‘I do it because I believe in it.’
For Carol Jelley, philanthropy is more than giving. It’s about purpose, trust, and backing leaders and organisations that can make a real difference.
Carol had an extremely successful career as a civil engineer. After retiring, she set up a charitable family foundation and personally chooses which causes to support, applying the same rigour to her decisions as she did in her working life.
“I like to see the Foundation’s money go to organisations that can do something really meaningful with it,” says Carol.
Giving gives her “more a sense of purpose, as opposed to a sense of pride,” she adds.
I thought this sounded like a very well-run organisation that gets directly to the people
With Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF), Carol saw alignment with her values and a leader on the ground with a clear vision, making a direct difference in the lives of children and families in one of Cambodia's poorest regions.
After watching CCF Founder Scott Neeson on the Australian television programme Australian Story, Carol did her own research.
“I thought this sounded like a very well-run organisation that gets directly to the people, to the kids, who need it, as opposed to these large organisations that just take the money and you have no idea where it goes,” she recalls. “I thought this sounds really interesting.”
Born and educated in the UK, Carol studied for a BSc in civil engineering at Leeds University in England, followed by a one-year Master’s in transport planning and traffic engineering.
The university had other girls studying engineering thanks to a progressive admissions tutor, but after graduating, Carol says, “I don’t think I ever came across another woman” in her working environment.
“But I never saw gender as an issue,” she says. “Because for me, engineering was maths and science. Gender is irrelevant to maths and science; it doesn’t care. Two and two is four, whether you are male or female; it’s still four.”
Specialising in transport and traffic, Carol’s career took her around the world, from Nigeria to Scotland, and from Kuwait to finally Australia.
Early on, a mentor encouraged her to enter transport modelling and forecasting using computer systems, then in its infancy.
I have discovered the joy of helping charities do their work
Carol says she’s had two very distinct lives: before retirement and after.
“Before I retired, it was just work, work, work; I had nothing else other than work. I had hobbies, of course, but I didn’t really look outside that, and that’s actually one of the things I truly regret: not getting involved in charities and donations during my working life. I wish I had now; you look back and think, ‘I could have done’.”
Setting up the Jelley Family Foundation in 2016 after retiring has enabled her to “discover the joy of helping charities do their work.”
Carol chooses the organisations to support, including wildlife charities and those helping people experiencing homelessness and hardship, with a strong emphasis on organisations that value volunteerism.
The Jelley Family Foundation made its first donation to CCF in 2014.
Carol’s personal involvement came through sponsoring. She has sponsored a girl named Sotheara since 2019. Sotheara is now in her second year at university.
Sponsoring appealed to her because it offered more than a financial contribution: the chance to build a personal connection with a young person and support her through her education.
“What I liked about this program was that the rules were very clear: once you take a student on, you must write every month. That’s your responsibility to do,” Carol says.
“So I felt there would be a young student I could really build a relationship with, even if it was just a writing relationship, to help her through their studies. That’s how it started.”
Carol also views every CCF sponsor as a “volunteer”.
“They volunteer their time to connect with their sponsored student. That’s the real commitment, not the financial,” she says.
Last year (2025), Carol sponsored a second girl, Pheary, a CCF high school student.
She is a young lady striving to achieve despite everything around her
Supporting young people who are determined to make the most of their opportunities is a natural extension of her own values.
Over the years, Carol has watched Sotheara, now 22, work determinedly towards her education, despite difficult living conditions and significant challenges along the way.
“She is a young lady striving to achieve despite everything around her,” Carol says. “Anyone who just says, ‘I will defy the odds,’ I am going to admire.”
It is a determination Carol understands. During her own career, she became the first female President of Engineers Australia’s Western Australian division, forging a path in a profession where women were few and far between.
Despite her success, Carol has always lived modestly, preferring to spend on experiences she loves — including dancing, travel and singing in a choir — rather than material possessions. Her approach to giving reflects the same philosophy: money should be put to meaningful use.
Carol visited CCF in 2024 as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations.
She returned to Phnom Penh last month (September) to see the results of her Jelley Family Foundation’s generosity, which funded the final build and fit-out of CCF’s new primary school, The Shiu School, offering education for up to 300 children.
During a visit, she saw what a difference the school is already making for some of its pupils.
“It was truly impressive how comfortable the students looked in the school. They were very much engaged, and they were obviously very proud of being there,” she says.
Two students showed Carol around and explained the school in English. She also observed a mathematics lesson and watched students present their work at a school showcase.
Carol also had a chance to see the wider CCF community on a walk with Scott Neeson. It gave her a very different perspective on the challenges families face.
She expected to be confronted by poverty but hadn’t anticipated how those individual stories would affect her.
She met a woman sleeping on a cart because she had nowhere else to go, while her child slept elsewhere; a mother forced to take her children scavenging because she could not leave them with her husband; and children growing up without shoes, sometimes with no one knowing where they were.
“Now you are seeing the real stories,” she says. “Those are the sort of stories that I wasn’t really prepared for.”
I do it because I believe in it
The experience also gave Carol a deeper appreciation of the complexity of breaking the cycle of poverty. She had imagined that, despite their circumstances, every parent would instinctively want a better life for their children.
“I had this image in my mind that the mother, while in dire circumstances, would say, 'Yes, I want a better life for my children,' but that wasn’t always the case. They don’t see education as a way out, and that’s the challenge. How to teach these women that education is their child’s way out of there when they don’t believe that themselves.”
Investing in the next generation
After learning during the trip that many of CCF’s computers are more than a decade old and no longer fit for purpose, Carol pledged a major gift through the Jelley Family Foundation to replace them.
The investment will ensure students and staff have the technology they need to support learning and prepare young people for the future.
For Carol, that commitment comes down to purpose — and the belief that CCF can use her support to make a lasting difference.
“I see this as a long-term scenario with CCF,” she says. “I do it because I believe in it.”
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