Meet a teacher - Noeurng Nak

Hello! My name is Nak. I am 25 years old and I come from Banteay Meanchey Province.

I have lived in Siem Reap for 4 years, and I have been teaching at FKC School for 6 months. I teach the Beginner class. In the evenings I am an English and Teaching student at Build Bright University, currently studying in my fourth year.

In my free time I like to read, watch the news, and spend time with my family. I also like going to Baray Lake.

In the future, I still want to be an English Teacher and live in Siem Reap. I hope to gain a lot of experience at FKC to improve my teaching methods, as well as learning more at university.

Interested in sponsoring one of teachers? Click here

Medical care for the community

On the 4th January we were visited by an American Doctor Mission to provide health education, student check-up and paint many faces. In fact it seemed the face painting was far more popular than seeing the Doctors for some reason!

After the mission had ended, the Doctors left us small first aid packs to distribute to the families in villages where we work and to distribute the vitamin tables for children.

Vitamin tables and vitamin drinks were also
left to give to our students regularly

Plasters, medication, antiseptic creams and
much more were left for us to distribute

Well finished!

Two weeks ago, when we visited Kok Thnoat village to give out seeds and check out the water situation (A new well..), workers were still drilling through the ground for fresh water. It looked like a long and laborious process, but last week when we visited again, it was finished! 

Four families in the village now finally have access to a sustainable supply of fresh water, something we take for granted everyday.

If you wish to donate a well or something similar, visit our Donations page 

Before and after - our worker digging away
and the final well installed!

Fresh water from underground reservoirs are vital for living,
especially for farming and growing crops

Points of View II: Zhuomin Lee, Singapore

This time Zhuomin shares us with us her joys (and frustrations) of teaching English!

"Is it appropriate to express mild frustration about students who just don’t get it? If you are a teacher by profession, this will sound familiar.

Last week students in the intermediate class learnt about clothes, which was fun when it came to role play. They took turns pretending to be customers and shop assistants in a store asking about prices and sizes. This was also a good opportunity to review numbers above one hundred, a lesson they had previously learnt.

This afternoon we went through the same sentence structure again and they made the same grammar mistakes as they did last week. Some also had problems remembering that trousers, shorts and shoes come in pairs.

“I would like to buy a sue.”

“I would like to buy a pair of shoes.”

“It costs 20 dollar.”

“It costs 20 dollarssssss.”

The s sound exists in Khmer, as in Siem Reap and Banteay Srey. However, it is not pronounced if it is at the end of a word. This is why they often miss out the audible s at the end of a plural noun.

“Guys! Remember the s!”. Hiss.

But teachers make mistakes too, and half the time we don’t have the answers either. For example, articles (a, an, a pair of) are hard to remember, even harder still to explain. Two similar items make a pair, so why is it ‘a bikini’ and not ‘a pair of bikini’?

Some grammar rules are as such because… they just are. It sounds correct and it makes sense because we have read, conversed, written, and taken exams in English all our lives, but for individuals who do so in another language, they naturally struggle. In other words, it is like trying to study Khmer from scratch and be expected to do well in four weeks!

The classroom is the only time students get to use their English language skills, since they speak Khmer at home and with their friends. Yet, two hours of practice a day is hardly enough. Although there is a lot of catching up to do, force feeding and setting them challenges way beyond their abilities is not the way to go. As it is, some students have problems attending school. The worst thing to happen is for them to quit school all together, not because of their socio-economic circumstances but because they have completely lost interest in learning.

For the rest of this week, some of us shall probably have to continue to eat, sleep and dream a pair of shoes until the children get it right."

A new well for the village

Kok Thnoat village is about a 30-minute drive away from central Siem Reap. Past the airport and the ancient temple ruins of Bayon, the road leading up to the village is a small pot-holed dirt path, and becomes narrower until no four-wheeled vehicle can pass. The rest of the journey has to be done either on foot or on a bicycle.

Children swing in a hammock. They
belong to one of the few families
who will benefit from the fresh water
supply.

Four year old SreySa (left) and her sister
Srey Chit, 6,sit on the steps of their home.  

On one of our recent visits, a new well was being dug. When finished in a couple of days, this well will be a safe and reliable supply of drinking water shared between four families. Other areas have also been earmarked for new wells, and it is our hope that every family will have their very own water source one day.

