MaD :: Cambodian charity/NGO in Siem Reap

PRA in Prolit Village

One of the first things that drew MaD to Reul Commune when we were collecting data in order to decide where to begin our new Rural Developement projects was the eagerness of the community members we contacted to help us. When we started contacting commune leaders in Puok District and mentioned that we were thinking of commencing projects in their communes, most took several days to give us the information we required. When we got in touch with Reul Commune, the commune leaders instantly became very excited about the prospect of having an NGO to help them and came back to us with all the information we needed within a couple of hours, stressing that if we needed anything else at all to please contact them at any time. It was quickly clear when we started going through the data that Reul Commune is a place that is in great need of help: it has one of the lowest water coverage rates in Siem Reap (which is well below the Cambodian average as it is), their agriculture (upon which the majority of the inhabitants rely) is suffering greatly and the poor sanitation situation in the commune has caused countless problems.

M.A.D. in Bakong

Today we gave a presentation to the Department of Health reviewing our Medical Assistance Direct Program in Bakong over the last year. Palynath gave a great presentation and it was received well by all so we thought we'd share it here with you all!

Medical Assistance Direct Review 2010

View more presentations from Chris Alford.

MaD receives a Google Grant!

This month MaD has received notification that we have been approved for a Google Grant. This means that we get provided a daily allowance of $329 which we can spend to advertise MaD on Google. That's $120,000 a year!! We are all very chuffed with the decision as this now means we have an exceedingly powerful advertising tool at our fingertips through which we can promote MaD, vMaD, MaD Adventures and the MaD Eatery. Our team is already hard at work in order to make sure that we use the grant to best effect. A huge thanks to Emma for helping MaD to push this through!!

MaD Kids: then and now

The day I arrived to play games and teach the children in their village, is one to remember. They asked me all the questions they knew in English on a continuous basis just to have a conversation with me. " how are you? " " how old are you?" " where do you come from?" " what's your name? ". Being Shy and unsure of people they met, they slowly started to open up to me when I started coming to see them more often.

Record breaking pump repairs!

December 2009 was a hard and disheartening month for MaD. After the situation with APSARA reached exploding point, we finally came to realisation that we would not be able to carry out much of the work that we had promised to do in Bakong: no drilling and installing water pumps, no building improved sanitation units, no constructing new houses or refurbishing old ones. We weren’t even allowed to construct a chicken coop! If relationships were to deteriorate further, it appeared that we would also run the very real risk of having work that we had already done for the people of Bakong destroyed. Needless to say, the whole team were feeling somewhat dismayed, especially as so many of our Khmer team are from Bakong Commune and were now told that we would have to move locations away from their family and friends all because APSARA wouldn’t let us help their own people.

Volunteer blog from Richard and Camilla

This was our first volunteering experience and we didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived in Siem Reap. However, on arrival at the MaD House we were really pleased to find we had lovely accommodation and great food and all set in a fantastic rural location.