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