2010 House-Building Project
The BRTD Cambodia House-Building Project is a joint effort between the store and our Club Read members to help lift the Cambodian people out of poverty and despair by raising funds for, and then physically building, housing in some of the poorer parts of the country.
The fund-raising culminates with a building trip in Feburary 2010. This project is undertaken with the Tabitha Foundation.
Our head-bookseller, Derek Dryden, recently undertook a building trip to see if the program was one that our customers might support.
90 minutes from the provincial capital of Svay Rieng, he found the local villages living in typical accomodation.
Whilst his Cambodian history was a little shaky, he did know that the Khmer Rouge systematically destroyed nearly all aspects of Cambodian society, burnt books, and decimated the population of the country; exterminating approximately 2 million people through the combined result of political executions, starvation and forced labour.
He went to see whether one bookseller, (with a hammer), could make a difference.
Together with his 23 new best friends, they funded and built housing for 20 families.
Which made the familes pretty happy.
And one old bookseller pretty happy, (and rather proud), too!
How Can You Help?
Each house we build costs A$1,500. The families who are chosen to receive a house have to make a contribution of $US25 which will take them three to four years to save.
We are raising funds by asking our Club Read members (the BRTD Frequent Shopper program), to forgo their rewards for two cycles and instead contribute their rewards to the project. Customers who choose to make this sacrifice for two cycles will be invited to come on the build program which will take place in mid February 2010.