Education Cambodia Project #30714

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Rural Cambodia

by Trailblazer Foundation

Project Report | May 21, 2018
A delivery has been made!

By Chris Coats | Executive Director/Co-Founder

Students with their bicycle

We are happy to report that we have met half of our 2018 Education Program goal with the successful purchase and distribution of 50 bicycles!

A big Thank You goes out to INTO Giving, a United Kingdom-based organization that supports disadvantaged children's education and their teachers across the globe. INTO Giving presented Trailblazer with a $2750 grant which allowed for this project to begin.

To describe how this project was coordinated, the local director for Trailblazer, Mr. Ratanak, attended meetings with three of the districts with which Trailblazer works: Bakong, Soutr Nikum and Chikreng. At these meetings district officials and other NGO [non-government organization] partners were in attendance. The Chikreng district education officer, Mr. Bunthorn, approached Mr. Ratanak and asked if Trailblazer Foundation could help the remote schools in his territory. Mr. Bunthorn was aware that Trailblazer has an education program and is working with districts to advance their education programs. Mr. Ratanak replied that Trailblazer had the funding for 50 bicycles to be given to students in need, and asked Mr. Bunthorn to source remote schools where there was a need for bicycles for its students.

On May 7, 2018, Mr. Bunthorn called to report he had located three primary schools with students identified as poor and in need of a bicycle. Those three schools were: Ta Por Primary School, Kok Thlong Primary School and Dong Pa Av Primary School. A distance of 78km from Siem Reap city.

As part of Trailblazer's due diligence, Ratanak called the Pongro Krom commune chief to double-check and confirm these three school locations and that the students of those schools were properly identified as needing bicycles. All fifty families held a Cambodian government identification card identifying them as level 3 poor. [Poor levels rate from level 1 which equates to $.70 per person per day, to level 5 which equates to $3.75 per person per day. The international poverty line is $1.25 per person per day.] *See link for further details.

With the schools and students having been identified, Ratanak proceeded with the project and organized for the distribution of the 50 bicycles on May 9, 2018 to the students of the three schools.

As part of Trailblazer's implementation process, recipients of the bicycles must agree to:

pay $1.75 for the bicycle;
maintain and repair the bicycle;
keep good attendance at school; and
maintain good grades

Here are photos of the distribution and the meeting with recipients to discuss the criteria.

Thanks again to INTO Giving for helping us reach half of our goal to provide bicycles to 100 students in 2018. With your continued support and contributions we hope to meet our goal in its entirety.

Bicycle distribution

a line of bicycles

bicycles

Meeting with recipients of bicycles

Links:

Cambodia: country poverty analysis

Permalink

Feb 20, 2018
We are working our way to the goal!

By Chris Coats | Executive Director / Co-Founder

Seyha and his family

Every day many children in Cambodia must walk long distances to get to school, meaning they arrive physically tired and mentally drained before class even starts. This situation is exacerbated in Siem Reap province because it is one of the poorest in Cambodia, where children typically walk to school. The reality is that walking long distances limits the students’ capability to succeed and disincentivizes school attendance. To address this problem, Trailblazer Foundation provides bicycles to students in Siem Reap Province, allowing for the students and their families to have more mobility and save valuable time.

When Seyha was 17 years old and a student in his eighth year of school, he received a bicycle from Trailblazer. He reports his studies and day-to-day life were greatly improved with the time gained from biking as opposed to walking to school. It used to take him thirty minutes to walk the 10 kilometers to school, and then it took him only five to ten minutes with his new bicycle. On the weekends, his parents borrowed the bicycle to get to and from the market to buy food for Seyha and his two younger brothers at a much faster pace than before!

His father finished his studies through grade eighth and his mother did not even go to school, so Seyha was excited to be able to attend high school and complete his studies, as he aspired to become a mathematics and chemistry teacher. The school that Seyha attended, Chea Smun Secondary School, had only has six teachers for 176 students. With Seyha finishing school and becoming a teacher, it greatly helped the Cambodian education system at large.

We are happy to report that Trailblazer was successful and recently received a grant for 50 bicycles. However, this grant brings us only half way to our goal of 100 bicycles for 2018. It is our hope that donors like you will help us get to the finish line with another 50 bicycles.

Students are counting on our and your help, and are waiting in line to receive a bicycle. These educational needs cannot be met to help keep students in school without the support of donors like you. Thank you for making our work possible, and helping these students reach their life goals.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.