Sok San Village school opening

So pleased to have been able to open our latest (8th) school in Sok San village. I emphasized the need for the village to take ownership of the school and the necessity to look after the school.

Seated on my right are: Commune Head, Principal, Village Head, Village Dy Head. 

We had a bit of hiccup earlier when the commune leader indicated that he might not be able to attend because of a clash of duties as Prime Minister Hun Sen's son was going to visit the village. But things worked out and we are glad the commune leadership was represented in our school opening ceremony.

Distributing used clothes to the villagers.

 

New school at SokSan village?

We had the opportunity to visit a remote village in Santuk district. Santuk is the district just north of Baray, and this village in an area called Kom Pup Om Bel, is about 10kms deeper than our last village school in Andaut.

In some ways the village is reminiscent of a previous village we visited, Tropeang Russei, in that it is kind of a re-settlement village with new families. The land seems rather dry and ill-suited for farming, Tapioca (casava) appears to be a major crop. There seems to be Chinese/Vietnamese industrial influences all around, though not really visible. The village itself is rather sparse and scattered although there are supposedly 400 families living in the area. No schools noted, although there was mention of a school set up for workers in these Chinese/Vietnamese concerns.

The headman is young, active and supportive of the educational mission. Samrong Church (Ps Kea) has a member Ps Cheat who is prepared to move into the community with his family. One of his family members run a provision shop and pharmacy.

A 3 classroom school plus a drill well will cost us about US$30K. Should we? The village has already identified the land for the school.

from 3rd from left - headman, Ps Cheat, Ps Kea and me

School@Chhom Trach - 7 years and going strong!

The very first school we built in 2005, was at a very poor village called Chhom Trach. Now, 7 years down the road, the school is going strong. A couple of years ago it was struggling through a rough patch with a rather amotivated teacher. We had to "incentivise" the government appointed teacher, and appoint one of our own (a retired Christian principal from another school). Now the school is bustling with activity, and the kids seem happy and keen about their schooling.

The school now runs 3 sessions (2 in the morning and one in the afternoon) in  2 classrooms for Grades 1-4.  Grades 3 and 4 are a combined class because of the lack of teachers. There is also a problem of parents often pulling the kids (usually the older ones) out of classes in the afternoon because of work in the fields. We have decided that we will supplement the salary of another teacher/session so that Grades 3 and 4 can be run as separate classes. Then move the older classes to the morning.

The kids continue to receive a free meal once a week. This costs us about US$140 per month.

Supporting the school in Chhom Trach costs us a fair bit. If you feel you can contribute to this effort, please write to me.

A question of attitudes?

In the course of our work in Cambodia we have been through many communities. We try to evaluate the needs of the community, but more importantly, the quality of the village leadership as well as the commitment of the leadership and community to the educational mission in their own community. In simple words, we are interested to know if the community values education and will encourage the children to go to school.

On this last trip we had the opportunity to visit two villages with somewhat similar needs but very different approaches to the problem. The differences highlight just how important community cultural attitudes are in determining effectiveness of what we try to do.

Village A was sited about 1.3 kms from the nearest school. This was a fairly large primary school. The road to the school was a well maintained dirt track which passed through residential housing all the way to the school edge. The village head complained that the children could not go to school because the kids had to walk the 1.3 kms, and that as the school was situated on the main road, the journey was dangerous for the children.

Village B was a small isolated community. The nearest school was close to a temple about 1.2kms away. In the dry season, the children can walk to school through dirt tracks by the padifields. In the wet season however the fields and tracks are flooded, and the children often had to walk part of the way and travel by boat just to make it to school. The villagers were concerned that as the children were too young, and had not yet learnt to swim, this presented a very hazardous journey for them. One of the villagers said that as they felt it was important for the children to go to school, he would marshal them into long boats and ferry them to school.

It seemed to me that while Village A was just prepared to give up over the slightest obstacle, Village B was committed to find their own solutions because they felt education was important.

It was really not surprising, that despite being so isolated, Village B children were highly represented in high school and universities. Attitudes are important.

School@Andaut - an update

Andaut is the village that is the farthest East we have gone to, and farthest from the Tonle Sap. It is pathetically dry, and with poor agricultural land. We managed to excavate an open well in the land where the church has been built, but, where the school is supposed to be built, we have had no success putting in a drill well. The drill has managed to go down about 20ms, but had to stop as there was no more water to work the drill. The contractors will try again and hopefully they will be able to go down to at least 40m, where they expect water to be. Without the access to water, the building of the school cannot proceed.

So we wait.

Please pray for God's providence. And we are confident He will provide as He always has.

School@Ta Peuv - an update

Ta Peuv was the second village school we built. This was completed back in 2007. At that time we had confidence to just build 2 classroom schools. These classrooms are now bursting at the seams and the school conducts classes from Grade 1-4.

Grade 4 students quietly at their work.

We need now to build 2 more classrooms to absorb the students moving up to Grades 5-6. Can we do it?

