Educating 120 street-working children in Cambodia

It’s the start of a new school year at Lotus Kids' Club.  Always an exciting time but also chaotic, surprising, wonderful, fun, anxious, vibrant, scary, familiar, awkward, amusing, frustrating and joyful.  And many other adjectives. Kind of exhaustingly exhilarating. I think those two words explain well what it is like to work with young children and youth. 

Much preparation goes into the start of a new school year: everything from lesson plans, meeting parents, sourcing materials to providing to the children what they need--school uniforms, notebooks, backpacks, school supplies.  LKC provides a bicycle also for each preschool/kindergarden graduate to encourage attendance. Some students live far from school. We also make sure we have in place a healthy snack for the primary school kids.  his will involve a vendor outside the school as there are no free government breakfast programs in Cambodia. We want our students to be able to focus and not have a growling stomach. 

As stated we provide uniforms and school supplies; children can not attend school unless they have these. This can be a challenge for some parents who cannot afford these items. Our Social Workers and teachers spend a lot of time with parents stressing the importance of education, consistent attendance and the completion of homework assignments.

There will be challenges for the Social Workers and teachers, especially for the preschool/kindergarden teachers.  Fortunately we have long term staff who are experienced with what to expect and are up to the challenges they'll face.