Enable 60 Cambodian children to go to school

Over the last three months, children and teachers throughout Cambodia were finally able to return to school. The pandemic has greatly affected vulnerable households, especially children, who were out of school for 18 months during the last two years. Before the pandemic, the mean years of schooling was just five years (UNDP). Today, with increasing pressure on parents to provide for their families, combined with the significant closure of schools, there is a risk of even more children dropping out of school to support their parents' livelihoods. Families should not have to choose between education and food. 

Your support is helping us to assist children from the poorest households to get back to school through the provision of cash grants of £49. With the new school year starting in January 2022, 41 primary school children were confirmed to receive cash grants through SeeBeyondBorders Conditional Cash Payments Programme. In February, families received the first of two grant instalments, enabling them to purchase essential items for their children such as school uniforms and books.

We’ve seen how much more motivated and valued children feel when they have that extra little bit of support that they need at this critical point in their lives to get them to school, to learn. Thank you for your contribution towards helping 41 students from extremely poor families to have equal opportunities to go to school regularly and be motivated to progress to secondary school.

In this report, we want to tell you the story of Om Phalla (name changed to protect her identity) who has benefitted from SeeBeyondBorders' Conditional Cash Payments programme.

Angkor Thom is one of the smallest districts in Siem Reap Province in the north west of Cambodia. Most families here earn a living through handicrafts such as producing palm sugar, weaving rattan floor mats or baskets and making musical instruments for tourists visiting the surrounding Angkor Temples.

Om Phalla’s family is no different, supplementing their farming income by making and selling rattan baskets, something which hasn’t sold much since the number of tourists plummeted due to Covid-19. Her parents need to work hard to support four children, three of whom are of school age. Phalla is currently in grade 7, her older sibling is in grade 8 and her younger sibling is in grade 3. The youngest child is not yet old enough to enroll at school.

At home, Phalla helps her parents with housework and looks after her younger siblings. She wanted to help reduce her parents’ workload by helping to make some of the rattan baskets, but her parents won’t allow her to do heavy work due to her young age and physical wellbeing. They have noted that Phalla is more frequently ill compared to her siblings and so her parents want her to focus on her school work as they feel she will not be able to support herself in the future with a manual job.

Her parents were very happy when Phalla was awarded a grant from the SeeBeyondBorders’ Conditional Cash Payment (CCP) programme, when she was in grade 3. That support continued until she finished grade 6 and then left primary school for high school. The CCP grant enabled her parents to buy Phalla notebooks, a new uniform, a school bag, and new shoes every year. With these items, Phalla was confident to go to school and to try her best. She was never absent from class and in grade 6, the final grade of primary school in Cambodia, she ranked 7th among her peers in her class.

In the future, Phalla wants to be a teacher because she wants to share her knowledge with others. She believes that being educated is the key to getting a well paid job that will support her family as well as her parents when they are older.  “My parents and I were very happy to receive support from  SeeBeyondBorders’  CCP programme.  I felt confident going to school with enough school supplies to complete the work the teacher set and to have a nice uniform like the other children,” she told us.

Phalla's family would like SeeBeyondBorders to continue supporting other children in their community through the CCP programme as it is very helpful in reducing the burden for low income families like theirs and in supporting children to succeed at school. For some families it will be the difference between the children attending school, or not.

Thank you for your ongoing support!