LionCore Collective is facilitating this fundraiser to ensure support is shared thoughtfully, transparently, and with dignity.

Meet Madden. Madden is someone I met nine years ago while traveling through Cambodia with my husband. At the time, Madden and his family welcomed us into their small hut, where we stayed as guests. They had very little, yet they shared everything—food, stories, kindness, and generosity that still stays with me today. Madden comes from a deeply poor family, but he has always been driven to improve not just his own life, but the lives of those around him. Over the years, he’s tried multiple ways to support his family—small business ideas, hosting travelers, and recently, building handmade eco-style tree huts in hopes of reviving tourism in his village. Those tree huts are now live on Airbnb, and tourism is slowly coming back, but it’s still not enough to support his family or the community. COVID wiped out travel, and while things are improving, the recovery is slow and uncertain. Madden continues to ask for help—not because he isn’t working, but because he is working tirelessly, and the systems around him aren’t recovering fast enough.

Right now, Madden is trying to finish and improve his tree huts so they can truly support his family. That includes basic infrastructure many of us take for granted: running water, a vegetable garden for food security, and simple upgrades to make the huts livable and sustainable. Beyond his own family, Madden’s heart extends to his community. His long-term dream is to help build a space where local children can gather and learn English—opening doors to opportunity that he never had. This fundraiser exists to support Madden directly: to help stabilize his family to improve basic living conditions and to help him continue building something that benefits his wider community. This is not a large organization. This is not charity at a distance. This is people helping people—real connection, real impact, and real lives changed.