Within
just under 8 months since our Dance Party back in March where we
launched the idea of this project, the construction works for the new
school in Sras Reang are almost complete. The finishing touches are
currently being carried out and the children are already able to use
the premises. The following photos speak for themselves.
A
huge thank you from all the children of Sras Reang to all our
sponsors and supporters and to all of you who have participated one
way or another towards this worthwhile project.
 |
| "we love our school - thank you so much" |
 |
| Although not yet finished, the classes are already being used! |
August 2011 Update
Vianney
Hiver, one of the young adult volunteer “Bamboos” from Children of
the Mekong wrote to us during the summer with an update on the works
in progress in Cambodia for the primary school project in Sras Reang
that the Hong Kong Delegation are currently financing.
With
15 workmen on site, the construction of the school was able to start
early June. 8 of these workers are from the village of Sras Reang
itself thus bringing work to some of the locals and ensuring a
commitment to the project by the local families.
The works are progressing well and by the end
of July, the main structure of the building was already up. The roof
structure is the next stage, but things are being slightly slowed
down as it is the rainy season. However, the quality of the structure
will not be affected and it will just take a little longer for the
cement to dry out completely which will not affect the quality of the
end result.
Works
are expected to continue through August and September and we hope
then to bring you more photos showing the progress and further
information on the project.
About the project
Sras
Reang is a small village in the countryside 10km from Sisophon,
capital of the Banteay Meancheay province situated in the north-west of
the country, one of the poorest parts of Cambodia.
Project details
Currently
the Primary School in Sras Reang only has very old wooden buildings
and lacks classrooms so as to teach the children in suitable
conditions. The project is therefore to build a new building with three
rooms, two of which will be classrooms and one a library. A building
to house toilet facilities will also be built. 421 pupils currently
attend the school from grades 1 to 6 with more expected to start this
year.
Cambodia
is situated in South-east Asia and is surrounded by Laos, Vietnam and
Thailand. Its history has been marked by permanent plots and invasions
by its neighbours and more specifically by the civil war with the
Khmers Rouges where a third of the population was massacred and all
moral, economical and political ideals destroyed.
The
country is today in a very fragile situation with life expectancy only
at 62 years and very high infant mortality (60%). Only 57% of the
population live in a weather-resistant home and a mere 34% have toilets.
47% have access to clean water and only 26% have electricity. These
alarming figures reflect the state of Cambodia today, a rural country
where 80% of the population live in the countryside, and 72% are
dependent on agriculture.
CAMBODIA
is a country under reconstruction. 46% of the population are under 20,
and education is therefore one of the keys to giving the young people
chances of a better future.
In the last 10 years, the level of people being able to read has increased substantially and is now around 78%. But despite such encouraging figures, many children still stop school too soon, primarily for financial reasons. The school system is also being totally redesigned after the devastating effects and influences of the Khmers Rouges.
Schools
lack buildings, furniture, and teachers (whose salaries are very
low). Classes are often over-crowded and wooden buildings are in very
bad condition. This affects the whole school system with children only
being able to have lessons either in the morning or the afternoon.
Consequently, it is almost essential for pupils to have extra private
lessons if they want to continue at school.
Sras Reang is not far from the town of Sisophon, in the north-west of Cambodia in the region of Banteay Manchey and is a very poor area.
Many families have settled here since their return from the refugee camps based along the Thailand frontier, following the Vietnamese occupation at the end of the 80s. Due to all the upheaval and fighting in the area until 1998, the roads are in terrible condition with little or no maintenance and are often no more than mere tracks. Access to water is equally difficult.
Thanks
to the School Centre in Sisophon, Children of the Mekong is very
active in Beantey Manchey and many sponsored children are able to
benefit from the many projects we finance each year.
Sras Reang is situated about 10km from the main road and is accessible via roads (or tracks) in very bad condition.
