Give Children with Disabilities an Arts Education

We’re exicted to announce that our students are once again back in classrooms!

For the last 9 months our Teachers and Social Workers have been working with children with disabilities and families in new ways to ensure they’re supported through teaching at children at home, spending more time with parents and supporting families with emergency supplies.

Cambodia has had an incredible vaccination campaign with over 77% of the entire population fully vaccinated, putting Cambodia in the top 15 countries globally with the highest vaccination rates. (ourworldindata.org)

This amazing uptake of vaccines along with continued use of safety & hygiene measures means that Cambodian schools are opening back up and children around the country can go back to school!

This is an exciting time for our students to come back to their routine, see their classmates and allows parents to get back to a ‘new normal’

We’re working hard to ensure the safety of students, classes are small and we have additional hygiene routines in place for students and teachers. Our teachers have developed new lessons around hygiene to make sure our students remember to stay safe outside of the classroom.

Wishing all of our friends and supporters around the world good health and safety!

Please consider donating again to support our work helping the vulnerable communities of Kampot

 Thank you,

The Epic Arts Team

Thanks to you children with disabilities in Kampot are learning about their rights!

For the past few years here at Epic Arts we’ve had an increased focus on child protection. In 2019 we started including personal safety lessons into our curriculum.This year we've added lessons about child rights into our curriculum of literacy, independence skills and art.

Our Teachers have created lessons that are accessible for children with learning disabilities. The lessons cover four main children’s rights: Survival, Protection, Development and Participation.

Teacher Channy speaks passionately about teaching students about their rights, “It’s very useful for them to learn about their rights. It can help them a lot, especially the right to develop. The students should know and understand things like what materials they should have for their learning, like having books and toys. It’s also important that students understand their right to protection against violence and sexual abuse.”

Learning for all the Family

“It’s the first time that our students are learning about their rights. But some parents are also learning, they didn’t know about rights before we started these lessons.” says Special Education Team Leader, Kagna.

Originally the lessons were created for the students. But, because of the school closures in Cambodia we've been teaching students at home since March. A surprising benefit of this situation is that parents are very engaged in learning about child rights and want to know more!

Teacher Channy explains, “Some parents ask questions, they ask about parenting and rights. They ask me about behaviour management and disciple. I always encourage the parents the find a positive solution to solve challenges.” Team Leader, Kagna adds,“we also provide positive parenting training which is very useful for the parents. We explain and coach them on how to reduce negative parenting habits”

Strengthened Families Thanks to Your Help!

Without your support this work would not be possible.Thanks to your donation we can strengthen families of children with disabilities. Knowledge about rights and positive parenting techniques will help children with disabilities to grow up with an understanding of their rights and most importantly in a loving caring home.

Thank You

The Epic Arts Team

We’re delighted that 3 new students have joined our classes already this year!

Two boys aged 6 and 10 and one young woman aged 21 are now taking part in our classes.

These children and young people wouldn’t be able to join our classes without your donation and continued support to Epic Arts! 

The new students were reffered to us from partner organisations and the Kampot community. The new students have already had their enrolment assessments with the team so our social workers and education team can support them and their families.

Covid in Cambodia

Since our last report in January there's been a third wave of Covid infections in Cambodia, almost doubling the amount of positive Covid cases. As of 8^th March 2021 Cambodia has reported 1,011 positive cases with 493 people currently hospitalised and receiving treatment and 0 reported deaths.

The recent spike has only been reported in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville and as a result schools were closed in those provinces. For now, schools in Kampot including Epic Arts Special Education Classes, are still open with hygiene practices in place.

Hope is on the horizon.

Cambodia has received vaccine donations from both China and WHO Covax and the vaccines are being rolled out  as of March 2021 approx. 71,000 people have been vaccinated.

Thank you again for your continued support and we hope that you and your family are keeping safe and well. If you can, please consider donating again to support our life-changing work to help children with disabilities and their families in Kampot

Thank you,

The Epic Arts Team

Students are back in classrooms and we’re continuing to support families of children with disabilities through this difficult year.

 Since April the Education, Social Work and Projects Team have been working with families in new ways to ensure they’re supported, teaching at children at home, spending more time with parents and supporting families with emergency supplies for covid and the recent flash flooding here in Cambodia.

 Covid-19 cases in Cambodia have remained low, under 300 cases with 0 deaths, because of this the Royal Government of Cambodia allowed the reopening of schools recently and our students came back to the classroom in October!

This was an exciting time for our students to come back to their routine, see their classmates and allowed parents to get back to a ‘new normal’

We’re working hard to ensure the safety of students, classes are small and we have additional hygiene routines in place for students and teachers. Our teachers have developed new lessons around hygiene to make sure our students remember to stay safe outside of the classroom

Wishing all of our friends and supporters around the world good health and safety!

Please consider donating again to support our work helping the vulnerable communities of Kampot

Thank you,

The Epic Arts Team

Over the past few months Epic Arts has been focused on protecting the most vulnerable and like the rest of the world we’ve had to reorganize to ensure our survival.

Covid-19 cases in Cambodia have remained low and the government have taken steps to limit community transmission. The bigger challenge our communities face at the moment is economic, with many people reporting losing income and jobs.

In April GlobalGiving made the decision to change donations from ‘restricted’ to ‘unrestricted’ this allowed us to use unspent donations to help us survive throughout the uncertainty of the pandemic.

We’d like to update you on what’s changed at Epic Arts since you heard from us last and how your donations have helped us survive this uncertain time.

Supporting the vulnerable

We're in this together, that's why we're supporting some of the most vulnerable children with disabilities and their families in Kampot, with emergency food and hygiene supplies. Since March we’ve supplied over 100 people and children with disabilities with emergency covid relief, including food parcels, accessible information and hygiene supplies.

Education

In late March our classrooms were closed under the Ministry of Education's decree to close all schools and vocational training centres in Cambodia. Since then our Teachers and Social Worker have been hard at work visiting families every week to deliver home school sessions and to provide support to families being impacted by the social challenges caused by Covid-19.

In the last week has been the government has announced that schools will be allowed to open again soon. We hope that we’ll be greeting our students into our classrooms in the very near future.

Wishing all of our friends and supporters around the world good health and safety!

Please consider donating again to support our work helping the vulnerable communities of Kampot

Thank you, 

The Epic Arts Team