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Friends & Supporters

CRDT supporting members

  1. Mike Roberts: One of the main supporters of CRDT, as well as being a good friend. Involved with CRDT since 2004, Mike has strived to provide his support with both direct and indirect contributions. Mike assisted in fundraising and donor relationship building, as well as volunteering with CRDT in the field to provide technical support to field staff and represent the donor, Mivac. Mike also made his own donations both in cash and in assistance in CRDT projects. He is acting as CRDT’s ambassador of fund raising and establishing public profile since moving on.
  2. Dr. John Schiller: Another one of the main supporters and good friend of CRDT. Since 2003, John has encouraged the young team to improve its capacity and introduce access to donors, particularly AusAID. Even though he has not been involved directly with CRDT, John has given strong references to CRDT for funding opportunities and assisted CRDT members to access the capacity development program.
  3. Isabel Beasly: Friend of CRDT since 2004, Isabel was a former dolphin researcher on the Mekong for over 4 years and was working closely with CRDT foreign advisors, Mr Alex and Brendan, to assist CRDT in fundraising, and pushing for good partnerships with the big international conservation organisations, WCS and WWF. She helped CRDT to define clear vision of development for conservation, introducing the Mekong areas of main dolphin habitats in Kratie and Stung Treng province, CRDT was then able to target project areas throughout northeast Cambodia.
  4. Vince Whitehead: As a good friend of CRDT since 2004. An engineer in profession, Vince has provided technical support and free construction knowledge so the team could improve the quality of construction activities and some other design innovations. Such as construction of toilets, wells, rope pumps and the quality of CRDT’s biodigesters. View his report.

 

Individual Supports

  1. Bridget and Will: Good friends and supporters of CRDT since 2004, Bridget and Will are the first and biggest private donors to CRDT as the Macintosh-Williamson fund. The couple has provided the biggest private donation of $16, 000 (USD) in total. The first donation of $10,000 was raised from their wedding ceremony contributed by their friends and families from Australia to support CRDT livelihood development projects such as the dolphin conservation on the Cambodian- Lao border, and also in Stung Treng Province, and the second donation, of $6,000 from their family members, was to support vulnerable fresh graduate students to seek opportunity for work and gain experience with CRDT. The first donation provided in 2005, was sincerely unforgettable as CRDT was in the tight grip of the funding uncertainty stage. This significantly fulfilled the funding gap, which otherwise would have meant CRDT either stopped activities for a while or lost staff. This kind assistance will not be forgotten by CRDT. The second donation provided in 2006 for the amount of 6000$ was to support the 4 fresh CRDT graduates from rural backgrounds to experience and continue employment, to support 22 undergraduate MVU students for 3 months on an internship in Phnom Penh, through CRDT, and to supplement other private charities to support livelihood development project in Lgeung village, Kampong Cham province. View the Macintosh-Williamson Fund project’s report.
  2. Sheila Tucker: Sheila has vast experience of working with NGOs in both the UK and developing countries, and currently manages a strategy for DFID in development and environment education. She came to Cambodia for a "holiday" in July-August 2009, but instead got roped in to working as a consultant to train the CRDT staff team in presentation skills, and to support CRDT to develop their first organisational strategy.
  3. Anna Griggs: As a former lecturer of MVU where the CRDT founding members studied, Anna was proud to get engaged and support her student’s work. Anna has provided personal substantial donations as well as from her family to support CRDT’s work, as well as introducing other donors to CRDT. Currently Anna is assisting in CRDT’s publicity, writing up perma-culture documents.
  4. Caroline Chateau: As a friend of Channy’s family from France, Caroline is a key member and representative of her French Charity Association named “Kermesse Francophone”. Through Caroline, the charity has provided funds to support 2 CRDT projects with the total amount of up to 6,000$. The first project was called “Subsistence Community Livelihood Development Project” for Lngeang village, Kampong Cham province. It was supplemented by the Macintosh-Williamson Fund to support the overhead costs. The project aimed to improve the living conditions of this subsistence agriculture community, through providing agricultural training to community members and improving village sanitation through the construction of latrines. The second project was called “School Nutrition, Water, and Sanitation Improvement in Support of Community Dolphin Conservation Project” which was implemented along the Mekong in Kratie and Stung Treng province. Being supplemented by Soroptimist to support some overhead costs, This project aimed to improve the infrastructure facilities at the public centers (Schools and pagodas) to complement with the existing major livelihood development project along the Mekong.

