Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Our programs  and students at Champey Academy continue to thrive.  Our goal is to inspire harmony in the school through kindness, respect and understanding from all and acceptance toward all at Champey. At Champey, all students are welcomed! 

Despite some considrable financial challenges over the past year, Kasumisou Foundation has managed to make it through most of  2025 and we have , at  the present time, funding to carry us through December and into early   2026.  

Champey is a safe and welcoming place for all students. Daily attendance which had been  running between 80 to 100 students per day in much of 2025, but it has skyrocked recently  to an averge of about 125 students per day with a record attendance recently at 155 students !    We  continue to make space for any student or child who wants to join our programs, regardless of their specific challenges or special needs. All students have equal opportunities to learn and to have fun in our classes. We simply ask that all of our students try their best in class and that they are always respectful to their teachers, our staff and their fellow students.

Organizations in Phnom Penh, including Cambodia's Ministry of Education, offer little assistance to young people facing special needs or unique challenges. We are proud that our classes are popular with young people of all ages. We are especially proud of the role that Champey plays in providing a welcoming refuge for children and teens who face special challenges:

• kids from dysfunctional families
• kids from families suffering extreme poverty
• kids with learning disabilities
• kids with gender identification challenges
• students who qualify as developmentally disabled
• students who have dropped out of school for a variety of reason

Our funding vcurrently looks like this:

• GlobalGiving: We currently receive recurring donations averaging about $600 each month
• Tourism: .This can be a few hundred dollars a month during much of the year but swell to a few thousand dollars at the peak of the high season in December - February. Tourism supplies about 40% of our total annual expenses
• Supporting donors: We are blessed with a small group of donors who regularly contribute to Kasumisou Foundation. Much of it is seasonal, at year end and it is highly variable.
• Miracles! : It may sound strange, but there have been several times over the past few years, when just as we were at the point of total despair, a miraculous donation arrived so that our programs could contitnue to operate for a few more weeks or months.
• We recently received a donation from an anonymous donor that will give us funding through year end. We are not able to thank them personally, so it is our hope that they will see this update and understand how deeply we appreciate their wonderful generosity1

Before COVID we had built up reserve funds that helped us to operate more easily in the event of a funding shortfall during the low months of the tourist season. Now, we are so please to tell you that we have fundign  to keep the school open for all of 2025 and into January 2026.  

Champey Academy is more than just a school.

Whether we want to be or not, we are actively involved in the lives of our students. We have many times, over the years, served as the front line of protection for our kids against trafficking, abuse and gang affiliation. We actively work to keep kids from dropping out of school to just earn money, usually to try to help support their families.

We have provided financial assistance in a variety of ways:

• small emergency grants in dire situations that provides money for food.
• We provide an attendance/performance driven stipend to several students from extremely poor families to motivate those students and their parents to keep their kids in public school and to attend our classes regularly.
• We also have identified and employ a small group of outstanding students whom we have hired as a "Welcome Team" to greet tourists and who form the core of our student performers for our performances outside of Champey.

Our program thrives today because of the generous support of our donors and we are deeply grateful to you all.

Our attendance, now nearly 40% higher than in 2024, averaging about 125 srudents per day :

• 35% art school ( including 1 or 2 young monks who want to learn traditional painting to be able to restore their temples.
• 10% music students which will often inclued 1 or 2 monks!
• 65% dance school

Our classes are open to students free of charge age 7 to 22 although recently we did have enrollment of 2 students age 4 years old ! 

GlobalGiving is sponsoring  Match Day on December 2  where donations  upb to $ 2500 will receive some type of a proportional match. We hope that you consider joining us during this fund raising event ! 

Thank you for all of your wonderful support ! 

Barbara & Mark