Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

 Champey Academy of Arts, our school offering free instruction in Cambodian traditional arts, continues to be a hit with young people in central Phnom Penh.  Attendance last week  totaled a remarkable 661 student visits, which, over our 6 day week roster of classes meant an average daily attendance of 110 students ! We are literally bursting at the seams!   

Our school operates on a schedule offering students the option of studying with us in either the morning or afternoon and each half day session is divided into two class periods of about 90 minutes each.  Since the Cambodian public schools, too, operate on half day sessions, Champey Academy students typically attend either the morning or afternoon session at their local public school and then come to Champey for the other half day to study their choice of dance, music or drawing and painting.

Since  the founding of our school in January of 2013, we have offered our classes entirely free of charge to all youngsters from age 7 to 22 years, although some kids as young as 4 or 5 years can find their way into the dance class and they are always welcomed there.  

In recent months our total daily attendance has been averaging between 85 and 110 students per day after peaking at just over 150 students on one day in May of this year. Last week was a record weekly  high with a total of 661 student visits. We consider about 90 students to be the optimal capacity of our facility and of our teaching staff, so although the attendance is  wonderful, we are carefully monitoring the surge to be sure that we can safely accommodate our students and take care of our teaching staff.

Our school is especially popular with children from the poorest families in the central city.  For those children we provide not just instruction and the opportunity to master new skills but also a safe space to make new friends and enjoy being a child. It is important to appreciate the value of this. This safe space gives  these kids adult supervision and off of the streets and away from gangs, drugs and other misfortune. Over the years, in addition to our wonderful programs, we have served as child safety advocates.. We are on the front lines, understanding family and other dynamics and sometimes literally protecting against human trafficking and other abuses.

Our kids attend Champey  by choice and it is a very happy place.  The discipline of study leads to a sense of pride of accomplishment, builds team work and shows these kids that they are adaptable and capable of learning new things and achieving a level of excellence regardless of their current economic challenges.  These skills will help our kids grow into capable, kind, ethical and accomplished adults.

Won’t you please join us to help our students continue to thrive at our school?

We can easily forget that in the developed world and especially the US, there area many  community programs available  to kids like our students. However,  opportunities such as Champey offers are extremely rare Cambodia.

Our funding is always precarious  and the school now exists quarter to quarter and sometimes month to month. The financial reserves that we had before COVID are long gone and twice in the past two years, including quite recently, we have had to face the possibility of closing the school due to lack of operating funds. Last mmonth, due to  what we literallly call  a miracle donation, we were able to avoid immediate closure. We are hopeful that you will continue to work with us to keep the school in operation.

We are so proud of our students and our staff and we are extremely grateful to you, our wonderful donors for your generous support which makes all of this possible!

Giving Tuesday is December 3, where there will be matching funds. More details will follow as we get closer.

Thank you !

Barbara & Mark

July Bonus Day is July 10

How  can a dance school offer a life-line to a teen and her family?

Champey Academy is  more than  just a school .  Our report  will help you  see what we mean when by this.  Yes, we want to promote education in the arts to our students, but sometimes,  achieving that goal can mean significant family support and intervention of a nature that has been  quite literally, life-changing  for a one of our students.

Keeping Champey’s Doors Open….

For now, Kasumisou Foundation’s immediate goal is to keep Champey’s doors open so that Champey can continue its classes. Keeping Champey open  also provides employment to 14 people consisting of  9 staff members plus an additional 5 Welcome Committee students,  among whom are several special cases like  Ms. P .  For Ms. P and   other talented young people,  their work/study position at Champey is literally a lifeline.

Please help us to keep Champey’s doors open.  At the current time, our funding will last around  July 25.

Introducing you to Ms. P

Ms. P  is  a 16 year old girl. She  is the  third   eldest child in her family of 8  which consists of her parents and her  5 siblings: 4 boys and 1 girl.  Due to the  extreme poverty of the family, her three brothers have decided become monks because they   are able to live at the Buddhist temple which helps  the family to reduce food costs. Today. Ms. P lives with her parents  along with her younger brother and younger sister in a 4 meter x 4 meter room ( 13 x 13 feet= 172 square feet) that costs $ 65 per month.The photos you see in this report are the family housing and yes, 5 people share this one room. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why Champey's classes offer our students  an oasis of calm and beauty through the arts. 

