Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Please mark your calendar: Little by Little Donor Donor Match Campaign April 4-8 

The global pandemic has perhaps been one of the rare circumstances in which Cambodia was  well served by its autocratic style of government.  The national government moved  quickly and forcefully to close the country to overseas visitors and imposed a series of strict shutdowns which included closing schools and businesses and restricting gatherings of all kinds. Consequently, Cambodia has achieved an admirable record in controlling the pandemic and minimizing its impact on the health of the population. 

Nevertheless, there were  three extended periods of shutdown –  five weeks  in April/May 2020 and then again for about five weeks each in both  the Spring and Summer of 2021. This  together with the reluctance of many students’ parents to allow them to attend classes even when we were not under enforced “shutdown” , resulted in big fluctuations in our student attendance throughout the pandemic.  Since March 2020 until now, our daily student attendance  has swung wildly between lows of only 20 to 30 students on the worst days to returning at times to our pre-pandemic averages of about 90 students. 

Despite Cambodia’ excellent results in controlling the spread of the virus and our own careful efforts to keep our students and staff safe, we did not emerge totally unscathed.  At least four of our staff have contracted Covid but none experienced serious symptoms. There were 13 confirmed student   cases of which two resulted in hospitalization.  All students and staff have now recovered and resumed their normal schedule of instruction and study at Champey Academy.

In addition to  impact which the pandemic had on student attendance , it caused a  near complete closure of the tourism industry. This has resulted in the loss of all of our income from tourist visitors from March 2020 to now, a period of two full years. This shut down  the revenue from tourist groups who pay a modest admission fee to visit our school, or purchase souvenirs in our little shop and who often leave something in the donation box at the reception area . These revenues had, pre- pandemic, represented about 35% of our foundation’s total annual income.  The complete loss of that income source has, needless to say, been a cause of great concern for us and even put into question our ability to survive should the pandemic continue for much longer.  Fortunately, the worst of the pandemic seems now to be behind us and we have recently received a few tour group reservations for later in this year. we are hopeful but not complacent about our ability to continue to operate if we can just recover our tourist income for the coming high season beginning in November 2022.   Helping us through this difficult has been the loyal and generous support of you, our donors. I think all of us can agree that there are many lessons that we have all learned because of the pandemic. One that we have learned to appreciate even more has been the true value of your kindness and generosity as you have supported our efforts, our students and teachers during some remarkably  challenging times.

We are so happy to see more and more of our students returning, and we are  grateful to you all for helping us to continue on with our mission to bring art, dance and music to our students.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco

Calendar reminder: 

GlobalGiving will hold its  Little by Little Donor Donor Match Campaign April 4-8 offering a 50% match  ( $25) on donations up to $50 .