Bringing Cheer All Over The World

The Remote Year group I am traveling with is called Kublai and our slogan is Conquer with Love.  That is what we aim to do.  While we have many interests of beaches, temples, history etc. we all spend time doing good in the communities we visit.  Here are a few of the amazing things we have been lucky enough to be a part of.

Feeding the homeless in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Pit Stop cafe is a restaurant where all of the food made for the homeless is made from scratch.  You can also go there for lunch and the proceeds go back into the food for the homeless.  Malaysia doesn’t recognize the amount of homeless people there so it is so hard for them to get funding and support.  Many of the Remote’s helped with marketing, social media, their website and helping serve food.  I created a sponsorship prospectus so they had something to provide for corporate sponsorship since government funding is so limited.

Charity Events in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Because it is a communist government and sex trafficking is a major problem here, there aren’t as many volunteer options where you can show up and help.  Many of the orphanages have a lot of restrictions. The Kublai positive impact committee decided to  have a silent auction at one of our events.  We would offer a cooked meal, a LinkedIn class, dance class, coding class etc. and someone else from our group could bid on it and the money would go to a charity there.  I donated a LinkedIn training class or a home cooked meal.  Since we are always going out to eat, they picked the home cooked meal.

Donating blood in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In Cambodia, only 4 out of 1,000 people donate blood because they are afraid it will affect their health. Cambodia, being one of the poorest countries in the world and many mothers and children die every year, they really need our blood. It takes 5 minutes and you are almost immediately saving 1-3 lives. We saved 18 lives in just one day.  People were rushing in to get the blood as we were donating.

Having the best time with kids at Tiny Toones in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Many of us were fortunate enough to get to volunteer at Tiny Toones.  We had the most joyful day with the children of Cambodia.

The story of Tiny Toones below was taken directly from their website.

In 2005 Tuy Sobil (aka “KK”) opened up his modest home to a handful of kids he had seen working or living on the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. KK had only just arrived in Cambodia himself. Born in the Thai refugee camps, he grew up in the projects of Los Angeles, fell into gang membership and was eventually deported to a country he had never previously visited. What happened next is what makes his story special.

Word spread that KK had been a break-dancer. All of a sudden the very kids he saw living on the streets were knocking at his door asking him to teach them. KK saw these kids getting involved in anti-social behaviour and drugs, he saw that without guidance they were in danger of repeating the mistakes of his youth. He decided to take on the challenge and reluctantly agreed to start teaching them break-dancing.

Cramped sessions in his living room attracted ever greater numbers and KK combined dance lessons with encouragement, support and guidance. More than anything, he believed in them and showed them the care and concern that was otherwise absent in their lives.

Over ten years later, some of those kids have performed internationally – from Australia to Italy – and are now teachers at KK’s ‘Tiny Toones’ centre. Over 100 children from the slums come every day to dance, to make music, to learn English, Khmer (the Cambodian language) and computing, and to enjoy the freedom to be children. It is down to KK’s vision and commitment that this safe environment exists, where children can enjoy learning, explore their creativity and develop a positive sense of identity and community.



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