 

Volunteers

  1. Naomi: was the first short- term volunteer to assist the CRDT community development tour program. She is Cambodian by birth but was brought up in Canada. She was also the first tourist to embark on a CRDT tourism development program while it was in its trial stage. As the first eco-tourist, Naomi was so delighted with the tour program and impressed with CRDT so that she decided to volunteer with CRDT for 3 months to assist in the tourism development tour project. As a new tourism initiative started in 2006, the program was running without a clear system. Naomi has assisted in the whole tour system, including the itinerary, marketing notes and orientation design to promote the program and provide tour guidance for CRDT staff. With her significant contribution getting the ball rolling, the community development tour program has developed successfully and now is a well known ecotourism site in North-East Cambodia.
  2. Rory McCormick: Rory came to CRDT at a time when a huge priority was to raise the public profile of and develop publicity materials for the organisation. As the voluntary 'Information and Publicity Strategy Coordinator' from April-September 2009, Rory supported the CRDT team to write about their programmes for various audiences. During his time with CRDT he created a new leaflet, overhauled the website, researched and produced several attractive case studies and provided training on all those topics. He also oversaw IT systems and enabled the office to go wireless!

 

Previous Advisors

  1. Alex Diment: was the former volunteer agriculture lecturer of MVU, where the CRDT founding members came from. As a lecturer, Alex was also a key team member, acting as a technical advisor to assist the young team’s initiatives, leading to the formation of the Cambodian Volunteer Rural Development Team. Alex was working as volunteer advisor for over 4 years to assist the team in fundraising, providing capacity building and public relations. With Alex’s contribution to the organisation, CRDT got registered with MoI in 2005, and has been able to approach many partners and donors. With his significant roles, Alex helped CRDT to define its clear goals and target areas.
  2. Brendan Boucher: As initially a volunteer lecturer in the Management Faculty at MVU, Brendan was a key team member, assisting the graduate team to form the Volunteer Rural Development Team, with Alex. Brendan who later acted as a project coordinator to assist the team in fundraising, public relations and providing project management and leadership. As a self- support project coordinator for over 3 years, Brendan was able to lead the team to further growing and bridging problems for survival under very difficult circumstances of funding insecurity.  Without Brendan and Alex, CRDT would have found those early years very difficult indeed.
  1. Mr Adam T. Starr: Was a management advisor and started with CRDT in 2006. Like, the two previous advisors, Adam’s roles were to assist in fundraising, donor and partner relations as well as improving organisational leadership. As CRDT grew dramatically, Adam’s job was to focus on improving management capacity, to assist in setting management systems and structures, including policies and administration procedures. As funding was secured, Adam moved from CRDT after being with the organisation for over 1.5 years, to take up a role on the BoD.
  2. Miss Erin Guth: As the first lady in management advisor roles, Erin has assisted CRDT to further dramatic growth, to its highest in 7 years, through providing management and technical support. One of her significant roles is to raise funds that secured CRDT for 2 years. Erin has also assisted in strengthening the organisational management capacity and technical project implementation. Erin was working with CRDT for over 1.5 years.

The Board of Directors

Mr Mao Savin: Currently Chairman of CRDT BoD and Consultant at Emerging Markets Consulting, joined CRDT since its inception in 2001 as a part time financial controller and  has been on the CRDT BoD since 2008

 

Dr. Tom Evans: Currently Senior Technical Advisor at WCS, involved with CRDT since 2005 as a good CRDT partner on the WCS side, and joined the CRDT BoD in 2008

 

Mr Adam T. Starr: Currently Programme Manager at FFI, former Management Advisor of CRDT from 2006 -2007, and has been on the CRDT BoD from 2008, initially as chairman.

 

Mr Sours Sokha: Currently Senior Program Officer at Sre Khmer, involved with CRDT since 2006 as a training partner. On the BoD since 2008.

 

Mr Soeung Saroeun: Currently Senior Operation & Finance Manager at CCC, involved with CRDT since 2006 as training partner on organizational development , and joined the CRDT BoD in 2008.

 

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