Empower 2,000 Cambodian Kids Through Sport

During the last three months of our Cambodia Sports Programme, we have achieved important goals and set the foundation for future success! Our newest recruit, Luca, has a background in Sport Science and Physical Education and is managing the programme. He provided us with a quick report on what they have been up to in Siem Reap. Read on to get the latest updates!

 What We Have Achieved

We have been working recently on two sites: the Helping Hands School (HHC) and a larger rural Sports Complex.  At HHC, we raised netting around the entire sporting area for safety and practical reasons. Now the children are not at risk from running into the barbed fence, and the balls will not escape the pitch. The children at the school are already appreciating the benefits of the netting!

For constructing the larger sports complex, we found a suitable piece of land in Prasat Cha. The land is conveniently located behind the government school, just off the main road, with easy access to electricity. However, currently the land is a rice field and needs to be raised to avoid flooding during the rainy season (which begins in July). Filling in and raising the land for the site is one of the next steps, and we will send later reports about our progress.

Lastly, we went to Phnom Penh and met with Indochina Starfish, an NGO that works in the education and sports area. They have an extensive football program and have a lot of experience with organizing sports festivals. We discussed potential partnership in organizing festivals, and our coaches and teachers will attend one of their festivals soon to gain insight and ideas for planning.

Next Steps

We still need 2 more sport teachers (one to work full time at HHC and one for the sports complex), and we have started the recruitment process to find our perfect coaches. The recruitment has proved to be more difficult than expected for two reasons. Firstly, candidates with education and experience in sport and physical education are based in Siem Reap and do not want to travel every day to a remote village. Secondly, people from the local village do not have the knowledge and experience to take the job. Therefore, we have decided to recruit young students from high school who live in Prasat Cha or nearby, and train them on sport and physical education. At the same time, Luca is developing a physical education curriculum, which will be taught to the selected high school students.

We also have other improvements to make at HHC. We will build some shading for the sports area, purchase more sporting equipment, and we will begin formal training for the sport teachers. 

Furthermore, once the land is filled and raised at the Sports Complex, we will also erect netting around the field, purchase more sporting equipment, and construct shading and lighting.

Thank you for reading and as always, thank you for your continued, invaluable support. If you would like to donate, and we hope you do, please visit our page! You can also subscribe to our newsletter for regular Globalteer updates regarding this and all of our other projects!