!  I'm a food lover and have been know to travel around seeking food and wine, and attending cooking classes. I try to grow my own vegetables, I endorse local fresh food, predominantly organic. I  love red wine and am a coffee snob!

This Challenge will indeed be a challenge on a budget of 1.12 euros per day - definitely no organic products or wine on this budget.  But only 5 days and for a good cause.

My plan is to buy all my items for the week leaving a couple of Euros for emergency.  I can't imagine having to do this everyday - worrying about every cent and how to feed my growing family. We are so very lucky.

Some menu ideas:

Breakfast 

*Boiled eggs and toast

*Baked Beans on toast

*Oats with water/Milk depending on the budget

*Black tea or Black coffee

*Lemon water

Lunch

Boiled egg sandwiches 

2 x Pastizzi

Maltese Hobz biz-zejt

Boiled rice with lemon+pepper

Dinner

Pasta with tomato sauce

Pesto pasta

Rice and lentils

Lentil soup with maltese bread

Jacket potatoes and baked beans.

Snails with Bread

Steamed fish with veg ( frozen fish and veg will be used as cheaper)

Roasted chicken drumsticks with tomatoes - Veg or boiled rice. (Frozen chicken) 

Steve is gonna starve

By Steve Hili

As anyone who know me would testify, I have done some pretty stupid things in my life.

From climbing up a mountain in a t-shirt (it had seemed like a warm day when I was sitting inside my central-heated room) to  jumping into  the water on the edge of one of the biggest waterfalls in the world without listening to the safety briefing (my mind was too busy thinking how cool this was going to be), to trekking from Mellieha to Senglea  whilst keeping myself refreshed with a bottle of rum instead of water (I have no excuse for that - I just prefer rum to water), I have been known to embark on the odd ill-advised adventure.

However I have never purposefully starved myself.

Until now.

From May 12th I am going to be doing the 121 Challenge which basically means I have to spend 1eur and 21c or less on my food every day for five days.

Now I love food. I really do. So much so that I sometimes yell out 'lasagna' in my sleep. (Or 'Madras' on Wednesdays). I eat quite a lot and when I am hungry I get cranky. ( I once threatened to divorce Kat because a vending machine didn't have any Mars bars left. She didn't seem too flustered about it to be honest.)

So, all things considered, I don't think it would be out of this world to ask...why the hell am I doing this?

The idea behind the 121 Challenge is to raise awareness about what life is like for the 1.2 billion people around the world who have to live below the poverty line on a daily basis.

1.2 billion. I can't even comprehend that figure.

So let's put it in perspective. It is about 2500 times the population of Malta.

Malta x 2500. Think about it.

Imagine that for every person who lived in Malta there was another 2500. The European Union would be shaking in its boots!

But seriously, just think about it. For every person in Malta there was another 2500. And all of them lived below the poverty line.  Not just for 5 days. But every day.  Oh and from the money that we are using for food, they would need to budget for all the other costs that they have to incur to get through the day.  These might include transport,  medicines, etc.

Bloody hell. Sort of puts things in perspective, right?

Whilst we are in the process of starving ourselves, we are also be going to be collecting funds to continue to support a medical centre that we were involved in the setting up of a few years ago in Cambodia. This centre is doing amazing work and really changing lives - many new mums use this facility as well as kids and young people with disabilities. These are people who might otherwise not have had any access to medical attention  - but I'll talk more about them in another blog.

My point is we're doing this for a good cause. So if you can, please help us out. If you want to take the challenge brilliant, but if not then maybe you could donate something.  How about the equivalent of what you would usually spend on booze, or going out for a week?

Living on 1.21 € a day.

Stupid? Nope.

If by going hungry for a few days we can raise some awareness and maybe a bit of money that can help change people's lives, this could be one of the best things I've ever done.

You can support the challenge on https://www.betternow.org/mt/121challenge

Why in the world am I doing this?!

By Kathryn Baldacchino

Organising this fundraiser for Cambodia, and trying to figure out what we are going to eat has made me really reminisce about our time there and reminds me of the reasons why I am doing this.

During our work there, we would visit the country-side and find families who could not afford much food. They would scrape together enough money to buy some rice, and they would only accompany this with salt in order to give it a little more flavour and ward off the hunger. We visited one particular family that was trying to grow its own rice, but wasn't managing to grow enough to live on completely, so they had to buy additional rice. They would also forage in their rice field to collect snails which they would boil and add to their rice. Families would worry that their lack of proper food was hindering their children's ability to grow and fully function, but they could not do anything about this as they had no means of earning an income.

The organisation we worked for, Yodifee, would often explain that some disabilities developed because of the families' lack of access to food security and health care facilities. And like the chicken-and-egg conundrum, people who have disabilities are at increased risk of never having full food security.

Food in Cambodia always centres on the staple food - which is rice. In fact, we would be called to our meals by the grandmother of the house saying "Nyam Bai", and literally translated it means "Eat Rice".

When we lived in Cambodia, nearly every meal would include rice. By the time we finished our stint there, I could not bear to even look at rice, let alone eat it. We would have our own portions of rice in front of us and there would then be a communal plate of something small that would complement the rice, such as a fish or some beef or a soup. We would take from the communal plate and add it to our own portions of rice. Needless to say, rice cookers are the most important part of a Cambodian kitchen.

Here is a photo of our Cambodian friends eating when we visited the country-side with them. Each person has their own plate of rice, taking from the communal bowls which are the silver ones.

We also tried many other delicacies too. One of my favourites was literally translated as 'Cow climbs up the mountain', and it was made on a funny cone shaped frying pan (imagine a frying pan mountain) over a gas burner. We would have fresh pieces of beef which we dunked in egg and then stuck to the sides of this cone for it to cook. We would then add the beef to our plates of rice. While travelling in the countryside we also feasted on frogs speared through two bamboo sticks and we had a huge bag of crabs while we rested in the sea-side town of Kep.

 

I developed a tummy infection while there, and our Cambodian friends suggested that they take me to the Cambodian equivalent of a western fast-food restaurant to have burgers and fries, as they attributed my tummy troubles to the fact that I had not eaten 'western' food for so long! I managed to grin and try to eat something, but all I wanted at the time was bed rest in a dark room!

My time in Cambodia had a huge influence on my life. I was exposed to realities I had never imagined and realise that my own fortunes could have been very different had I simply been born in a different place. This is what is spurring my participation in this challenge. Unlike those we met, I will only be doing this for five days, but I hope that doing so raises some awareness to how so many other people in the world live - and raises some much needed funds for the medical centre.

What are we doing?

From Monday 12th until Friday 16th May we aim to eat on €1.21 each per day in order to raise awareness about extreme poverty & raise funds to change lives in one of the poorest countries on the planet. 

The 121 challenge was inspired by the global Live Below the Line movement and is being led locally by the NGO Amplify. This challenge aims to bring into focus some of the experiences of the 1.2 billion people around the world who live in extreme poverty. 

At the same time the Amplify team aims to collect funds to continue to support a medical centre which the group set up in Cambodia in 2008 and which continues to transform the lives of some of the poorest people in the world.

You can support us by donating on https://www.betternow.org/mt/121challenge

and find out how we are progressing at www.the121challenge.blogspot.com

Amplify set up a Medical Centre in Kampot, Cambodia back in 2008/9. This centre has now been running for a number of years, providing free consultation and medicine for, amongst others new mothers, children and young people with disabilities. The centre is doing great work but still needs some assistance as it strives to become more sustainable. We hope to be able to support it through funds raised during the 121 Challenge! PLEASE BE GENEROUS!