Arts for Cambodian Children & Orphans at Champey

Program update from the field ~  Mark's recent visit Cambodia

Our Champey Academy of Arts continues to be a happy place for kids to learn while also providing a refuge for many disadvantaged young people in central Phnom Penh. Our students can attend all classes free of charge, 6 days per week. 

In recent months our  daily attendance numbers are averaging about 70 to 75 students per day.  Those numbers are split between the morning and afternoon sessions with the afternoons generally experiencing higher attendance due to the fact that some of our students must work in the mornings. 

The music classes have become so popular that the teacher must routinely split the class into two groups, asking one group to wait their turn outside because of limited space and instruments in the classroom. 

We continue to operate on a half day model which fits neatly with the government schools’ schedule where students are assigned each month to attend either the morning or the afternoon class sessions.  Champey Academy students in grades 1 through 12 normally attend the government school in either the morning or the afternoon and then come to Champey classes  to study during the other half of the day. 

Sadly,  some of our kids no longer attend the government schools because of their own lack of motivation, a lack of parental encouragement or supervision or because their families’ poverty requires that they do work outside to help support the family. Even so, we welcome them to participate in our programs, making it an even more important part of their life.

We have a total of 9 regular staff plus 4 student assistants  for a total of 13 members of  our team at Champey.  In addition to our school director, we  employ four full time teachers (two for dance and one each for drawing/painting and music) and three office staff (two full time and one half time) as well as one teacher’s assistant in the dance class.  Finally, we provide salaries of $40 or $50 per month to four of the most accomplished dance students who help with the instruction of the young, beginning students. These outstanding students also form the core of our team for outside performances.

In addition to the staff and students listed above, we provide monthly stipends of $15 to $30 to just a few of our students who come from extremely poor family backgrounds.  The amount of their stipend varies from month to month based on their attendance record the previous month with $30 being given only to students who achieved perfect attendance in the preceding month.  It offers a win/win situation to encourage committed participation and growth  in our programs while offering a bit of  much needed income.

The total annual operating budget for  our school is approximately  $72,000 ( $6,000 per month) This  includes  all salaries and stipends, rent, utilities and classroom supplies.  That figure typically greatly exceeds our available funds but fortunately, in normal times there is significant income which we receive from the  tourists who  visit our school daily during Cambodia’s high season for tourism (October through March).  About 35 to 40% of our school’s annual operating expenses are covered by the income the school  earns during the tourism season but which  still leaves Kasumisou Foundation’s Champey Academy  with a very significant funding challenge each year.

These days, in general, it seems that we all comment on just how much our money DOES NOT  buy.  However, consider this:  your donation of just $ 2 per day can make all the difference!   If we average 72 students per day x 6 days per week x 50 weeks per year, that is an estimated  21,600 student visits. If we assume an annual  operating budget of $72,000 , this means that the average cost per day per  student visit to attend classes  is about $3.33. About 35-40% of this amount is covered by tourist revenue,  which means that we still need to raise roughly $40,000 +  per year or about $2 per day per student   or $48  per month per  student  to  keep our school in operation providing  access to our free classes 6 days per week. 

Wednesday, July 12, is GlobalGivings Donor Match Day. Donations of $100-$1000 are eligible to receive a match of 50%.

The photos that we have attached will show you some of the achievements of our students, who pre-COVID performed for guests at the prestigious Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh . You will also see  drawings created by students. All of these photos represent both the accomplishments and the future  potential of our students.. 

We hope that you will join us to help  keep our school open, providing fun, education and a positive social impact on the many students who attend each day. We cannot do this without your support!

With our profound thanks for your generous support, 

Mark & Barbara Rosasco 

Please join us April 3 -7 for GlobalGiving's "Little by Little"  Campaign where donations up to $50 per donor per organization will receive a 50% match.

Champey Academy of Arts GlobalGiving update for March 2023

The income from the many visitors to Phnom Penh - who pay a small fee for an English language presentation about Cambodian traditional arts and a tour of our school - has always been a critical source of revenue for Champey Academy.  However, for two tourism seasons (November to April of both 2020/2021 and 2021/2022), due to Cambodia’s Covid restrictions on incoming visitors, we struggled with almost no income at all from tourists.  Happily, though, we were pleased to welcome back to Champey Academy many tour groups in this 2022/2023 tourism season.  Our school is well known and loved by the travel companies, freelance guides and even many tuk-tuk drivers who know that they can count on a stop at Champey Academy to be one of the highlights of their guests’ time in Phnom Penh.    Without the help of Kasumisou Foundation’s generous donors, it would have been impossible for us to make up the funding gap created by the nearly complete shutdown of the tourism industry in Cambodia during the first two years of the pandemic.  We are very grateful that, with the return to normality in 2022/2023, our school is busy nearly every day welcoming groups of tourists from many foreign countries. 

Of course, another negative impact of the pandemic was that many students stopped attending classes at Champey for fear that the close quarters on the dance stage, in the music classroom or in the drawing/painting classroom might cause them to become infected with the virus.  Fortunately, though, throughout the many months of the pandemic we had no truly serious cases of Covid among our students and staff. 

Now, the only remaining impact of the pandemic has been among the junior ranks of the dance classes.  Before the pandemic, our dance space was typically overrun on most days with dozens of happy youngsters receiving their first lessons in traditional dance.  However, while the return of the tourists to Champey this year has provided critical support for us financially, it has thinned the ranks of our junior dance students whose parents are still not comfortable for their young children to be in such close proximity to large groups of foreigners whom they fear might be bringing Covid into our school.  Now that Covid infection rates have fallen and continue to fall all over the world, we are hopeful that the parents of our youngest students will soon again feel comfortable to let their kids return to the dance class at Champey Academy.

 We sincerely appreciate your long time and generous support of our program. OUr program goes far beyond just  learning dance and music by teaching team work, leadership, tolerance and a general sense of care for one's fellow human.

Warmest regards,

Barbara & Mark