What have we accomplished on the first anniversary of the Cambodia Scholars Program?

The Cambodia Scholars Program celebrates its first anniversary this April, coinciding with Khmer New Year. All the youth in our program come from backgrounds of very serious deprivation, but our focus is determinedly upbeat, facing promising futures rather than difficult and traumatic pasts. We have had many significant accomplishments in our first year. Here are the highlights:

We established a residential scholarship program for 7 youth in April 2011, and added 4 more in August, for a total enrollment of 11. Many of these young people had left the Cambodian orphanage system unprepared for adult life, with uncompleted educations. Thanks to our program, all remained enrolled in public school, and also enrolled in supplementary education programs at the private Seametrey School.

In August 2011, by adding 4 additional students, we reunited two families previously separated within the Cambodian orphanage system. The Bet family (mother and 5 children) and the Hat family (mother and daughter) now live together thanks to the Cambodia Scholars Program.

In October 2011 we achieved:

Entrance of our first scholar into college life at Pannasastra University of Cambodia.

Enrollment of 9 into public high school at the well regarded nearby Aknuwat High School, with strong supplementary education at Seametrey School. These youth range from Grade 9 to Grade 12. Aknuwat High School is known for its respectful treatment of students and relative lack of corrupt practices, such as bribes and cheating on tests. However, as with all Cambodian public schools, instruction is only half day. Seametrey is a private Montessori school which is especially strong in teaching foreign languages, including English and French. Seametrey fills out the Cambodia Scholars’ academic day.

Enrollment of our youngest scholar into Grade 5 at Seametrey Children’s Village private Montessori School.
Sophorn, the youngest member of the Bet family, attends Seametrey School full time as a fifth grader.

From April 2011-April 2012 we continued our emphasis on:

Life skills training. The Bet family, for the first time, has established a household in Phnom Penh, Mum Samnang working as a maid at You Khin Guest House, and four of her children (Piset, Vicheka, Sophea and Sophorn) enrolled in school, while living together in one apartment. The Hat family, with Mum Sokhom and daughter Sophorn, live together with six other youth (all girls), while all the youth are enrolled in school. Whether a nuclear family or an extended one, everyone has to learn to get along and be responsible to one another—shopping, cooking, cleaning, and generally respecting one another. It has been especially gratifying to see how well everyone gets along. Minor frictions here and there, but within a spirit of friendliness and mutual support.

New Horizons and growing networks. In interviewing all the Cambodia Scholars (and the two mums) this month, several mentioned freedom as one of the great gifts of the program. Although everyone has significant responsibilities (such as school attendance, successful study, getting long with one another, managing stipends wisely, and doing domestic chores), everyone in the program also has an array of choices never before experienced—shall I learn a musical instrument? Should I visit relatives this week? Might I do something with a friend at school? Should I research some subject outside of school? Should I consider setting up a Sunday side business to make a little money? Should I pursue interests in traditional crafts? How can I make the best of my part time work at the You Khin Guest house, with its endless opportunities to converse with and exchange ideas with foreigners? We regard practice in the wise use of freedom as essential to real self sufficiency as adults.

The main attraction was not the food, however—it was Gerry’s new daughter (6 months old), born to Gerry’s Cambodian wife, Votey. This was not a usual Cambodian way of doing things, with men in the kitchen! But everyone had a great time, as the sense of community and solidarity continue to grow among the youth in the Cambodia Scholars Program.

Piset Cooking

Girls Enjoying Spaghetti

Saying “Hi” to Gerry and Votey’s Daughter

The Cambodia Scholars Program is oriented strongly to the future—toward imparting the skills and education needed for our youth to survive and thrive as adults. More about that in a moment. But in the meantime, the program is also dedicated to keeping all the youth healthy and thriving in the present. Recently one of our youth, Vicheka, suddenly complained of headaches, fainted, and had seizures. We got her to the best medical facility available, a Swiss run hospital in town, where she was diagnosed with a rare disorder—Tuberculoma. Think of it as tuberculosis in the brain! Fortunately, it is now being successfully treated with antibiotics. Had she not been in our program, her outlook would have been grim. We are all enormously relieved and grateful that we have overcome a very serious problem.

