Arts for Cambodian Children & Teens at Champey

Mark is just back from his quarterly trip Cambodia . During each trip, Mark meets with all of the staff and leaders and reviews each project thoroughly for progress , participation and to explore areas of future innovation and improvement.

Key to our continued success with this program is reliable funding. GlobalGiving will offer a first month match on recurring donations made during the month of December . Not only do recurring donations help us to have stable funding, the bonus match on the first month's contribution will add to our year end fundraising goals.

Champey Academy continues to fulfill its roll as a “ go to “ place for young people in its neighborhood in Phnom Penh. Daily dance classes, in traditional Cambodian dance,  are quite full most days, averaging 60 or more participants . The school is becoming better known as a tourist destination, which gives students a receptive audience for their practice sessions.

Music and art  classes are full to over flowing.  Eager music students typically  outnumber the traditional Cambodian instruments that they seek to learn, so teaching is not as efficient as one might hope as students must take turns on the instruments. The Roneat Ek, which is a xylophone like instrument is the most popular among all the students. Champey owns one and our music teacher frequently brings one to class. If possible, we would like to purchase another Roneat Ek in 2016, funds permitting.

There are 5 kinds of musical instruments being used in the class:

1. Roneat Ek which is a xylophone like instrument of which there are three general types
2. Roheat Thoong ( one of the three types)
3. Kong Thom which is a bell type instruments of various tones arranged in a circle on a stand
4. Skor thom or Big Drum
5. Skor Samphor - another type of drum that is similar to the big drum

At times we may also have loans of stringed instruments for use by the students.

This introduction and access to traditional Cambodian music is just one of several things that we introduced in 2014 and which has been a great success amount the students.

All of this is possibly only through the generous support of our donors for which we are deeply grateful.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco