Dear Supporters, Teachers, Students, Parents and Family Members,
I am deeply grateful for your generous support in enabling Cambodian children to receive quality English education at ODC.With few cases of Covid-19, day-to-day living in the communities has returned to normal and this has allowed teachers and students back on campus. International tourists have returned to Cambodia and businesses are flourishing once again.
2022 has been a hugely busy and successful year for ODC with record number of students enrolled, professional staff training and development conducted, two new local teachers welcomed to our team, standardization of curriculum evaluated, student expectations raised and a new toilet block built!
At the beginning of this year, ODC welcomed 201 students in eleven classes. Throughout the year, ODC has raised our student expectations in terms of academic achievement, attendance and punctuality. The end-of-year exam took place on 21st – 26th November, and many of our students surpassed our expectations. I must pay gratitude to our teaching staff/team because without our team’s efforts, things couldn’t be possible.
With a dedicated and inspiring team of six teachers, three teacher-in-training scholars and a Headmaster, ODC has been able to provide excellent English lessons to underprivileged children. ODC is symbolized by the tree of life, with the core values of compassion, honesty and integrity at its roots and our team live by these values daily and instill them in our children. The team regularly attends staff training and development on a variety of teaching skills - theoretical and practical methods on teachings the four macro skills in English; promoting speaking and critical thinking skills, engaging young learners to speak English, reading lesson anatomy and its useful techniques, extensive reading and listening, concept checking questions, support and challenge in mixed ability classes, teaching kindergarten program (English Phonics) etc. All training is conducted by trainees from trusted and well-known English teaching schools.
I am proud to announce that one our students, who is also a teacher-in-training scholar and attended ODC since it originally opened, has been accepted by a renowned university in Siem Reap to study TESOL in 2023. It is her dream to become an English teacher so that she can serve her community. She is a passionate, caring and outstanding young leader. Thanks to the sponsorship of one of ODC’s Board of Directors, she will be able to fulfill that dream.
In 2023, we plan to cap our student enrollment at 200. We will have 10 classes, with a maximum of 20 students per class. We expect to have at least 5 qualified teachers, and will continue to train young students to become future teachers. What we experienced in 2022 has made us decide to look for additional funding resources because we want to ensure the long-term impact and sustainability. Next year we will charge a nominal tuition fees of $20 per semester or $40 per year for each student. However, for those children who come from low-income families, they can apply for the scholarship. We also plan to raise funds locally and encourage the local communities to participate in our mission. Our exciting journey in academic year 2023 starts on 2nd January.
On behalf of ODC team, I express our genuine appreciation to you. Without your support and generosity, it is impossible to produce the results you are reading throughout this report. I am hopeful this report can remind you and me of why we are doing what we love doing through the humanitarian, development and advocacy works serving those in need. Despite the obstacles all the efforts are worth with many positive outcomes on the lives of the underprivileged children and communities in Cambodia.
Sincerely
Chhaiya IM
Founder and Headmaster, ODC Organization
SECOND QUARTERLY REPORT – 2022
By Im Chhaiya. Project Leader
Dear Supporters, Teachers, Students, Parents and Family Members,
ODC would like to thank you for everything that you do to support our organization. The past three months have been very busy, and it was wonderful to see our students back in the classrooms; teachers working tirelessly to support our students and the whole community, after the pandemic, trying to bring their life back to some form of normality with Covid-19. We do hope that you are safe and well.
With international support, the Cambodian government has successfully battled with Covid-19 and now, there are no Covid-19 based restrictions and more and more shops are returning to trade and more international flights are arriving in Cambodia bringing more tourists to visit many stunning, magnificent temples such as Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prom (the tree or tomb raider temple) etc. At the same time, even though Cambodian people have overcome the situation of Covid-19, they are now fighting the increase of the daily cost of living caused by globally high inflation.
The start of Semester 1 in January 2022, saw 192 students enrolled. In June, the students were able to sit for the end-of-semester tests and 156 students achieved outstanding results and will be moved to higher levels. For Semester 2, starting on 4th July, we have an additional 17 secondary students enrolled in the evening classes.
To improve the overall student safety, a fence has been built at the front of the adjacent land providing a larger play area for the children at the front of the school. A drainage system has been installed and hopefully this will mitigate the problem of flooding during the wet season. The modern toilet block has significantly improved the children’s hygiene and our next project is to make sure our students can get access to safe drinking water while they are on campus. To do so, we will build a 1*2-meter platform on which we can put a 20-liter bottle of drinking water. This project will be sponsored by one of our students’ parents. The library and a reception room remain on our to-do list.
