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Event Detail

Khmer Concert in Australia

Venue Information

Event Details

The Healthcare Center for Children (HCC) and its fund raising partner, Save Cambodian Children Fund - Australia (SCCFA), are organizing their third annual fund raising concert to be held in Australia. The tour is exclusively intended to raise money for HCC, allowing the Cambodian communities in Australia the opportunity to support the work being done for disadvantaged children in Cambodia.

Eight of Cambodia's most famous pop stars and musicians will perform in Australia to raise money for the local NGO HCC from the end of this month. Kim Leakhena, San Ranuth, Chan Samay and Snguon Srey Nuch will be supported by Akki band during their tour.

This year's tour brings an energetic and exciting group of eight entertainers that includes Kim Leakhena, San Ranuth, Chan Samay and Snguon Srey Nuch. These vocalists will be accompanied by the Akki band and Miss Terri Ly, the Cambodian based director of HCC. Miss Ly stated, "this fund raising concert is important for the long-term survival of HCC. While HCC is currently relying on the external funding, self-financing is our new strategy in ensuring our organizational sustainability. We are grateful for the support of our [Australian] partner and believe that through our collaborative efforts, running concerts and selling products made by the children from our center abroad, we can achieve financial independence. This will help to ensure many at-risk and victimized children can be rescued and helped to live a full and prosperous life."

The group will be departing Phnom Penh today, returning at the end of August. Miss Kim Leakhena, a top female vocalist in Cambodia, said, "I am so delighted to be part of this exciting event. I had been to Australia once, but more than the others, the concert tour this time is giving me so much joy and contentment. I feel that I have become part of something which is so worthwhile." Both HCC and SCCFA are dedicated to minimising the worst forms of child labour, slavery, abuse, trafficking and exploitation in Cambodia. To achieve this, the fund raising concert is organized and held in three different cities in Australia, namely Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide where majority of Cambodians have located.

In Cambodia, about 20 kms outside the capital, HCC runs a shelter for girls who are disadvantaged and vulnerable to sex trafficking and labour exploitation and abuse. The shelter offers support services, which include healthcare, vocational skills training, and formal/non-formal education. This project is currently supported by our US-based partner Winrock International, through the CIRCLE initiative with funding by the US Department of Labor. Along with the shelter, HCC also runs a variety of projects including a community-based prevention network, involving awareness-raising, health education and income generation activities. Currently HCC is being financially supported by various international donors, with funds raised from the concert assisting HCC in ensuring its sustainability and filling in the small, but important gap, which is not currently covered by its donors.

On another positive note, a milestone event experienced by HCC during the year 2005 was a restructuring process, which is undertaken by the new Committee of Management of HCC in order to radically improve its service delivery, accountability and transparency to donors and other stakeholders of HCC.

It is hoped that with the new restructuring organisation and the self-organized fundraising concert, and with all the hard work and support of the donor community, then many children under its care will have a much brighter future.

For more information, contact:
Terri LY, Director
Healthcare Center for Children
#115A, Street 115, Sangkat Veal Vong
Khan Chamkarmorn, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Phone: (61) 423 404 332 (until the 9 August 2005)
or (855) 12 252 779
Phone: terrily@sccf-hcc.org