So, back to the future! Where are these youth heading? Piset wants to run his own guest house one day, after appropriate post-high school training. We think he has been inspired by Mrs. Muoy You, the head of Seametrey School and the proprietor of the You Khin Guest House. Srey Neang, seeing how well English can be taught, has become inspired to be an English teacher herself. Sophorn’s dream job, seeing the poverty of people in the Cambodian countryside, would be to work for the United Nations World Food Program.

So you see, the minds of these young people are alive. They are thinking, and have dreams. What they will ultimately choose to do—we will see. But the air is filled with possibilities, which is exactly what we want to have happen.

Life for the Cambodia Scholars is full indeed. Above, they attend daily late afternoon English class on the enclosed deck of their dormitory apartment. Teacher Mary, a credentialed Montessori teacher, is from England, and will be instructing these youth and other children at Seametrey School for two years. One scholar, Srey Neang, has been so energized by her English instruction that she now aspires to be an English teacher herself, now that she sees it taught so well.

Cambodia Scholars Program stresses not just education, but the life skills and networking needed by young people to actually become independent adults. What that means right now for our youth is meaningful daily contact with mentors (such as Mary, above), and Mom Samnang and Mom Sokhom (see pics below) who live with the youth. It also means the daily experience in learning to care for one another and get along while living together. So far, so good! See for yourself:

Dinner time with Mom Sokhom (second from right)

Mom Samnang at You Khin House

Art Time Together at Home

Teacher Mary with student Sophea

Some of the Wizard of Oz Cast

Our 11 Cambodia Scholars took major roles in the Seametrey School Wizard of Oz production just before winter break. Piset (pictured above in green (for the Emerald City) was the Wizard himself. Sophorn was Dorothy, and several others had key roles too. Seametrey Director, Muoy You, writes how pleased she was with the progress made by our students in English. They have been working hard with Montessori teacher Mary Lester (from England) on pronunciation, and with Cambodian English teacher San To on fundamentals of grammar and composition.

The other photo has some of our scholars, plus many other Seametrey students who all worked hard to put together the production for the parents of the Seametrey students. Our Cambodia Scholars come from disadvantaged backgrounds, whereas many of the other Seametrey students come from middle class Cambodian families. As you can see, everyone was quite pleased with the whole adventure.

Mrs. Muoy You, Director of Seametrey School in Phnom Penh, and mentor to the Cambodia Youth Scholars, played a different role in mid-November, as she traveled to California State University Dominguez Hills to adress audiences about the art work of her late husband, You Khin. Cal State has mounted a year long exhibition of Khin’s works (on the walls behind). Muoy explains here to Cal State students something of the background and meaning of Khin’s work, which focused a great deal on the rights of women, and on the effects of the Khmer Rouge years on Cambodia.

The News Room is just a place for us to post current news events in Cambodia.

An example of the concept can be seen at http://www.gondarlink.org.uk/news/default.asp.

Most links will be to news articles.  But, I would also like to include links from youtube for specific news items.

Consider whether people can post comments on this page about some of the articles.

Consider leaving a space at the top of the page for me to draw attention to certain articles or add some of my own commentary.

Content

Major Drug Discoveries Found in Cambodia (Oct 1) – Read article here http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-25-voa28.cfm?rss=asia.

Demand for Virgins Bring Girls into Cambodian Sex Trade at a Young Age (Sept 14) – Read article here http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/14/asia/AS-GEN-Cambodia-Sex-Trafficking.php

World Bank Head urges Cambodia to Tackle Corruption – Read article here http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/05/asia/AS-GEN-Cambodia-World-Bank.php

Cambodia Limits Christian Activities – Read article here http://www.topix.com/world/cambodia/2007/07/cambodia-limits-christian-activities
.
Will Oil Wealth Keep Cambodia Afloat, or Drown It? – Read article here http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/03/asia/cambo.php

Land Grabbing in Cambodia – Read article here

http://www.licadho.org/articles/20061004/45/index.html

Read Land Grabbing article here
SEE ATTACHED pdf FILE

Watch Land Grabbing in action here

More Land Grabbing in action here

MY SOURCE ARTICLE SITES:

These are the sites where I will likely pull most of the articles to post here.

Yahoo! News Cambodia – http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Cambodia

Phnom Penh Post – http://www.phnompenhpost.com/

Cambodia Post – http://cambodiajournal.com/

Government of Cambodia – http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/unisql1/egov/english/home.view.html