Over the past number of years, Care for Cambodia has been developing a village outreach program. This is a project designed to promote education in rural Cambodia.
Care for Cambodia identifies villages that requires help. They form a relationship with the village leader. Then appoint teachers within the community who can assist children with their schooling.
The leader and teaching assistant will be given regular teaching and training by Care for Cambodia staff. Children in these villages will receive support through a project called Edukid (see website: www.edukid.org.uk).
Edukid provides each child with a school pack. This includes a school uniform and school accessories. State education in Cambodia is free, but often the cost of equipment is prohibitive for families.
However, we have realized that caring just for children is not enough. Children grow older and become youth, youth mature into adults and become families. Each group have their own unique set of needs. Therefore Care for Cambodia established three inter-related and mutually supporting parts:
Children’s Project
Around 2,000 children, aged 5 to 16, receive daily extra education in our village projects. The children come from poor families for whom lack of finance is a barrier to the education of their children. Our program assists children by providing additional classes that supplement the government education that they receive. Classes in English, Khmer, Mathematics, Health & Hygiene and Child Protection are offered. One goal is to keep kids in school for longer, enabling them to receive a fuller education. Data from the academic year 2017/18 shows that we are being successful in the pursuit of this goal.
Youth Projects
Children don’t stay children for long. They quickly grow up and require help and support in different ways. The Youth Project helps young people as they move from childhood to adulthood. Each youth project brings local young people together for sport, life skills training, community volunteer work and English classes. Exceptional and hard-working young people can apply for one of our skills or university scholarships. Over the years we have had youth receiving scholarships to study a variety of subjects. We have graduates in Accounting, English, Medicine, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Tourism.
Family Projects
The Family Project provides training in a variety of disciplines that aim towards development and empowerment. Skills such as agricultural techniques and parenting skills are taught. Care for Cambodia also assists families in developing small businesses through the forming of savings schemes. Farmers, taxi drivers and small shop owners have been given a ‘foot up’ through this scheme.
The Venn diagram below illustrates how the three projects work together with love at the center of all we do.
Each of our projects work together to achieve a common goal. We work towards our vision statement, below: