Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

GlobalGiving  Little by  Little 50% Donor Match Days Sept 18 through 22 on donations up to $ 50

Achieving  a 25 year  milestone with you!

In January of 2024 Kasumisou Foundation  reaches  the important  milestone of  25 years  of support for the arts ,  training and teaching  disadvantaged young people in Phnom Penh about their rich cultural heritage  of  art, dance and music.

Many of you have accompanied us during this remarkable journey, seeing our young students embrace their heritage and strive to achieve remarkable standards of excellence.

Currently the daily attendance numbers at our Champey Academy of Arts have been averaging just over 80 students per day. That number puts us within 10 students of our facility’s maximum capacity. All students attend classes free of charge. 

As reported previously, due to the limited size of our music classroom, our music teacher must often split his class into two groups and divide the class period in half in order to accommodate all of the  students who show up for one or the other of the class periods on any given day. While perhaps this may not be the best arrangement, we feel that engagement with as  many students as is possible  is the most  important goal and that our solution is  better than turning away any of our students.

Tourists are coming back to Cambodia now that COVID has passed.  Advance tour group bookings for the coming tourism ‘high season’  which runs from late October to early April,  are already running strong and  we are also hoping to get many more tourist bookings at Champey even  before the start of the new season.  Every year we count on the revenue from the hundreds of tourists who visit our school along with the generous donations of our supporters during the holiday season to get us through to the following Spring. 

The loss of two full years of tourist related revenues during the pandemic lock downs has completely drained our cash reserves and we are now literally ‘running on fumes’. We are fervently  hoping for an early return of the tourists this season, the support of some of the local hotels who direct their guests to visit us and, most important, the generous support of our Foundation’s friends in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan to help us make it through another year. 

We hope that you will join us during the  GlobalGiving Little by Little  50% Match days Sept 18 through 22  where there will be  a 50%  match on donations of $ 50 or less.

Champey offers these kids, all of whom are significantly  at risk youth and elementary school age students  multiple benefits, by providing a safe space for learning and friendship,  mentoring and a fair amount of fun as our students build friendships, skills and aspirations of a better life.   None of this would be possible without  you!   We are deeply grateful to you  for your long time and generous support !

Barbara & Mark Rosasco

Program update from the field ~  Mark's recent visit Cambodia

Our Champey Academy of Arts continues to be a happy place for kids to learn while also providing a refuge for many disadvantaged young people in central Phnom Penh. Our students can attend all classes free of charge, 6 days per week. 

In recent months our  daily attendance numbers are averaging about 70 to 75 students per day.  Those numbers are split between the morning and afternoon sessions with the afternoons generally experiencing higher attendance due to the fact that some of our students must work in the mornings. 

The music classes have become so popular that the teacher must routinely split the class into two groups, asking one group to wait their turn outside because of limited space and instruments in the classroom. 

We continue to operate on a half day model which fits neatly with the government schools’ schedule where students are assigned each month to attend either the morning or the afternoon class sessions.  Champey Academy students in grades 1 through 12 normally attend the government school in either the morning or the afternoon and then come to Champey classes  to study during the other half of the day. 

Sadly,  some of our kids no longer attend the government schools because of their own lack of motivation, a lack of parental encouragement or supervision or because their families’ poverty requires that they do work outside to help support the family. Even so, we welcome them to participate in our programs, making it an even more important part of their life.

We have a total of 9 regular staff plus 4 student assistants  for a total of 13 members of  our team at Champey.  In addition to our school director, we  employ four full time teachers (two for dance and one each for drawing/painting and music) and three office staff (two full time and one half time) as well as one teacher’s assistant in the dance class.  Finally, we provide salaries of $40 or $50 per month to four of the most accomplished dance students who help with the instruction of the young, beginning students. These outstanding students also form the core of our team for outside performances.

In addition to the staff and students listed above, we provide monthly stipends of $15 to $30 to just a few of our students who come from extremely poor family backgrounds.  The amount of their stipend varies from month to month based on their attendance record the previous month with $30 being given only to students who achieved perfect attendance in the preceding month.  It offers a win/win situation to encourage committed participation and growth  in our programs while offering a bit of  much needed income.

The total annual operating budget for  our school is approximately  $72,000 ( $6,000 per month) This  includes  all salaries and stipends, rent, utilities and classroom supplies.  That figure typically greatly exceeds our available funds but fortunately, in normal times there is significant income which we receive from the  tourists who  visit our school daily during Cambodia’s high season for tourism (October through March).  About 35 to 40% of our school’s annual operating expenses are covered by the income the school  earns during the tourism season but which  still leaves Kasumisou Foundation’s Champey Academy  with a very significant funding challenge each year.

These days, in general, it seems that we all comment on just how much our money DOES NOT  buy.  However, consider this:  your donation of just $ 2 per day can make all the difference!   If we average 72 students per day x 6 days per week x 50 weeks per year, that is an estimated  21,600 student visits. If we assume an annual  operating budget of $72,000 , this means that the average cost per day per  student visit to attend classes  is about $3.33. About 35-40% of this amount is covered by tourist revenue,  which means that we still need to raise roughly $40,000 +  per year or about $2 per day per student   or $48  per month per  student  to  keep our school in operation providing  access to our free classes 6 days per week. 

Wednesday, July 12, is GlobalGivings Donor Match Day. Donations of $100-$1000 are eligible to receive a match of 50%.

The photos that we have attached will show you some of the achievements of our students, who pre-COVID performed for guests at the prestigious Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh . You will also see  drawings created by students. All of these photos represent both the accomplishments and the future  potential of our students.. 

We hope that you will join us to help  keep our school open, providing fun, education and a positive social impact on the many students who attend each day. We cannot do this without your support!

With our profound thanks for your generous support, 

Mark & Barbara Rosasco