Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Summer Arts Camp at Champey 2014 starts Monday !

Monday, August 4, marks the start of the Summer Arts Camp 2014 at Champey Academy. This is the second year that we will be offering a Summer Arts Camp.  A combination of increased attendance from local children combines with 20 children from the national Orphanage in Phnom Penh ranging in age from 7 to 17. Champey’s Summer Arts Camp program will in two sessions from 7:30 am to 11:00 am Monday through Saturday and 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm six days a week. The children from the National Orphanage are medically challenged and many of them have AIDS. It was determined in discussions with staff at the National Orphanage that attending 6 days per week could be too much activity for many of them to sustain, so their attendance will be limited to 5 daily sessions per week.

Children will enjoy a half day session learning traditional Cambodian dance and music and learning their stories. Added to this will be classes in painting and drawing and music.

In recent weeks our roster of daily students has increased to as many as 100 students per day  as many local children come to participate.  Our art and music classes are over subscribed and we are pleased to be seeing enrollment of both boys and girls into our programs.  Our goal of building community and becoming known as a safe place for kids  to engage in age appropriate activities is gaining ground among  the local street vendors who have  found that  the summer program can be a  great way to safely occupy their children during the 8 week school break.

We are still looking for funding for all of our arts  programs.  We are reminding all of our donors to as if their company might have a matching gifts program. If  so,  please  let us know, we will be happy to assist in  filling out  any paperwork .

Thank you again for all of your generous support to give these children the opportunity to spend a happy 8 weeks of summer holiday while having  the opportunity to learn more about Cambodia's rich cultural heritage.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco

Music ! Music ! Music !

We continue to see increased attendance at Champay Academy of Arts. Particularly popular is the recent addition of music classes, giving children an opportunity to learn to play traditional Cambodian musical instrumets. Demand has been strong, particularly among the boys. A recent day say 5  children in the morning session and 13 in the afternoon group. Children learn about the instruments that are part of the tranditional Cambodian ensemble called the " pinpeat".

There are 5 kinds of musical instruments being used in the class:

• Roneat Ek - a big xylophone like instrument of which there are three general types, varied in size
• Roneat Thoong - one of the three types
• Kong Thom - a bell type instruments which is composed of various metal canister type bells arranged in a circle on a stand
• Skor thom or Big Drum
• Skor Samphor - another type of drum that is similar to the big drum

On Friday's we also have the loan of  stringed instruments to introduce to the students, which is very popular.

With more students than instruments, students watch the instruction of others while waiting their turn.

This introduction and access to traditional Cambodian music is just one of several things that we are doing to bring education and inspiration to Cambodian children while teaching them about their rich cultural heritage.

None of this is possible without the continued  generous support of you our donors. Thank you.1

Barbara & Mark Rosasco