A PENARTH woman who embarked on a charity trip to Cambodia to see who has benefited from all her fundraising efforts is holding a talk about her experience there this weekend.

Save the Children fundraiser Caroline Williams said it was a “huge eye-opener” to see the conditions that families live in and the work carried out by the charity to make their lives better.

“They have so little but they are so happy,” she said.

“We went out to six or seven different schools and health centres, as people think Save the Children is there for emergencies as they are working out there all the time.”

She added: “We provide them with equipment and they are doing other basic stuff out there.

“These people were so pleased to see Save the Children in areas where they live.”

Former pharmaceutical rep Caroline Williams, one of the founding members of Penarth’s Save the Children branch, was selected to go on the trip to the Far East because of her efforts raising money for the Save the Children charity’s work at home, and abroad, over the last ten years.

Since 2004 the branch has raised more than £35,000 for the charity, with the annual ball raising thousands of pounds over the years.

Caroline, of Victoria Road, added that she found Cambodia had a “very young population” with 50 per cent below 20 years of age.

“This is obvious from the moment you arrive in Phnom Penn. Younger people surround you, literally, on bikes on scooters, jammed into cars and Tuk Tuks. Piled into and on top of the backs of lorries.”

She added that their traditions in terms of raising children came as a culture shock.

“It is a society where even in the most remote areas modern mobile phones are for sale from tiny wooden huts but even with these means of mass communication traditional beliefs still hold sway,” she said.

“Traditionally colostrum, breast milk, is perceived to be bad for the baby with water the preferred first feeds for babies. It is also thought the more a woman bleeds post-partum the better.”

Caroline, who travelled to Cambodia with five other Save the Children fundraisers, added:

“I would love to do it again.

“They go to different places each time and they have asked me to be a leader on the next expedition, but that needs some considerable thought.”

Caroline Williams is holding a ‘Cambodia Evening’ where she will talk about her trip at Foxy’s Deli on Friday, January 24, from 7pm.

Tickets are £20 and include food.