New School Building at CCC School

A great day on Sunday out at the Chbar Chros Community School in Kampong Speu, for the blessing for the new school building. A huge crowd had gathered to watch the blessing and the speeches; the atmosphere was happy and enthusiastic, despite the searing heat.

We started with some of the pupils demonstrating traditional Khmer classical dance and despite some slight hiccups with the sound system, the girls were wonderfully elegant. Then we had the monks’ blessing, and speeches from Mr. Leang Chanthy, Deputy Director of Provincial  Education, Youth and Sports, Mr. Cheng Thoeung, Commune Leader of Krang Chek and Dom Sharpe, CamKids Trustee.

The outstanding students were then presented with certificates by Benita Sharpe, (CamKids Trustee), Stan Fryman, (Donor) and Mr Leang Chanthy and gifts of school books or backpacks, to encourage them to continue their hard work. The delight on their faces was obvious.

Finally we heard from Stan Frymann, without whom none of this would be possible. As well as funding the construction of the two classrooms and library, Stan has also been teaching at the school for the past few weeks, even staying at the CamKids staff accomodation overnight on many occasions. It’s tough out there for a Westerner and Stan’s fortitude and hard work have been hugely appreciated by everyone. Stan’s donation was part of a legacy from his late mother and some of her artworks have been incorporated into the building. Sunday was the anniversary of her birthday - she would have been thrilled and proud to see what Stan, the local community and CamKids have done together to improve life for the people of Chbar Chros. Thanks, Stan, from all of us.  

The speeches were followed by a delicious lunch, and then dancing. While the Western guests were preparing to leave the community to it, Dom was persuaded to have one dance. He brought the house down. 

Thanks to everyone involved for all their hard work on Sunday, and we look forward to continuing to work with everyone in the future to continue to educate, nourish and improve the health of everyone at Chbar Chros and across Cambodia.  

 

Agriculture Project at Chbar Chros School

In 2013, CamKids started developing a project to educate children at our Community School at Chbar Chros in basic agricultural techniques. The children established a small vegetable garden at the school and planted cabbage, morning glory, Chinese green, kale, pumpkins, gourds, salad leaves, lemon grass and mint. 

The garden project aims to promote the awareness of basic agricultural techniques amongst the students by providing knowledge on growing vegetables, water conservation, organic farming, fertilizers, and soil preparation. The students work in the garden at the school and some of them have now planted their own vegetables in small spaces in their parents’ rice fields. All students who are involved in the garden activities can now harvest fresh vegetables to take home to their families. 

All the vegetables were planted using organic practices and our program manager, Sophak, has come up with some ingenious ideas, including re-using old plastic bottles suspended on wires, as planters. 

After the successful completion of this pilot program, the students have asked to increase the size of the vegetable garden at the school and more students are keen to practice by themselves at home. Not only does this allow them to help plan their family meals, but provides them with good exercise and is fun. We are now planning to expand the vegetable garden to cover an area of 34m x 12m, which will enable the children to produce more fresh vegetables for cooking and give the children the chance to learn more about growing vegetables.

CCC School visit

An extremely generous donor from the US who has funded the construction of the extension to our Chbar Chros Community school in Kampong Speu district, recently visited the school.  Stan, a retired schoolteacher, gave some English lessons during his visit and inspected the new building as well as the medical clinic and other CamKids initiatives for the local community. 

IU Dental Update

The dental clinic at the International University (IU) provides a range of dental treatment to poor and vulnerable children living in Phnom Penh. Through the funding provided by CamKids, children from orphanages and poor communities have been able to access a range of basic dental treatments at the IU clinic. Types of treatment provided include:

• Relief from pain and infection (by doing extractions and in some cases basic pulp treatments);
• Prevention (sealing the molar teeth and applying fluoride to prevent decay);
• Restorations (in permanent teeth, and also some primary teeth in order to maintain the space for the adult teeth to come through);
• Silver fluoride applications to arrest decay in the primary teeth. 

In addition to the dental treatment provided, the dental team also provides oral health education, using visual aids to teach the children how to brush their teeth correctly. Furthermore, each child is provided with a toothbrush and toothpaste so they can maintain their oral health and hygiene.

The IU dental students also greatly benefit from having the opportunity to work at IU clinic. Through working at the clinic, the students have had the chance to further develop their knowledge and skills by working with specialized dentists and by providing treatment to the children. Therefore, thanks to CamKids’ funding, IU students and staff have been able to provide much needed dental treatment to thousands of Cambodia’s most vulnerable and underserved children.

During the last three months of 2013, the number of beneficiaries of the IU clinic increased to 20-25 children per half day – more than in the previous last nine-month reporting period. During October, November and December 2013, a total of 491 patients were treated.

2013 Accounts

The CamKids Trustees are pleased to report that the Charity continued to increase the amount of funds raised and spent on projects to help Cambodia's poorest children last year.  Our Annual Report and Accounts for 2013 have been filed with the Charity Commission well ahead of schedule and can be downloaded from HERE.

Please direct any questions about these accounts to CamKids Finance