Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Champey Reopening ! 

In early 1999, when we first started supporting arts instruction for children In Phnom Penh, most people in the country, even in the capitol city, were still desperately poor. Consequently, most of our students in those early days came from very poor families and had few other opportunities for amusement or free instruction of any kind.  Many of our students in those days were too poor to attend even the government schools and, instead, performed some sort of paid labor in the mornings and came to our arts programs in the afternoons. 

One of our first dance teachers when we opened Champey Academy in January 2013 had originally been a dance student at the Apsara Arts Association school which was sponsored by Kasumisou Foundation from 1999 to 2012.  That girl learned to dance in the afternoons at Apsara Arts after spending the morning with her brothers – those children were orphans - pulling a rubbish cart around the streets of Phnom Penh to collect recyclables which they then sold at the city dump to support themselves.   Now, though, as Cambodia’s economy has developed and a middle class has emerged in Phnom Penh, many of the students who study at our Champey Academy of Arts come from middle class families. 

We still have many students who  come from very poor families.  In this program update, we would like to share just a little about two of those students.

Ms. P and Ms. S  are two sisters ages 14 and 11.  When the government schools in Phnom Penh reopen after the pandemic closing, Ms. P will be in grade 6 and Ms. S will be in grade 3.  Ms. P  is the third child in her family  and Ms. S is the fourth child in a family of six children.  The oldest two children in the family are boys , who are currently Buddhist monks.

Their father is a construction worker which means that due to the Covid related shutdowns, his work in the past 18 months has  been sporadic at best.  The girls’ mother sells birdseed and canned soft drinks on the street in front of the Royal Palace to tourists and other people.  The period of the pandemic has been especially tough for families like this one as the government imposed shutdowns have frequently impacted their ability to earn any income. 

For this family in particular, with the two oldest kids being monks and thus having no income,  there is significant pressure on the other kids to try to earn money to help the family.  Consequently, although Ms. P and Ms.S love to study dance and have been students at Champey for more than four years, they must periodically skip classes at our school to help their mother sell bird seed on the street.  For serious and committed students like Ms.P and Ms. S, though, we do offer very small monthly stipends usually $20 to $30 per month to make certain that they can have something for lunch every day and maybe have just a very little pocket money left over. It also helps to prevent children like these two sisters from being pulled out of school to work full time. The stipend is  often just enough to make it " worth while" to keep  children  in school.  Although Champey’s main mission is to teach arts and crafts to disadvantaged children and youth, the social safety net  that it provides is an important part of safeguarding the well being of our students.

Cambodia, for the time being, seems to  turned the corner on COVID and things are beginning to open up. Our students are eagerly returning to classes and we are all hopeful to get back to normal.

Your loyal support over the past 18 months has been a crucial part of retaining our teachers  and supporting classes so that we can resume our classes.

We are deeply grateful to you all for your loyal support.

Mark and Barbara