It
takes about ½ hour to reach the village in a jeep and much longer
during the rainy season. There are 937 inhabitants in the village, but
the primary school also has pupils from three neighbouring villages,
bringing the total number of local inhabitants to 2205 including almost
900 children under the age of 18. Most of the population are farmers
(85%), the others are factory workers (10%) or civil servants (5%)
The
primary school is situated near a secondary school. It is therefore
an important school as pupils are able to go right through to the end
of secondary school in the same town. This naturally reduces the risk
of children abandoning school when schools are far from their home.
Since
2010, the school has a kindergarten with 3 classes, meaning that
children from the age of 3-5 can now be schooled (a rare thing in
Cambodia where children start school at the age of 6). The kindergarten
was started up several years ago by the Primary school headmaster who
wanted to start a ‘test’ class in the library for 3-5 year olds. The
success of this class and the support and enthusiasm from parents and
children motivated the headmaster to ask “Children of the Mekong” to
build a building with 4 classes. This was finished in 2009 and is,
since then, the village kindergarten.
Numerous problems
In
2010, the primary school has 421 pupils from grades 1 – 6 and 9
teachers. However there are only 2 old wood buildings, one with 3 and
one with 4 rooms. In the 2nd building, one of the rooms is a library
and another is an office for the teachers and headmaster.
Consequently, there are only 5 classes left for the 421 pupils! The
number of pupils attending school is expected to rise in the future
largely due to the attraction of the new kindergarten school.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In
such circumstances, pupils are only able to study for half a day.
In order to function correctly, 11 classes are necessary. The
headmaster set up an extra « classroom » on the ground floor of a
wooden cabin on stilts just next to the school, but the plastic wall
sheeting meant conditions were difficult for the pupils to study and
concentrate, with constant distractions and noise in the room. This
temporary solution has had to be abandoned.
 Several
classes have therefore had to be grouped together. The two classes in
grades 1 and 3 are now grouped together with 60 and 61 pupils
respectively in each class. Working conditions are very difficult for
the teachers and for the pupils who have to sit 3 to a table (instead of
2)
The
school buildings are made of wood and are quite old. The roofs, made
of zinc, have holes in which is obviously a huge problem during the
rainy season. The wood is infested with termites in some places.
It
is consequently difficult to keep the library and books in good
condition and this therefore has to be closed for half of the school
year during the rainy season to prevent the rain from spoiling the
books. Many of the books have to be locked up to avoid them being
attacked by the termites which means children are not always able to
have access to the books
The
Headmaster, supported by the district and village authorities is
making a request for a new school building with 3 classrooms and the
place for the building has already been prepared.
With
3 additional classrooms the school will have a total of 10 classes.
The library will be in the new building and will be open all year.
Included in the budget is furniture for the classrooms, shelves and cupboards for the books. The
other 2 rooms will be used as classrooms and enable grades 1 and 3 to
split the classes in 2 and have only 30 pupils per class. The classes
will be equipped with tables and chairs, a desk for the teacher and a
black board. The room vacated by the library will be a spare class and
allow the school to deal with the growing number of pupils over the next
few years. Toilet facilities will also be built so as to encourage
good hygiene and to give children, right from an early age, good
habits. For girls, the absence of toilets is often problematic and can
even result in absenteeism.
Children of the Mekong
only embarks on the building of its projects once the total cost of
the project has been covered. It is the best solution so as to avoid
what can be seen elsewhere in Cambodia – buildings half finished and
left to fall to ruin before they can be used due to a financial
problems encountered during the construction.
It
takes many months to raise the funds for such projects from its
initial conception to its completion and during this time, the cost of
materials often goes up. So as to take this in to account, we add a
10% buffer to all quotations. If, at the end of the building there are
some funds left, we see how this money can be redeployed elsewhere
within that particular project. For the building of a school this could
be by purchasing school equipment, books, a computer for the teachers
or any other equipment the school needs. To this initial budget,
Children of the Mekong add on 15% to cover our overheads.
The following budget is thus obtained, with the exchange rate of 1 € = 1,4 $ :
|
Together, let's give these children the classrooms and opportunities to study they deserve!
No comments:
Post a Comment