Please help us.

Hostel@Baray (Sanctuary)

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.

Any takers to provide scholarships for the students? (See Current Needs). Please contact me.

Follow up at the schools......

By God's grace we have had 5 good years and completed 5 schools - Chhom Trach, Ta Peuv, O Ta Saeng, Phum Lieu and Phum Ley. Some villages have done better than others.

We have followed up at Chhom Trach a lot more than the others because it is the poorest of the villages, and have been very heartened by the progress it has made. Recently the poly students repainted the exterior and it really made a difference. We are always impressed by the show of their flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day. To imagine the lids were at one time running around naked and filthy, and now being able to line up in a discipline fashion to do the flag lowering ceremony. Just brought a lump to the throat.

The main reason we visit the villages this time round was to continue to impress upon the schools and the students/teachers that we haven't forgotten about them and that remained concerned about their progress. In particular we wanted to encourage the students to be diligent in their studies and to work hard. To this ends we created a scheme to give out prizes to the top 5 students from each grade. We actually started this last year, so this would be second time we are doing this in the school. I think it is making an impact on the kids and teachers.

Light of Life School@Boeung Rial

You can see the floating school at back

We prayed for rain...and boy, did it rain!! We thought we'd have to slosh through muddy fields all the way to Boeung Rial, but God spared us that ordeal and gave us rain in abundance. So much rain that we had to brave in hour long journey in open boats. These ponchos came in handy.....but only to a limited extent because we still ended up drenched.But it was indeed a joyous meeting at the floating classroom.

The villagers gamely braved the elements just to be at the commissioning. Even the District Officer made it.

Me with Ps Samreth.... Poster says Light of Life School with a verse from John 8:12.

Ps Boon Leong preaching openly with Ps Samreth translating. The District officer is at the back.

What can I say....? It was just such a wonderful moment to see the school in stark physical reality. Despite the rain, the villagers were in high spirits. The government was to have appointed teachers, but because the school was so inaccessible, they could not get anyone to take up the job. As a result, we continue to use the part time teachers from Somrong Church to take the classes. Currently 2 teachers ran classes 3 days a week, but thanks the the generous support from a well wisher, we can now pay the teachers to run classes 5 days a week.

Can we put a student hostel in Baray?

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.

Andaut (An Dot)

Approximately 30kms due East of Kampong Thmor, at the junction of Highway 6 and 31, is a pair of large villages called Upper and Lower Andaut respectively. Lower Andaut, where we are focusing on consists about 400 huts with 700 families (go figure the maths... ). The picture above show the approximate position of the village relative to Kpg Thmor and Baray (circled extreme left). But if you Google Earth 'An Dot + Baray', you can see the pair of villages in a bit more detail. The red marker is placed a bit southeast of the 2 villages.

Socka and her husband are moving into Andaut as local missionaries. They are from Somrong (a local CMS church led by Ps Kia) Church, but salaried by Esther's SOLAR Ministry. A church is being started in Lower Andaut through some seed money (USD5000) from the US based Cornerstone Church. Through Socka's pioneering work, the village has already 29 believers who meet regularly in a wooden hut (see above).

Socka's testimony, which we were fortunate to make an unplanned recording can be found here:

Socka's testimony

Socka sharing about her work in Andaut

The village is quite inaccessible except through poorly maintained dirt tracks, and the children have no school. The nearest school is in Upper Andaut, a few kilometers away.

I feel the burden very much to place a school here. I believe this will complement the developing church activities in this village, especially since Socka and her husband are already moving in as missionaries. It will also be very opportune time for a church to step in and 'adopt' this fledgling missionary work.

Hostel in Baray?

Cambodia has developed quite impressively over the last decade, but much still needs to be done in the educational environment. For example, many schools are site on main roads and far from rural villages. We have tried in our own small way to help alleviate the needs to the rural community by building small village schools so that small children do not have to travel large distances just to go to school. But the problem resurfaces when they outgrow the village schools.

Many of the village when they do complete primary level education and seek to go to middle/high school, they have to travel great distances from their homes.

One way we can help here is to establish affordable hostels close to district high schools, for kids coming from these villages. Good Christian run hostels that provide decent accommodation, food, and most importantly, mentoring can go along way in shaping these young lives.

We welcome anyone who can help us build upon this idea. Currently we are exploring with Esther Ding, the establishment of a hostel next to the Baray High School. We think this is very doable and can support perhaps about 25-30 kids from the villages. What we need is some financial support for the construction of the hostel, plus an annual salary for the caretakers.

Let me know if you think you can help.

Sway Teap

There is a village called Sway Teap.

This village is about 4 to 5km from O Ta Saeng. Currently, there is children ministry and cell group at this village. Pastor Kaarl from O Ta Saeng church takes care of this village.

The existing school in the village has only 1 class room and is in very bad shape, looking as if it could collapse any time. This school cannot meet the needs of about 200 school going children.

