Are you familiar with my friends Sonja and Alex of A Couple Cooks? If not, you should be. They write, in my opinion, one of the best blogs around with healthy recipes and insanely gorgeous photos. They also happen to be two of the most generous people I have ever met, and they are always looking for ways to help others and give to those in need.

If you have been reading for a while, you may remember my post a couple of years ago about the cookbook they created to help fund a culinary training center in Cambodia. By providing young women with vocational skills, the training center helps them avoid the scarily prevalent sex trade and human trafficking cycle. Sonja and Alex are working once again to help fund a new cycle of training at the center and I am happy to be able to join them in supporting an incredibly worthy and extremely necessary cause.

The facts: 

  • The Culinary Training Center (CTC) is a cooking school located in Battambang, Cambodia, and is run by Indianapolis-based Center for Global Impact (CGI). The program is gearing up to support a fourth class of 12 young women in early 2015. The students are young and impoverished; many are indebted and need ways to protect themselves and their families from the sex trade. They’re in need of a marketable and lasting skill to earn money.
  • The CTC was started to provide young Cambodian women with vocational skills to avoid the cycle of the sex trade and human trafficking. The 18-month program provides the skills they need to become servers, cooks, and managers.
  • $54,000 covers all expenses for the training for 12 students. CGI is working toward this goal starting in December 2, and will continue until this amount is raised. All gifts are tax deductible.

Here’s where you come in. I am offering to match YOUR donations, lovely readers, up to $500 total. Sonja and Alex are doing the same on their site, meaning we will raise $2,000 if we meet our goals. Let’s make it happen!

How you can help:

  • Annie’s Eats will match donations to Center for Global Impact up to $500! You have until December 31, 2014 to donate. Just leave a donation at CGI’s site here and select Culinary Training Center for Direction. Then please fill out the little form at the bottom of Sonja’s post to let us know how much you donated (confidential). Please note on the form that you are an Annie’s Eats reader. Please help us to meet this challenge and contribute to a very important cause!

Thank you in advance for your help! It is truly appreciated.

(photo courtesy of A Couple Cooks)