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A School for Kampong Touk

October 2005
The village Kampong Touk is located around 25 kilometers North-west of Samlaut District Head quarter. There are 107 families (485 persons) living in this village. 100% of villagers are farmers, whose lives rely fully on seasonal crops plantation such as sesame, soy bean, peanut and mainly rice.

There are no public infrastructure, health center, temple, clean drinking water and education facility in this village. More than 100 children who reached school age are illiterate; only a few (above 10 years old boys) can travel to public school, which is located approx. 8 km away from their village, on the very bad and muddy road. Small children (7 - 9 years old) cannot go to this school as the distance is too far to walk.

CVD decided to start assessing for primary need of the children in Kampong Touk village.

First meeting conducted by CVD field staff was held on 28th September 2005. This initial meeting was to personally meet and discuss with local authorities to identify exact needs and demands related to children and to follow up on requests that were raised during our meeting in previous months. The participants mentioned the need for school construction for children in this village. The actual following was to find out how much the villagers will contribute and what are the interests of the villagers in participating in the process to build a school for their children.

Second meeting was held on 12th October 2005, by Project Manager with the villagers and local authorities to identify village volunteers and set up a school facilitation group in collecting resources for school construction. We found a group of villagers and organized them to work in team for mobilizing the resources within their village.

On 19th October 2005 CVD staff held a meeting with village head and most villagers (some of them went out to farm) of Kampong Touk village, Mean Chey Commune, Samlaut District, Battambang Province. The meeting was to review the contribution of the villagers to help with the building. We found out that the timbers, land and bamboo for school construction were already in place. During the meeting the villagers presented their collections to the meeting as the following:
  • The school will be a one classroom school, size 5 meters x 7 meters.
  • The school will be made of wood and bamboo structures
  • It will be walled with bamboo
  • Wooden column
  • Zinc roof
  • Dirt-floor
  • Very basic table made of bamboo and wooden frame
CVD presented details on the contributions that will be assigned for this school construction and share in school running cost.

CVD got the kind donations of the total sum $ 460. The plan to spend this money are as following:
  • US $ 175 for zinc (for roof)
  • US $ 240 for teachers ($20 per month x 12 months)
  • US $ 45 for tables (very basic made) and black board
The above expenses were based on resources availability which we obtained from donations. Therefore, the physical constructions of school, timbers for the structure, tables and frames are fully contributed. The fee for teacher was not fully paid. The given stipend was based on voluntary wage and the availability of resources. We will identify additional money for covering the teacher wages, so that he can receive at least $ 50/month, if he has to teach full time (morning and afternoon).

In these above expenses we cannot cover school kits/supplies i.e. uniforms, bags, writing materials such as slate, chalk etc. for approximately 40 students of grade 1.

Based on the latest meeting with villagers, they asked us to support grade 2 as well. There are approximately 30 students that need to continue education within the village.

On 28th October 2005 the school building was commenced. This new building will be completed by first week of November 2005. Hopefully, the class can start by then. The new scholastic year started on October 1st 2005; therefore, there will be a one-month delay for these children in enrolling the course. The delaying time will not be a problem as the teacher will be paid to compensate the teaching time during a public school holiday.

Community contribution:
  • Wood for school construction
  • Labor (they all will work together to build this small wooden school).
  • Managing the construction process
  • Managing the ongoing school activities (follow up the teacher)
Please note that this school needs to be divided into two classes, grade 1 and grade 2, taught by only one teacher, grade 1 in the morning and grade 2 in the afternoon. The quality of the education may be limited because we have limited resources, but we can at least help the children to learn to read and write. We expect that at least 70 children enroll for the classes within this scholastic year.

       
Click to enlarge


Update #1

28 October 2005
  • Met school construction committee.
  • Timbers for construction are transported to the location where the school will be built.
  • Villagers prepared land for school construction.
  • Teacher starts registering students for enrollment; 49 children were registered.
3 November 2005
  • Purchased and provided zinc and nails to school construction committee (the materials arrived at the location by now)
  • Spot check the school compound and meet with local authorities.
Problem and Future plan:
  • As there are many public holiday in November 2005 (such as Kathenatean, King Birth Day and Water Festival), the people asked to delay the school construction until third week of the month.

       
Click to enlarge


Update #2

December 2005

The construction of the school has started. It was a little delayed because the farmers in the village were very busy with their own work.
The children have already received their school materials. The classes are taking place under someone's house until the school building is finished. (Houses in Cambodia are often built on stilts.)
So far already over 70 children have registered at the school.

   
       
Click to enlarge

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Help and Hope to the Vulnerable

Cambodian Vision in Development
Battambang, Cambodia