A construction worker digs a well with basic
tools. A typical well is between 25 and 30
metres deep and can take up to a week
to complete

A family holds up a well
sign. They will finally
have fresh water indoors
when the pump is ready.

The entire village used to share a derelict public well until some families decided to dig their own in their backyard. At 3m deep, these are unfortunately no more than muddy ditches that breed micro-organisms and algae. They are also a potential drowning hazard for small children.

It gets worse during the rainy season between September and November, when the whole village goes underwater, temporarily suspending all access to drinking water. At one home visit, workers were putting the finishing touches to a new water pump. When completed, it will be connected directly to the house so that the family will have a constant supply of fresh water even during the rainy season.

  

Longbean, morning glory and
pumpkin seeds being distributed.

 Once in a while, when we go around the surrounding villages to see how people are doing, we also 

Lunch from above! Stir fried
tamarind and cabbage, beef
with morning glory and fresh
lettuce leaves

distribute vegetable seeds to help families make a sustainable livelihood. 

Life here is simple and basic—most men work in the town, while their wives look after the home, and children go to a nearby school. But it can sometimes get financially very difficult when the only breadwinner of the family becomes unemployed. 

For others, their only asset is the house they live in, built by their ancestors and passed down through the generations. There is also no electricity in the village. Despite busloads of tourists who visit Angkor Wat every year, local incomes and standards of living have not gone up. As a result, Siem Reap continues to remain one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia.

Beyond the poverty of rural Siem Reap, lies beauty in the form of a welcoming smile and a kind word for the visitor. Sometimes a meal is also generously provided, as it was for us as we happened to be there during lunchtime. This warm hospitality is definitely one of the best experiences in life.

Do visit our donations page, if you would like to make a contribution for a new well. Full-day village tours are also available here. All proceeds from the tour goes towards FKC.

It costs $300 for a well and here FKC
staff show the sign that will placed
at the site

Our teachers don't just teach...

As a growing NGO there are always a number of tasks to be done, and we can't pay other people to do to them all the time due to budget restrictions. So what do we do?! We all work together and do it ourselves.

On Saturday morning the teaching staff came at 8am to level out the ground around the school to ensure things are ready for our Christmas Party (more on that soon!). We had a quick break for brunch noodles at 10 and finished for lunch at 11.30. Same again next Saturday!

Shovels, spades, wheelbarrows all made the job easier

There was a lot of sweat but no blood fortunately!

See it, pick it, eat it.

One of the best things (there are many, trust us) about Cambodia is we eat what the land provides us with.

Check out the photos below - we have coconut trees growing on our school grounds and a small lake just behind. Both provide us with a food source that we often use. The lake, for example, provides us with fish, morning glory (Cambodian green vegetable) and water lilies and sometimes lotus flowers. The coconut tree - well that's obvious!

These are but a few example of how we eat what grows around us. We catch frogs and fish when we can to cook and eat, we pick flowers and leaves from plants we know are nutritious and full of vitamins.

Unfortunately, not all of us are so lucky with what grows around us, and because of the dry season things can often die, that's why we have a well installation project to help villagers with no access to water - to try and give them a way to keep the good things growing!

If you are interested in donating a well - visit our donations page here: http://khmerchild.org/donations/

Education and its challenges

Every day, we see contrasting numbers of children come to school with absence varying from 1% to 70%. Every month, we find out that one or two students have stopped studying all together for a reason. Every three months, we welcome a few old students back and ask where they have been for so long.

It's not easy teaching in Cambodia, the students may be committed and keen but quite often they are powerless. Their parents, guardians or older brothers and sisters may not let them go to school for a number of reasons. Here is a list of the most common reasons:

"I had to stay at home because no-one else was there, and we have to look after the house"

- There is a fear that if you don't have someone at your house, someone will come in and take things or look around your house, even if you have locks.

"I had to go to work with my ......., because they told me they needed help"

- Unfortunately we hear this quite a lot, parents or siblings pulling the student out of school to help work on the farm, collect plastic bottles or sell something. Sometimes it could be for a day, other times for months.

"I had to cook rice for my father / younger brother and sister"

- If there is no-one at home to cook then normally the older sibling takes charge, meaning they leave halfway through a class or don't come at all.

"My bicycle tire burst and I was unable to get here"

- Perhaps the most reasonable argument, if the tyre bursts it costs about $0.50 to get fixed, which most children do not have, so they go home and wait until they have the money to fix it.
 
