[UK's] East Cleveland couple make vow to help Cambodian children

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  Nick and Loll Thorne of Saltburn looking over their pictures from Cambodia
  
  
  By Mike Morgan, Evening Gazette
• Jan 19 2013
• http://www.gazettelive.co.uk

AN East Cleveland couple have returned from teaching in Cambodia shocked to learn that half of the children in area they visited suffer health problems through lack of food.

Retired teachers Nick and Loll Thorne have completed their sixth trip to Cambodia as volunteer co-ordinators in two primary schools.

Now, after seeing problems first hand, the couple of Marske Road, Saltburn, are redoubling fundraising efforts.

Nick, 64, and Loll, 59, are looking to raise cash on Teesside for a new programme, including a school setting up its own veg gardens.

They’ve worked with underprivileged children in a small village near Siem Reap – base for the historic Angkor Wat temples.

Nick taught English at Guisborough’s Prior Pursglove College and Loll worked at South Bank Primary.

The Spitler School was set up by a local tour guide helped by Danny and Pam Spitler from Arizona, USA.

Nick said: “It’s provided primary education for the children of this poor village where average earnings are as little as 1.5 US dollars a day, since 2005.

“The Spitler Foundation has taken over running of a failing primary school in the village.

“My wife and I have helped set up an English programme for young people in an area dominated by tourism.

“We’ve also worked with children and their parents in setting up a hygiene scheme.

“About 42% of infant mortality in Cambodia is caused by inadequate toilet facilities and lack of hand-washing.”

Current schemes are successful, but they were horrified to discover more than 50% of children in Cambodia have stunted growth through lack of food.

Loll said: “Many of the children at Kurata and Spitler School come in daily without having eaten.

“They only have a basic meal of rice and fish sauce when they go home.

“Their education is suffering due to their hunger.”

The World Food Programme contributed to a breakfast scheme, but this funding has been withdrawn.

Now Nick and Loll are looking to raise funds on Teesside for a new scheme, including the school setting up its own vegetable garden.

They will be holding fundraising Curry for Cambodia evenings for friends at their home.

Nick said: “The country is struggling from the effects of genocide during dictator Pol Pot’s regime in the mid-1970s.”

See a blog of their trip at http://ssfsiemreap.blogspot.co.uk/