Schools in Cambodia, for obvious reasons, are sited in urban centres or along major roads. For this reason, many of the rural communities that are distanced from the main roads have very limited access to the school system. That is why we have been trying to plant small lower primary schools in remote villages, so that young children can have a chance to develop some literacy and numeracy skills. As they grow older, we hope they can then travel slightly longer distances to upper primary level schools or even secondary schools.
Recently we have been thinking of how to support older children from these remote villages who have been able to make it academically to high school, but now face the problem of having to commute the great distances between their homes and the high school in Baray.
One solution we might be able to offer is to provide a small hostel in Baray that could house about 10-15 boys. A 2 storey 12 x 6m structure with toilet and kitchen facilities would provide adequate dormitary types facilities, and would cost about US$25,000 to erect. We have already identified a young Christian man who can be an "older brother/mentor" for the kids staying at the hostel.
In addition, we will need about US$720 per year to support each student at the hostel.
We are thinking and praying about this badly need resource for the students. If you have any ideas, or think you can help, please contact me. If the concept works, we can consider having a separate hostel for young girls. Also badly needed.
We've started work on the hostel (Sanctuary), and are hopeful it will be completed by March. By His grace we should be able to have a opening/blessing for it. The hostel should be able to support about 12 high school students from the villages. The students can self support to a limited extent and we are praying for a steady level of sponsorship for the 12 student-hostelites. We estimate that food and tuition fees for each student will be about US$50 per month, i.e. about US$600/year.
