Disability Rights Cambodia Project #13106

Music Training Therapy Blind Youth Cambodia

by Khmer Cultural Development Institute

Project Report | Dec 16, 2013
Latest Update on Arts Outreach Project

By Catherine Geach | Founder

What's been happening?

Three months on from our last update, our Community Outreach Arts Program at KCDI has now more than four hundred primary school children participating in lessons on Pin Peat and Mahori music, classical Cambodian dance and folk dance and also Yike theatre.

Our classes continue to be held three times a week, but lessons have multiplied, because of the demand.

We are working in close cooperation with the Departments of Culture and Education, as well as heads of local primary schools, they are assisting us as we coordinate diffierent students from different schools. They have asked us to help them by reaching out to as many children as possible to share Cambodian performing arts, because there is growing concern about the loss of Cambodia's cultural heritage.

Many children attending KCDI are very poor and would otherwise have had no access to this kind of experience or opportunity. Thank you for your help!

Meanwhile the more experienced students on our Boarding Program were invited by the Department of Culture together with their teachers to perform at the Regional Performances in Sihanoukville from the 25 - 28th November 2013. They performed the "Kiri Bokor sambo tomchet dance", especially coreographed by KCDI dance teachers. They were awarded a trophy at the end of the performance.

After the performance Sreida* said "I am very pleased and grateful to my group for all the hard work they did to achieve this goal".

What's Next?

Community Art Outreach students did their first public performance at KCDI and now both they and resident children on the KCDI Boarding Program, will be preparing for examinations for the coming year, held by the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. These exams help provide them with goals to achieve and for those wanting to have a future in the performing arts, the yearly exams and the final Diploma and Baccalaureate are essential qualifications for a career.

What can you do?

Please keep supporting us. Your help has been so important so far. Tell everyone you know about us and share our work on your social networks, (face-book, twitter e-mail). Please spread the word that it is easy to give a simple donation on-line through our page on Global Giving.

From everyone here at KCDI, we send you our profound thanks and wish you all a most Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year 2014!

* For the sake of Privacy, we do not mention the student's real name. All photographs are printed here with permission given by the students and teachers of KCDI.

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Sep 30, 2013
Outreach program at KCDI

By Monika Nowaczyk | Advisor

Students stretching for class

What's been happening?

The Khmer Cultural Development Institute Arts Outreach Program has continued over the past three months. We’ve recruited a new classical dance teacher, as the previous teacher retired, ensuring the classical dance program has a high level, experience instructor.

Classes have been held three times a week in the following art forms:

Pin Peat for 10 children
Yike for 109 children
Mahori for 9 children
Classical Dance for 18 children
Folk Dance for 102 children

The Pchum Ben festival season is in full swing and the school will be closed for one week to give staff and students a chance to celebrate with their families. Pchum Ben is the time of the year when Cambodians pay respect to their ancestors. Monks chant throughout the night and families visit the pagodas to make offerings.

From one of our students:

Channika* has been training with KCDI for eight years. She has studied Classical and Folk Dances as well as music (Pin Peat). The school director says she is good at playing the Ronead Ek instrument and is very talented at Classical Dance. Channika says:

“KCDI is not only important for me but also for those who have less access or no access to education and art training. If there was no KCDI, the poor children have no access to arts and also higher education. I would stop my studies if KCDI did not support me here and I wish to be a Classical Dance trainer in the future.”

Channika is now 18 and hopes that if KCDI’s Arts Outreach Program continues, she will be able to return to the school as a teacher.

*Students’ names are changed to protect their privacy

What's next?

Classes will start up again after the Pchum Ben holiday on October 7^th. Students will continue preparing for their first performance in November. New students in the Outreach Program have now been attending classes for 3 months and are slowly but surely expanding their repertoire, learning more music, more dances and linking to their cultural heritage in ways they have never had the opportunity to do before.

What can you do?

We still need to raise further funds in order to be able to continue the Outreach Program. Please spread the word about our school and programs through your networks, on Facebook, by email, Twitter and so on. Tell your friends and family they can support us on GlobalGiving with a simple online donation.

From all the students and staff at KCDI, a big thank you for your support!

Links:

KCDI website

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Jul 1, 2013
Arts Outreach Program Update

By Monika Nowaczyk | Advisor

New class at KCDI

What's been happening?

The Khmer Cultural Development Institute Arts Outreach Program started in May thanks to the generous support of our donors on GlobalGiving. Classes are now in full swing after an audition process that involved hundreds of children from local schools. More students have been enrolled than originally thought would be, and the teachers and masters at the school are excited to be passing on their skills and knowledge to so many new students.

Classes have been held three times a week in the following art forms:

Pin Peat for 10 children
Yike for 109 children
Mahori for 9 children
Classical Dance for 18 children
Folk Dance for 102 children

Older students who have been training at KCDI for many years, are continuing their classes and expanding their repertoire. They continue to put on monthly performances for the public and tourist groups. As well, they are role models for the new generation of students, providing them a glimpse of the future performers they will become.

What's next?

Classes will continue through the public school holidays from July to September. Students will start preparing for their first performance in November. They will gain important skills in performing and building their confidencem preparing them for a future as performance artists. KDCI organizes monthly performances for the public, giving the community an opportunity to view live Khmer traditional arts, an opportunity not available anywhere else in the area. \

What can you do?

We still need to raise further funds in order to be able to continue the Outreach Program. Please spread the word about our school and programs through your networks, Facebooks, by email, Twitter and so on. Tell your friends and family they can support us on GlobalGiving with a simple online donation.

From all the students and staff at KCDI, a big thank you for your support!

New students learning dance

Students performing the Pepper Collection Dance

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