BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--()--Sumner Redstone today announced a grant of $700,000 to the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF), a non-profit program that provides a wide range of critical health and educational services to impoverished and abused children in Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh. This most recent gift brings Mr. Redstone's total commitment to CCF to $2.7 million. Mr. Redstone's initial $500,000 grant in 2007 established CCF's child rescue center, followed by gifts totaling $1.2 million in 2011.
The CCF is a community-based program that provides the city's most at-risk children with education, health care, nutrition and a play area, all within a secure environment. The Sumner M. Redstone Center cares for children of all ages and includes a nursery for children under three who are recovering from malnutrition, illness or have unsafe home lives; a day care center for three to six year-olds, many from impoverished and seriously disadvantaged domestic situations; and an education center with classes for children from age six through sixteen, who have no other education opportunities. The Center also houses a food program for the surrounding community children and a medical clinic.
Mr. Redstone said, “I have been so inspired by the turnaround in the health and well-being of the children the Cambodian Children’s Fund serves, children from some of the most destitute areas of Cambodia. Over the years the CCF has grown to serve thousands of children, and extended its life changing programs to families and communities as well. I am so proud to support the CCF as it expands to provide even more high risk children with the critical services they need most.”
Scott Neeson, the founder and executive director of CCF, said, "Mr. Redstone's earlier donations allowed us to bring education, health care and nutrition to hundreds more high risk children. This latest gift provides what is now the most critical need for these young children: the consistency of education and care. After such difficult and turbulent pasts, the promise of longer term care is invaluable. Mr. Redstone's generosity allows us to make such a commitment to these most-deserving of children. His investment in education especially will provide better lives for generations to come."
The Cambodian Children's Fund was founded in 2004 by Mr. Neeson to aid the most impoverished of Cambodia's children. The CCF's Phnom Penh facility was initially established as a safe house for Cambodia's orphaned, abandoned or abused children, providing secure shelter and nutritional meals within a caring environment. Since then, the CCF has grown to include full education, medical care, vocational training and community outreach services for Cambodia's most impoverished children and their families. With six facilities now operating, CCF's services include maternal care, clean water, a food program, a nursery for the most at-risk newborns and infants, a day care center, a garment training facility and a bakery. CCF also provides a comprehensive educational program for over 1,400 children, including local language reading and writing, multi-level English classes, social studies and math. The Cambodian Children's Fund was recently announced as the recipient of the 2012 Wise Award for innovation in education, the first organization in the region to win such a prize.
More information on the Cambodian Children's Fund can be found at: http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/.