A well wisher from Malaysia visited the village on a earlier mission trip in November 2009, and was moved to sponsor the building of a school at Sway Teap. Unfortunately some expected funds failed to materialize, and they have a shortfall of about US$18,000. Currently the drill well has been completed and the school construction has begun. Completion date expected to be June 2010.

Please pray that by His grace, funds will be available to enable completion of the school.

Only 5%? Seems a lot more than that....

From The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 662:

“The Representative of UNESCO in Cambodia, Mr. Jinnai Teruo, said that Cambodia has made a lot of achievements in recent years in the equity of school registration, the quality and effectiveness of education, and the success in strengthening educational infrastructure, especially the registration in primary schools that increased from 93% in 2008 to 94% in 2009.

“He added that nevertheless there is still no equity in the registration between children in urban and in rural areas. This issue calls for increased attention towards those children, so that they too can go to school; infrastructure should be built for those without the opportunity to receive education who are at present not in schools, so that Cambodia can become successful in the Education for All plan."

"“Mr. Im Sethy (Minister of Education, Youth and Sports) added that ‘Our rate of school registration covers only 95% of the respective age group. That means 5% of the children cannot go to school, as they live in remote areas, but we are planning to gather them to register to attend school.’"

A floating school? Is it possible? I need help!

There is no doubt the 'Fishing Village' needs a school. The question is how can we construct the school? As the land does not belong to the villages, it is not possible to construct a permanent stilted structure.

Located at the edge of shifting waters of the Ton Le Sap flood plains, the 'Fishing Village' moves with the availability of dry land. Any school will need to be able to move with them. The idea is to have it as floating classrooms so that it can be towed to the nearest location that is close to the community. The problem is that the depth of the waters in the flood plain is unpredictable. My guesstimate is that the deepest channel may not be more than 1-2 meters deep. Hence any floating structure cannot require too much of a depth clearance.

This concept of a floating school is quite different from others, in Siem Reap for example, where the waters are much deeper.

One model I have in mind is perhaps a floating pontoon of empty oil drums. This can be the base upon which a wooden 2 classroom structure can be built upon. Properly constructed, I think the oil drum pontoon should be able to bear the combined weight of the wooden classrooms, furniture, plus about 100 children.

Here is a diagram of such a platform. There are only 4 oil drums here, but theoretically we can construct a base of 500 oil drums beneath a 10 x 30 m platform. Since each empty oil drum has been estimated to be able to support a weight of about 175 kgs, theoretically the platform built upon 500 oil drums should be able to support 87.5 metric tons.

Is this enough? I really don't know. A hundred children each weighing an average of 30 kgs will contribute 3000 kgs, or only 3 metric tons. I don't know the weight estimate for 2 wooden classrooms.

Help!!! Is there an engineer who can help me figure this out?

School @ Phum Leav

By God's grace we overcame all those problems digging the bore well at Phum Leav. But we finally did it. Here is the well .... precious living waters for the kids. The sign in front of the well says: "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" John 4:14.

Donatet?

And the school too. But because of the delay in starting, the school is not fully complete. The furniture is not in yet, and some touch up work is necessary.

Ps Sauvann
The sign to his right says:
"Let the children come to me, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them."

Headman

Still it was a good opportunity to celebrate the opening, and to plant that symbolic Beng tree.

The endangered Beng tree

The District Officer helping to distribute the rice to 50 families

School @ Phum Ley

The village of Phum Ley had an interesting effect on many of us who visited it the first time earlier this year. The kids were bright, cheerful and enthusiastic, and there was this almost charming sense of positivity. It wasn't difficult for us to think of supporting a school there.

The school is now in place. The village had found a new piece of land for it - a good sized, open and airy plot.

We were greeted by quite a welcoming party as you can see.

The Principle escorting us in

From L to R : Esther, Commune leader, me, Jhon (at back), Rural Development Officer, District Officer

Headman Croch Leng

The cow story

Jimmy
"Let the children come to me, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them."
Matthew 19:14

Tree planting ceremony - The endangered Beng tree

Rice distribution (+fish sauce and salt) to 50 families

Education in Cambodia

The following is extracted from the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) 12 year Education for all (EFA) plan.

in 2001/2 there were supposed to be approx 5700 primary schools catering for an approx (1998 data) 2.34 million kids of primary school age (6-11 years). This works out to a commendable 400 students per school. On paper at least. Many of the schools are inaccessible to the rural community and poorly attended.

Primary school attendance rate (2000) is an abysmal 67.6%, and the Gr 6 survival rate is even worse, at 47.8%.

At the turn of the millenium, at the United Nations, the world community adopted a Millenium Declaration that as recently renewed in 2008. This 'Millenium Development Goals' pledged to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.”

The Education Goal (Target 2.A) was to "Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling"

Based on this, Cambodia has a long, long way to go.

Global figures on Primary School Enrollments (MDG report 2008).