Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Update for Champey Academy of Arts

In nearly every respect, we are pleased to be able to report that  things at Champey Academy are steadily returning to pre-pandemic conditions. 

All three classes – traditional dance, music and drawing/painting – are enjoying good attendance with an average total of about sixty students per day.  In August and September, the annual school holiday period for Cambodian public schools, we expect to see our attendance numbers climb further – probably to between 75 and 85 students per day with 90 students being the maximum capacity of our facility and our staffing resources.

Advance bookings from the tour companies for the coming tourism “high season” (October through March) are already quite strong so we are looking forward to welcoming lots of foreign tourists to visit our school later this year. The admission fees which we receive from our foreign visitors as well as their contributions to our donation box and their purchases in our little souvenir shop comprise a critical source or income for our school.  It’s a great relief that now, after two years of the pandemic  shut down of the tourism industry, that we are seeing signs that the tourism in Cambodia is finally recovering.

Because so many of our students come from poor or even desperately poor families we have, for some years now, looked for ways to provide the poorest of our students with small cash stipends in return for good attendance, good behavior in class and a clear commitment to mastering the skills which our teachers are sharing with them.  Beyond the opportunity to teach   dance, music and art, Champey has for years, worked to support basic  literacy, keeping kids in school by rewarding their efforts at Champey  with these stipends, rather than see students   dropp out of school to work for a few dollars a month in a narket stall.  Currently, in addition to our eight staff members (seven full time and one part time) we provide monthly stipends to 16 of our students, all of whom come from poor families.  Those stipends range from $15/month for young beginners to $100 for one teenage girl who has studied dance at Champey for nearly eight years and whwo has now achieved such a high degree of competence and knowledge that our two dance teachers have appointed her as their assistant to instruct beginning students and to help on days when the dance stage is too crowded to be managed by only the two teachers.

Our two newest  students shown in their music class

In Cambodia, the Buddhist temples allow the poorest members of society to live on their premises for no charge but they provide nothing more than a place to sleep at night.The two new music students shown in the photo  have recently moved to Phnom Penh and are living in a Buddhist temple near our school.   

The boy on the left is eight years old. His family has five children of which he is the fourth.  His parents both work as cooks at a Buddhist temple in Pailin Province on the country’s western border with Thailand. The boy on the right is 12 years old and comes from a family with nine children.  His parents, too, work as cooks in a Buddhist temple but they are living in Preah Sihanouk province on the country’s south coast.   Beginning from August 1 we have added these boys to our list of students who receive small monthly stipends for their good attendance and hard work in class.

We are currently trying to find out more about the complete situation for these two children, such as whether they have any fanily what so ever in Phnom Penh , how they they got to Phnom Penh, how they are being fed , who, if anyone, will pay their schoof fees and supplies and our support will adjust accordiingly. They will start at the lowest stipend level of $15 per month but,in the coming months we will look to provide these kids with  additional assistance of some kind. 

In both of  these cases, the children's parents  parents have many children and earn only $25 each per month working as cooks in Buddhist temples.

Champey has always been a safe space for children and teens to come to attend classes to learn art, cance and mujsic, as well as to  build friendships and receive mentoring.  All of this is possible  because  you, our kind donors.

We are deeply grateful to you for your genereous support.

Mark & Barbara