Ms. P quits school at age 12 to earn money to help her family

Ms. P started to attend the free dance classes at Champey in 2018 at age 10 while attending Elementary School . Ms. P had to drop out of the government  elementary school in the 6th grade ( age 12)  to  work along side  her mother selling birdseed  and soft drinks to tourists in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. However, Ms. P proved to be a talented student who loved dance and she continued to attend dance classes as much as possible. Her interest in dance was complimented by her attention to detail and her regular attendance, causing her to progress rapidly.

Ms. P  would spend half of her day, 6 days a week,  attending the sessions of Champey’s  dance classes and then in the afternoons and evenings after dance class, she would  work along side her mother, selling soft drinks in front of the palace , usually returning home at around 2:00 am.

Ms. P becomes a construction laborer at age 14

The family’s poverty was extreme. In early 2022, when Ms. P was age 14 and despite the fact that Ms. P was still a child,  her father , a construction laborer, took her to the construction site to work along side him  as a construction laborer   as he was desperate for her to earn money to help support the family. This situation was dangerous. The  physical labor was very  hard  and not suitable for a young girl, exposing her to possible injury.  And, as a result of the time she spent on the construction site, Ms. P  was often unable to attend  classes at Champey.

Ms. P’s teacher informed us of this situation. Ms. P  was  very talented and her  teacher discussed the situation with the  Champey’s school director. It was suggested that Ms. P could join the Welcome Team  at Champey and earn a small monthly stipend  which could also  enable her to return to regular attendance at  classes at Champey.

Ms. P joins Champey’s Welcome Team and quits construction work

 Ms. P  became  a member of Champey’s “Welcome Team” for which she is paid  monthly stipend of $50  in exchange for  her work welcoming and assisting  tourists who visit Champey.   This stipend replaced the lost construction work income  that was urgently needed to supplement  the family’s strained income. And as planned, the stipend  enabled  Ms.  P to be able to attend classes at Champey .  

A family emergency jeopardizes Ms. P’s position at Champey

Then, in July 2022, Ms. P’s  mother developed an appendicitis and needed surgery. The family did not have the money to pay for the surgery, so Ms. P’s parents borrowed money from a Microfinance bank to pay the cost of the surgery.   In order to pay off the loan  to the Microfinance bank, Ms.  P’s father wanted Ms. P, then  age 14,  to find a full time job in a garment factory to help pay off this debt.   Ms. P’s talent and love of dance led to  her to ask her dance teacher if there was any way that Champey could provide additional help to the family which could allow her to continue her classes at Champey instead of taking a full time factory job.

Developing a family based solution

Understanding the challenges of this  difficult situation, the goal was to find a solution that could protect Ms. P  as well as helping the family through a very challenging time.  During this time, Ms P's father injured his back which limits his ability to work. After careful evaluation of this cascade of unfortunate events, the school director  asked Kasumisou  Foundation  if the family could  apply to receive  rental support and a food allowance  by including the family in the Continuing Home Care for Women ( CHCW))  the name  that is used in Cambodia for  Kasumisou Foundation’s Family Support Program.

After an assessment, the family was added to Kasumisou  Foundation’s Family Support Program, receiving monthly support of $ 135. This family support  has allowed the family situation to stabilize, put food on the table  and  meet their financial obligations.  It has also enabled Ms. P to remain in classes at Champey and hopefully  continue to work toward a brighter future .

Hoping to offer Ms. P a full time position at Champey

It is our hope that IF we can raise the funds needed to keep Champey open, at  the end of the summer we can offer a full time position to Ms. P, raising  her monthly stipend from   $50  to  $ 120 per month.

Please help us to keep Champey’s doors open !

For now, Kasumisou Foundation’s immediate goal is to keep Champey’s doors open so that Champey can continue its classes. Keeping Champey open will also provide employment to its staff, among whom are special worthwhile cases like  Ms. P and several other talented young people for whom their work/study at Champey is literally a lifeline.

Closing Champey also means that Ms. P’s family would lose both her stipend and also the rental and food support. They would then  be in dire financial condition and  it is likely that  Ms. P’s hopes of working toward a brighter future would be shattered.

Please help us to keep Champey’s doors open.  At the current time, our funding will take us to about July 25.

GlobalGiving July Bonus Day  on July 10

We hope that you will  join with us on July 10 for the GlobalGiving July Bonus Day when GlobalGiving  will offer a donor match of 20%  to 40% on donations of $100 to $1000.

We are deeply grateful to you all for your support. Please feel free to contact us for additional information.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco

P.S.  Hopefully, this information will help you to really understand what we mean when we say that Champey is more than just an arts school.