Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Rural Cambodia

In 2024 Trailblazer was able to construct two school buildings for the villages of Kok Chan and Tapang to accommodate the growing student populations. These school buildings were made possible because of the generous investments of donors made through a valued and long-term business partner.

Since 2005, Trailblazer has built 10 primary school buildings and two kindergarten school buildings. Each primary school is designed to accommodate 480 students and each kindergarten 180 students. These schools mean life-changing advancements for the education of students in these rural Siem Reap province communities.

To date, I believe it is safe to estimate that 40,800 students, if not more, have graduated from the 10 primary schools since 2005. And over the past 14 years an estimated 4,320 students graduated from the kindergarten schools, moving onto the next level of their education.

That is a significant number of students who have had an education because of generous donors who contributed to Trailblazer’s Education Program. Additionally, bicycles have been distributed to students of these schools so they can get to and from school.

These students are no doubt using their education to participate in helping reduce poverty and improve not only their families’ livelihoods, but also the progress of their own country.

We are proud of these accomplishments and are deeply thankful to all the donors who have made education accessible to these rural students through bicycles and school buildings in which to study.

Through the gracious and generous investment of donors in 2023 and 2024, Trailblazer was able to construct two school buildings to further meet the educational needs of students in rural Siem Reap province. This report is specifically about the school for Kok Chan Primary School.

The construction of a new school building was needed in Kok Ta Chan village, Ampil commune, Prasad Bakong district to provide and extend a safe place for the students to study, accommodate Computer Science education, and for teachers to teach. 

The location of this school is less than a one hour drive away from Siem Reap city. There are five villages that send their students to study at the Kok Chan Primary School: Prey Kuy, Kork Chan, Thnal Ba, Bos Thom, and Trach Chrum.

There are 14 teachers [11 females] who teach the 328 students [grades K through 6 - with 156 being female] at the Kok Chan Primary School. In order to accommodate all the students they were studying in two shifts, morning and afternoon classes.

However, three of the indoor classrooms were being used for computer science, making a shortage of regular study classrooms, forcing students to study in three of the six classrooms in the concrete building and an open air canteen to accommodate all their regular studies. Therefore, the government requested the construction of another concrete building of six classrooms so all students will have safe school buildings with enough classrooms to accommodate their regular studies and computer science education.

With the additional school building, the school experienced an increase of 88 students [43 females] in the 2024 academic year, making two more classes of students for a total of 416 students. Because there is now sufficent space, all the students study in the morning class shift only. The old building is being used for the three computer classes because the computers and accessories are installed permanently in those rooms.

This project was designed primarily to benefit the children of Kok Chan village for their primary education, as well as those students who attend school from the five surrounding villages. Indirectly though, all villagers will benefit by having safe buildings in which to conduct community engagements, as well as, a greater number of the children and their families across the area.

We wish to thank these donors for investing in the education of rural students which will provide them with the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful and find employment, and ultimately reduce their level of poverty.