Education Cambodia Project #34803

Enable 60 Cambodian children to go to school

by SeeBeyondBorders UK

Project Report | Jul 14, 2020
Project Report, July 2020

By Sarah Reynolds | UK Country Manager

Children look forward to returning to school

It will not surprise you to learn that Cambodia has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and our programmes have also been affected. Although the country has recorded no coronavirus deaths and the number of cases has been low, there are huge economic impacts that are only just starting to be felt. Tourism has plummeted, with the world famous Angkor Wat temples receiving 99% fewer visitors in April 2020 compared to April 2019 and this has adversely affected a large swathe of the population who rely on the tourism, hospitality, or food and drink industries for work. Garment factories have been temporarily closed, as demand for clothing falls globally, and the Cambodian government are not able to offer sufficient support for individuals who find themselves unemployed. As people become more desperate, we are already seeing more children begging on the streets and hearing about more robberies, and we are doing all that we can to support our own staff and our beneficiaries from the worst of the potential economic crisis.

Schools have been closed since 13th March and we have been working to ensure that children have access to some learning materials online to continue their learning. This, of course, comes with its own challenges when many of our beneficiaries live in rural locations with limited access to electricity, smart phones and/or internet. However, teachers are now able to teach small groups in the community, whilst following social distancing guidelines, and they are able to make full use of the online resources we have created to enhance and support their teaching.

Our Conditional Cash Payments programme has become all the more critical over this period. It was set up to support the most impoverished families in the community so that they could prioritise school over work for their children. Although schools have been closed, we provided the second payments to families as planned and took the opportunity to run a workshop with the parents to outline the risks of online learning for their children (eg safeguarding against harm and safeguarding against the risk of finding inappropriate content) and to remind them to provide supervision and encouragement at home. We provided payments to 41 families in Angkor Thom and we feel confident that they will send their children back to school in November, when the new academic year starts in Cambodia, despite the hardships they may be facing.

Thank you so much for your support of SeeBeyondBorders!

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Mar 16, 2020
Project Report, March 2020

By Sarah Reynolds | UK Country Manager

Children concentrating on a lesson at school

The new academic year started in Cambodia in November 2019 and we wanted to give you a quick update on what is happening with our Conditional Cash Payments programme in Angkor Thom district this year.

We successfully transferred 15 students (7 girls) onto the Ministry of Education scholarship programme when they were promoted to Grade 4 at the beginning of this year. This means that they will continue to be supported in a sustainable way, and this will help to ensure that they will continue to attend school regularly.

Meanwhile, our focus remains on children in Grades 1-3 (6 - 9 year olds). The aim of our programme is to ensure that children from low-income families have equal access to education. We want to remove the barriers that might prevent them from going to school so that they are able to learn during these important, formative years of their education.

This year, we are supporting 41 children (22 boys and 19 girls) from 3 different schools in the Angkor Thom district. At the end of November, we provided the first Conditional Cash Payment to their families and reiterated the conditions of the programme: some of the money must be spent on school uniforms and required school books; children must attend school over 80% of the time in order to remain on the programme; children will be supported when their families are classified as ID Poor 1 or 2 by the government (earning less than $1.50 per day).

We stay in close contact with our beneficiaries on this programme and in December, it was unfortunate that 7 of the children caught dengue fever. This has been particularly prevalent in Cambodia over the past 8-10 months and it can be fatal if not treated. We supported the children and their families and encouraged them to seek medical help. Five of the children went to their local health centres and received adequate treatment there. Two of the children were showing more serious symptoms and therefore we helped their families to take them to the children's hospital in Siem Reap. This can be a big burden for families with very low incomes, so we provided financial assistance to cover transport to the hospital and a small food allowance. With this support, and prompt medical assistance, all seven of the children are now healthy again and attending school as normal.

It is as a result of the Conditional Cash Payments programme that we are able to offer support to children and their families if they become ill. We are alerted if a child misses school for two consecutive days and together with the School Principal, we contact the family to find out the reasons behind that absence and what we can do to help.

Thank you so much for supporting SeeBeyondBorders and for enabling us to continue important programmes like this one in Angkor Thom.

Change Begins With Education.

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Dec 16, 2019
Project Report, December 2019

By Sarah Reynolds | UK Country Manager

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