Alison W introduced Paul Deacon, a former Wycombe Town Clerk, who retired as an International Private
\nBanker from Coutts in 2008. In retirement he kept busy as a Toastmaster, while his wife Liz was still working fulltime
\nas a physiotherapist. Both had always dreamt of doing something interesting, exciting and meaningful.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Paul was contacted by Mark McKeown then living in Cambodia and advising an NGO there called
\nKHEN (Kien-Kies Health Education Network) which focuses on educating children. Mark asked Paul if he knew
\nanyone who might be interested in raising \u00a310K for a school in Western Cambodia. They both knew Mark, so
\nfelt they could trust KHEN. Liz had discovered she was eligible for a 6-month career break. They decided they
\ncould make this project part of their adventure, and Paul spoke of the many challenges they faced.<\/p>\n
However, they found fund-raising wasn\u2019t as easy as they hoped. Paul tried to establish the Cambodia
\nCommunity Schools Project UK as a charity \u2013 but the application failed. It took 6 months to establish a bank
\naccount for CCSP. Eventually the money was raised through people they knew, through donations or charity
\nevents, quiz nights and raffles. KHEN then used the money to build a 3-classroom primary school and to pay its
\nteachers for 2 years. If the school is successful, the government will take over the school\u2019s running, and build
\nsecondary schools for the children to attend.<\/p>\n
Liz and Paul flew to Cambodia fin October 2019 for the school\u2019s opening. Paul started his presentation to our
\nclub by talking about the geography and history of Cambodia. The country had been at civil war until 1975,
\nresulting in the deaths of 2 million people. Their fields will not be clear of landmines till 2025: 4 million cleared
\nso far, 6 million to go. Poverty and malnutrition are rampant. One of the challenges was getting building
\nmaterials and equipment moved to the village. Roads from major towns and cities start well, but dwindle to dirt
\ntracks in rural areas. Paul answered a number of questions at the end.<\/p>\n
Dorothy gave the vote of thanks for a very interesting and enlightening presentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alison W introduced Paul Deacon, a former Wycombe Town Clerk, who retired as an International…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":567,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-club-news"],"yoast_head":"\n