ODC’s reputation has spread from village to village. Increasingly, parents have realized the important role ODC has played for their children’s English education. At the end of Semester 1, we held a Parent-Teacher Day. It was hugely successful with high number of parents eager to discuss the progress their children have made and to figure out how they, both teachers and parents can do to help support their children’s future learning. Hundreds of thank-you letters have been received from the parents.
This year, as the world struggles with many humanitarian and economic issues, ODC has seen a significant drop in donations, and we have to deal with a consequential funding gap. We do not wish to deprive any child of a good education and appeal to you for financial support.
You can increase the impact of your donation on July 20, when GlobalGiving is running a Bonus Day campaign when your donation will be matched.
The Bonus Day campaign starts on July 20, at:
09:00 US EDT,
14:00 London,
20:00 Cambodia,
21:00 Singapore,
21:00 Perth AWST,
23:00 Sydney AEST,
21:00 Malaysia,
22:00 Japan
If feasible, please consider donating within the first hour as matching funds from GlobalGiving run out very quickly.
This is the link for giving on Bonus Day:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/transforming-cambodia-through-quality-education/
To help inspire you, I will be hosting two webinars on the day before Bonus Day. During these two sessions, I will be reviewing with you ODC’ story – our history, our intentions, and our incredible impact. You will also see and hear from both ODC teachers and our amazing students.
Here are the Zoom links:
The first session will be on July 19, 7:00 PM Sydney AEST
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86077656515?pwd=V29qV2hhcDlkN0FYbTFFcHVjRHpUQT09
and the second at 08:00 PM US EDT
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81177117998?pwd=dWxueFVjVlFJSTZOVUoxNXoyNVhDUT09
If you must miss it, do not worry. We will record it send it along within a future progress report.
In closing, we would like to reiterate our whole-hearted gratitude for your on-going supportand generosity. Your commitment to ODC’s is transformative and opens so many previously closed doors for our students and thus empowers our whole community.
Sincerely,
Chhaiya IM
Founder and Headmaster, ODC Organization
FINAL REPORT - 2021
By Chhaiya Im - Project Leader
Dear Supporters, Teachers, Students, Parents and Community Members,
ODC started from very humble beginnings in 2015 and today, it continues to grow from strength to strength, successfully accomplishing our mission of providing quality English education to under privileged children in Cambodia. This journey is only possible with the support of everyone involved and it is with utmost gratitude and humility that we thank you most wholeheartedly.
Throughout the pandemic, ODC has been able to continue with online teaching and learning and also delivery of learning packages. At the start of November, with great excitement and anticipation, teachers and students returned to the classrooms! ODC is fully compliant with government regulations such as mask wearing and social distancing in the classrooms. This has meant reducing the number of people in each classroom with students coming in on alternate days. Our teachers are now working 6 days a week, giving our students face-to-face teaching three times a week while online learning continues.
Due to the generosity of our international and local supporters, ODC has been able to build two new classrooms and update two older ones, giving us a total of five classrooms, which are fully furnished with tables, chairs, white boards and projectors. 168 students are currently attending ODC but with the forthcoming enrolments for 2022, we expect many more children to register. With the new classrooms, ODC will be able to accommodate up to 200 students.
Our development plan for 2022 is to expand our toilet facilities for the ever growing school community and help students understand how to keep good hygiene and the importance of sanitation. We would also like to build a library and reception area for our staff to meet our parents and community members. The library will help encourage and motivate students to love reading and broaden their knowledge base. Our plan is also to better use our classrooms by running more classes for primary school children in the mornings and afternoons. This will give more opportunities for secondary school children to attend late afternoon and evening classes. We anticipate hiring more local teachers.
ODC will deactivate this present project and start a new project entitled, “Empower Cambodian children with quality education”. We sincerely hope that you will continue to support us in achieving our 2022 plan as outlined above. You can stay connected with us via https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/transforming-cambodia-through-quality-education/
It is with a grateful and joyful heart that we thank you for your continued support and commitment in helping us help the under privileged children in Cambodia achieve a better future.
Sincerely,
Chhaiya Im and ODC Board
Links:
Dear Supporters, Teachers, Students, Parents and Family Members,
We hope you are in good health and spirits and would like to express our gratitude for your continued support in these challenging times that has enabled us to adapt and innovate to better serve our community. Before the year ends, we would like to keep you updated about some achievements we have achieved recently.
