Art & Dance lessons for 300 Children in Cambodia

Thank you for supporting the Arts in Schools Programme in Kampot, Cambodia.

Last month we released our 2016 Annual Report (see the full story here) We’ve been looking back at our impact and stats for all our programmes. 

For the Arts in Schools project in 2016 we delivered 42 workshops, an average of around 7 per month during the school year.  

These broke down to:

• 14 Dance workshops
• 15 Art workshops
• 14 Handicrafts workshops 

We had 4 different classes take part in the workshops, every term we would get a new class of children. 120 children took part in our workshops in 2016, and on average each child took part in 14 workshops.

This week we visited one of the schools where are team were delivering a handicrafts workshop.

We spoke to a few of the students during the workshop and asked them why they liked arts in schools:

"I really like doing art activities at school. Today we’re making braclets I’ve never made a bracelet before. My favorite part of the workshop today was choosing the different colour beads with to make a beautiful breaclet. It's a new skill for me and I think I will make braclets again.” – Student, 10 years old

 “This is my first time taking part in Epic Arts ‘Arts in Schools’ workshop. I enjoyed the workshop because it gives me the benefit of being able to understand some of the ways to do art, such as making bracelets and paper flowers. In the workshop I learnt that you can make art just by using simple materials.” - Student,  12 years old

Thank you for your continued support in making our Arts in School project a possibility. 

Happy Khmer New Year! It’s the start of a new school year here in Cambodia. We're still on our mission to bring art to children in local schools and to change children's perceptions about people with disabilities.

Savun & Chea have recently graduated from our Inclusive Education Programme. Over the past two years they've been exploring performing & visual arts with Epic Arts. They've joined the new mix of facilitators who're leading the Arts in Schools project this term.

Savun tells us how she was feeling about leading her first Arts in Schools workshop.

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 “I’m excited about the workshop, it’s my first time working with these children. I would never have thought that would have the chance to teach children at school!

 I’ve learnt a lot in the past two years at Epic Arts not just about the arts but about being a leader as well.

Today I led the introduction and warm up with the students. I was a little nervous about it. When we got to the school I asked to rehearse with my team leader Thou.

The workshop was fantastic! It was our first session so we played games and led some movement activities to get to know the new students.

My favourite thing about the workshop was seeing how much fun the students were having!

 I was very surprised by the children's attitudes. They remembered and respected the facilitators from last year.

Usually when I meet children they stare and ask questions about my disability. I was glad they didn't stare, it's clear the children today think differently

 I’m really looking forward to coming back and working with the children next week! "

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 Thanks to your support and donations we've been able to continue to lead Arts classes in Kampot schools.

Savun picked up on an exciting observation - that bringing in two new facilitators, who both have physical disability, has highlighted how the students react to disability. This wouldn't have been possible without having consistent workshops led by our team.

Thank you for being part of helping us change perceptions about disability