Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Funding news and Insights at Champey Academy

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Insights at Champey Academy: Using a personalized approach

Our photo was taken last year during the graduation day performance at our Champey Academy Summer Arts Camp. Although it depicts a happy scene of children demonstrating the skills which they learned in the camp, it nevertheless reminds us that our program at Champey must aim to provide much more than just cultural enrichment to the children whom we serve.

 One of the young people shown in our photo is a young teenager from our AIDS Patient Family Support Program (FSP).  Both mother and student suffer from AIDS and have been supported by our FSP for more than 10 years. Over the past two years the teenager’s mother has developed AIDS related dementia causing the mother to become increasingly neglectful of her child to the point that the child no longer receives any parental guidance at home .

We became concerned that this teen, for a variety of reasons was particularly vulnerable to potential exploitation and could easily become another teenage victim of street life, drugs and prostitution. Our teams at the FSP and Champey then worked hard to create an individual program to provide a safe and supervised structure for this young person and to provide ongoing adult guidance.

 Many of the students who attend classes at Champey would be considered “ at risk”. They suffer from AIDS, poverty, and a challenged family life at home. Champey offers a safe haven, providing education and activities for children and teens who might otherwise drift toward street life, drugs and prostitution in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city.

We are grateful to our generous donors who make this program possible.

Thank you,

Barbara & Mark