Although Covid-19 is still a very challenging situation in Cambodia, ODC continues to operate a highly successful online program to keep our students engaged and learning successfully. It is a great relief that life here is almost back to normal since our government has been working really hard to get its people vaccinated. In Siem Reap, after a two-week complete lockdown, people are also back to their normal life. We are delighted to announce that all ODC’s staff have already been fully vaccinated, and so have most of our children aged between 12 and 17. Our government has already announced the vaccination campaign for children in primary schools. This has given us hope of the possibility of schools reopening. Hopefully, we can go back to a normal classroom setting soon.
In our last report, we informed you that we had started the construction of the new building. Today, we are very excited to announce that with your kind support and generosity, the project went smoothly and the building is now 100% completed. We even renovated the old building by just increasing its height and remodelling its roof so that is looks the same as the new building. We are glad to say that the school now looks professional and attractive. We thank you for helping us to make this happen.
We are presently putting necessary facilities and furniture into each classroom which is now more spacious in comparison with each old room we used to have. This will literally mean that we can have more students in each class, while previously we had only a 16/1 student-teacher ratio. We wish to increase that to between 20 and 25 students.
Throughout the challenging times of Covid-19, the commitment, support, care from our staff and especially the cooperation for our students’ parents in the community, we have earned ODC a distinguished reputation and this in turn, has attracted many new kids and their parents and every day, more and more kids come to ODC for enrolment. As a result, we now have a total enrolment of 153. Make no mistake, when we are allowed to reopen, there will be many more students coming.
153 students? “A lot,” you might say. Yes, that is a lot now and what should we do now? Here is our next development in plan. For ODC to get the students to learn and understand how to keep good hygiene and how important sanitation is and most importantly to make sure students feel comfortable enough when they need to use a toilet or wash their face, we are planning to build a new toilet. In addition, we would like to make every student, parent, visitor feel welcomed and understand that ODC is an educational institution, we wish to build a room that can be used as a reception area. We will keep you updated on how these two projects are going. We sincerely hope that you will join us and help us make this happen.
We thank you for your support and generosity. It has been very clear that your commitment to ODC’s cause has been tremendously significant in keeping us moving forward in our endeavour to achieve the betterment of Cambodian society and to open as many doors to opportunity as possible for our students.
Sincerely,
Chhaiya IM
Founder and Headmaster, ODC Organization
Dear Supporters, Teachers, Students, Parents and Family Members,
We hope you are in good health and spirits and would like to express our gratitude for your continued support in these challenging times that has enabled us to adapt and innovate to better serve our community.
Covid-19 still challenges Cambodia every day and many NGOs have struggled to remain open. Thankfully, due to the commitment and dedication of our staff, ODC remains open with online and our successful worksheet-delivery program. Since April, the number of children collecting worksheets from ODC has increased, however due to the pandemic a few families have moved back to their provinces for safety reasons. Our online learning, using Messenger has allowed our teachers to deliver videos of their teaching to all our students. Majority of our students can record their reading and other exercises online to share back to their teachers. This has proved tremendously successful and has also enabled students and their parents to learn useful IT skills too!
ODC is very pleased to announce that we have started to expand the school facility by building two extra classrooms to accommodate students on our waiting list and potential new enrolments in 2022. The funding for this has been secured as a very low interest loan underwritten in the United States. The new facility will allow ODC to take in up to 200 students. This also means that we will be able to train and employ more local teachers.
To further increase our outreach, ODC is exploring a Schools-Partnership program with other educational not-for-profit schools in rural areas of Cambodia. We are also looking at opening ODC Franchise Schools in areas where children do not have access to English education. ODC aims to share our resources and expertise and enable many more children to access English lessons and other opportunities. ODC hopes to bring about changes through its world-class standard of English educational curriculum with life-skills based values embedded and through an unshakable belief in building up Cambodia.
ODC has been educating Cambodian children since 2015 and we are proud to celebrate our second anniversary as a registered NGO on 10 July. For ODC to expand our outreach through our higher enrolments and partnership programs, we need greater financial support to meet our need for more teachers and classroom materials. You can increase the impact of your donation on July 14, when GlobalGiving is running a Bonus Day campaign when your donation will be matched.
The campaign starts on July 14, at 09:00 US EDT, 14:00 London, 20:00 Cambodia, 21:00 Singapore, 21:00 Perth AWST, 23:00 Sydney AEST.
Please donate within the first hour as matching funds from GlobalGiving run out very quickly.
Click here to donate https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empowerment-english-education-children-cambodia/
We thank you for your support and generosity. It has been very clear that your commitment to ODC’s cause has been tremendously significant in keeping us moving forward in our endeavour to achieve the betterment of Cambodian society and to open as many doors to opportunity as possible for our students.
Sincerely,
Chhaiya IM
Founder and Headmaster, ODC Organization
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