Cambodian schools up and running, but challenges lie ahead

I would like to share some encouraging news with you from our Cambodian humanitarian projects, specifically the reopening of both our primary schools where in excess of 1200 kids receive a first class and totally free education and nutritious meal.

Over the past 18 months our schools in Andong slum village and remote Oddar Meanchey (OM) have been closed due to Covid more often that they have been open, but I'm pleased to be able to report that the pandemic appears to have settled down in the country and both schools look set to remain open for the foreseeable future. I've attached a few happy snaps from the official openings at both schools.

This is fantastic news not just for the kids who have grappled with trying to do school at home (most of them with illiterate parents), but also the teachers who have had the mind-boggling task of overseeing the home-schooling program, particularly in OM where the families are spread far and wide in a very isolated part of the country.

As many of you know and have witnessed first hand, these schools are not just educational institutions (as important as that is), but very much beacons of hope for these impoverished communities who rely on them and their teams for so much more. They are health care centres, training facilities and more recently lifelines thanks to emergency food aid programs during the height of Covid so having them back to business as usual is fantastic.

Having said that, we do have some significant challenges ahead that we need to work through, many of them still Covid related.

Allowable class sizes slashed - In an attempt to stay on top of the Covid situation in Cambodia The Ministry for Education has imposed a maximum classroom size of 25 students (45 prior to Covid in both our schools) which is placing great pressure on both our physical infrastructure and teaching personnel. The new $500,000 Andong slum village primary school has the capacity to cope with the smaller class size, however in OM we desperately need to hastily construct two new hardwood classrooms at a cost of AU$5000 each. We also need to appoint a new teacher at both schools to help deliver the curriculum to the tune of AU$300/month.

OM house of hope bursting at the seams - The boarding house that we operate in remote Oddar Meanchey that is a home away from home for our village kids that wish to go onto public high school is bursting at the seams with in excess of 65 teenagers living their full time. Many of these kids have reluctantly been left behind by their parents who have been forced to work over the border in Thailand to support their families, so the house is a really important, safe and secure constant in the lives of these ambitious students. Running a house like this is not cheap as we provide all the food, uniforms and study resources to these young people and we currently have a shortfall in the budget of around AU$500/month.

Roll out of new government text books for students - The Ministry of Education has also just announced that the Government issued (but not funded) text books that our primary school curriculum is based on are being superseded and we will need to purchase 3200 new ones across the two schools at a cost of AU$13,000. We are attempting to negotiate a grace period until the funds can be found, but the implication at some point in the near future is that the primary school education our students receive won't be recognised by the Ministry and therefore our kids will be denied the opportunity to go onto high school.

That pretty much brings you up to speed with the latest news out of our projects in Cambodia, so if you've made it this far thanks for your interest and ongoing support and encouragement. As usual if you have any questions please let me know.