These are but a few reasons why they don't come to school as well as the usual sickness, conflicting Khmer school schedules, extra lessons and holidays. We often discuss absenteeism with parents and explain how important it is for their children to study every day. We compare it to work - if you miss a day you don't get paid, whilst at school if you miss a day you miss out on 10 words / a tense / reviews.

It's one thing to encourage parents to let their child study, but another to make sure they attend every day all year round.

www.khmerchild.org

Meet a Teacher - Rouet Kanha

Good day, my name is Kanha. I am 20 years old and I am from Siem Reap Province. I am currently the Assistant Head of Education and Starter Class English Teacher.

I have been working at FKC for 3 years, and initially I was just a part-time English teacher with the beginner's class. I am now learning how to run the education department and also attend free teacher training ran by other NGOs when I get the chance.
I live with my mother, my father, four brothers and one sister. I am also studying English Language and Translation at Mekong University.

In my free time I like cooking and making handicraft which I do at school sometimes too.

I enjoy being an English teacher and hope to continue to improve my skills and gain more experience teaching English!

Interested in sponsoring one of teachers? Click here

We did it!

Thanks to all you guys we have managed to raise the funds needs to start building our school in Nokor Krao!

In total we raised over $6,000 - more than we needed for the original plan. Now we will reassess the building plans and see where and if we can make improvements to make a sturdier structure. We will get some quotes this week and then look to start building some time in December.

Luckily we have a number of volunteers coming throughout December, so we may even draft them in to help build (if you're reading be warned!).

Thanks again for your support - and remember you can still donate if you haven't already, we always welcome whatever people can give!

http://khmerchild.org/donations/

Healthy food, healthy minds.

A good start to the day includes a filling, healthy breakfast that gets your brain in gear and your hands writing!

Before we set up our own tuck shop many of the children were feasting on sugary snacks and energy drinks, meaning they would be hyper for the first hour and tired the second. Unfortunately this is the case across Cambodia, as the cheapest products to purchase are full of sugar and other chemicals.

We decided to offer our children something different, and now cook them a porridge in the morning and offer baguettes in the afternoon. We have one sweet snack, which is sweet bread covered in sesame seeds, but we have got rid of all energy drinks and switched to soy milk instead. Let's hope the students reap the rewards of having extra brain power at exam time!

Our tuck shop serving up cheap snacks

A couple of the students tucking into a nutritious
lunchtime meal

One student opts for a smaller snack

Our recently donated water system, all water is
filtered before it can be drunk.

A week of hard work and great outcomes

In my last post I told you about what was coming up in November - well here's an update!

Fundraising

So far so good - with two weeks left to go until the fundraising ends we have raised over $2000. However there is still quite a distance to go, with $4500 needed to complete the project. We are talking, e-mailing, networking, updating, blogging, tweeting and reporting everywhere we can to raise awareness and try to hit the target! A big thanks to those who have donated so far, and a huge thanks to those that are going to keep spreading the message and sending donations our way. There will be a real big push in the last week so please support us.

Flying Doctors of America (FDoA)

The week long work of consulting, diagnosing and treating is over, and has been hugely successful. A total of 12 doctors came to Cambodia and traveled to a different district each day to offer their expertise and skills to the local community.We'll be posting something specifically to report on the Flying Doctors - so check back soon!

New student registration

On Saturday 9th November we invited all parents who wanted to register their children at the school. We asked them to come from 8 - 10am but the reality was they turned up at 7am and carried on coming until 3pm! It was a remarkable turnout, especially with the amount of younger children that turned up. Unfortunately we have a limited number of spaces so we are now busy working through the applicants and placing them in order of need.

Parents Afternoon

Once a year we invite all the parents to the school for an end of year update.

Last year 40 parents turned up however this year we saw an amazing 117 parents! Fortunately we had planned for this, we hired a marquee, planned for rain (none came thankfully) and even got the students to show off what they have learned this year. It was a great day, the parents are now updated and know how best to support their children at home!

The seats are ready - 100 in all, we ended up needing more!

The dancers were made up, and made up.

A quick pep talk before the parents arrive

The girls braiding their hair for their performance

Kanha making sure the flower arrangement is spot on.

Not bad for an amateur flower arranger!

The meeting begins with the national anthem

The girls then sing some other songs about rain and winter

Following 90 minutes of speaking, we are treated to the fishing dance

 

Finally, the students sing songs that FKC have written and composed
ourselves. All the songs are about the importance of education

www.khmerchild.org