Bringing smiles and brighter futures through sustainable development

Project Hammer was initiated by a group of IHG colleagues and friends bound by a desire to help and share their time and energy to provide assistance to underprivileged communities in Cambodia. Since its creation in 2006, Project Hammer’s volunteers have built houses and provided financial assistance to various community projects in Phnom Penh.

Our Objective:

Our objective is to focus long term on a selection of non-profit, sustainable, education-based progressive organisations to experience the impact and improvement of the lives of Cambodian children and people hands-on. We operate transparently against close to zero overhead on a volunteering basis.

More than the houses this outreach program has helped to build, Project Hammer has brought countless smiles and a chance for brighter futures for the children and families who have benefited from its assistance.

Project Hammer’s Activities:

A key activity within Project Hammer is the annual house building in Cambodia. Volunteers work with Tabitha Foundation to build houses for families in various communities.

Another key event is the visit to appointed non-profit organisations. Through the years, Project Hammer has progressive, education-based groups, which are committed to sustainability in their methods and organization. Project Hammer provides these charities with cash donations and supplies and equipment necessary for their day-to-day operations.

In 2008, a group of around 25 volunteers – who actively participated with fundraising and organizing – spent 4 days to build homes and visit charity projects. In those 4 days, a total of 18 houses were built for Cambodian underprivileged families and the appointed 5 projects visited.

This forms an essential part of Project Hammer: to experience hands-on the spending and utilization of the funds raised on behalf of our many sponsors.

All proceeds from fund-raising efforts go directly to Project Hammer’s activities as all participants shoulder their own personal expenses, i.e., air fare, accommodation, food, etc…

Why Cambodia?

Poverty and being underprivileged are difficult to define. However, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) came up with the Human Development Index (HDI) to assess a country’s level of development. The HDI measures three important aspects of well-being: life expectancy, knowledge and education, and standard of living. Cambodia ranks 131 out of 177 countries in the HDI (2007/ 2008 UNDP Human Development Report).

Project Hammer recognizes that Cambodia’s needs are enormous and does not claim to be able to address all the poverty-related issues of the country. However, Project Hammer takes pride in directly providing assistance to communities in need and taking a hands-on and sustainable approach to its projects.

Project Hammer 2009

Four years and 40 houses later, Project Hammer is now gearing up for its 4th year. In 2008, just over Sin$92,000 was raised collectively and as with last year, the net proceeds of the various 2009 fund raising activities will go to Project Hammer’s appointed organizations. With a growing band of committed sponsors and supporters and support from additional IHG offices, Project Hammer aims to further increase the funds raised in 2009.. More than just building houses, we aim to purchase supplies such as educational materials, water tanks, fruit trees, etc… for the appointed charities.