LOTUS AUSTRALIA RELIEF FUND
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to ensure the education, health, safety and Human Rights of some of the most marginalised women and children in Cambodia. We are guided by the UN millennium goals to promote poverty eradication, universal education, gender equality, and the empowerment of women and girls. We seek to do this with integrity, diligence, cultural sensitivity, respected local partnerships, true community engagement, and rigorous monitoring of our projects, outcomes, and financial dealings.
About This Cause
Lotus Outreach works to prevent the worst forms of child labour and trafficking by identifying at-risk young girls, and offering them a compelling alternative - 'GATE' - Girls' Access to Education. We enable 100 impoverished families to keep their girls safely at home, attending local schools. Many GATE girls are now graduating high school and being accepted to university and tertiary training. GATE is a highly successful program - within one generation we are seeing real change. We consult and work with respected Cambodian Government registered NGOs to identify the most vulnerable and marginalised young girls - and to help keep them in education. Educating girls not only leads to their own financial independence, but they in turn help lift their families out of poverty, and make sure their future children will be educated too - potentially transforming entire communities. Right now, and for many years, we are seeing these changes. Girls, whose parents are destitute and illiterate, are graduating and winning places at university or graduate colleges. LOA provides scholarships for promising students to attend vocational training institutes. We do not run orphanages. We enable girls to stay in school and with their families. To be allowed to attend school, Cambodian children are required to have uniforms, shoes, books and all school supplies. GATE Scholarships provide all this, along with healthcare, and bicycles to cover long distance. Rice support for families in dire poverty can be the difference between a daughter forced into child labour or the sex trade in order to feed the family and a daughter in school getting a valuable education. With LOA's help, parents are no longer forced to remove their daughters from school and put them in the workforce e.g. garment factories, brickworks, un-safe roadside cafes, or in begging rings so the girl's wage will help feed the family. LOA's support allows girls to go to school and work toward a fulfilling job and economic independence. Most of the families we help live in a tiny one-room hut with no books and no electricity, let alone a computer or internet. Yet, these girls must compete with affluent middle class students for tertiary education and available jobs. Our Local Partners; Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre (CWCC), is a government registered NGO and a leading advocate for women and children; they work closely with LOA to ensure our programs are relevant and appropriately designed and implemented. • CWCC works with Local Education Working Groups comprised of local elders, nurses, police and school principals, to identify girls most in need, monitor their progress, advocate for their rights and engage community support. • Our affiliate, Lotus Outreach Cambodia (LOCam) collaborates with us in the design, research, analysis, and monitoring of our programs, through our In Country Director of Field Operations, Glenn Fawcett, and LOCam Country Representative Raksmey Var (Bachelor of Business Administration). • We are audited annually and lodge a Financial Report with the ACNC. Lotus Outreach Australia is a registered charity with the NSW Department of Fair Trading, ACNCA, and has fundraising authority with the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing, as well as ABN and DGR1 tax deductable status with the ATO. We are a successful and effective organisation with strong governance and proven programs. Lotus Outreach Australia provides a proven, reliable and transparent way for individuals, families, corporate foundations, businesses and Private Ancillary Funds to help transform a generation of Cambodian girls, giving them the education, dignity and sustainability we wish for our own girls in our own country.