CURRENTLY THESE ARE OUR GREATEST NEEDS
Contributing to these intitatives steers more students towards brighter futures!
CREATING OUR DREAM TEAM!
We have 20 teachers in the field across our projects, overseeing the extra curricular subjects of English, science, computers and more. Overseeing them is our core team of field directors and admin staff who maintain the framework and breadth of operations.
Many of these amazing individuals are either former students, or came in at the early days of our organization and have evolved and grown along with us, making huge contributions to our development along the way.
We believe in giving opportunities where we see enthusiasm and a thirst for growth, and often train members into their entry teaching positions, as well as giving all team members regular access to skills training so that we in turn are serving our students to the absolute best of abilities. These include internal trainings, peer coaching tours and teacher exchanges, as well as external courses and extra English classes.
We have seen how quickly teachers in the field and our HQ staff can learn and apply new concepts and skills. Scaling up these offerings for the 30 staff who benefit from it will have a direct and immediate impact on our students, so we’d like to increase the current budget to $4500 this year.
- Target $4,500 65.56%
FIELD TRIP FOR YOUNG EXPLORERS
Our Explore Class for middle school students uses project-based learning to supplement the students’ public education as well as teach vital online & computer skills. In the first year of the curriculum, they master computer basics and gain confidence in presenting their projects to their peers. In the second year, they dive deeper into how to research properly while also getting more freedom in pursuing their own research topics.
Our young Explorers continually ask for more projects related to Cambodia and its history that also support them in growing their own academic Khmer literacy. With relevant online materials in Khmer being scarce, we are excited to have found a partner in the Khmer Temple Foundation. Our team recently met with KTF at their Jayavarman VII Library & Mini Museum on the outskirts of Siem Reap City, established to educate foreigners and Khmers alike about the rich history of Cambodia, particularly as it relates to the temples.
A field trip to the museum will bring the students invaluable insights and greatly support them in completing their projects. From this visit, they will be able to refine their research and gain further knowledge to aid in preparing their presentations. KTF staff will then join us back in the Explore lab to enjoy the students’ presentations and help answer any remaining questions.
This field trip is a wonderful opportunity to help Khmer history come alive for students while using their growing research skills on a topic very close to their homes and hearts! Costs for the museum donation, student transportation and lunch for 30 students comes to $455.
- Target $455
GEEKING OUT ON SCIENCE
During 2023 we developed and piloted science classes that follow, and supplement, the public school curriculum. With science being taught in government classes purely via textbook, our project-based lessons fill these learning gaps with the missing practical experiments and hands-on activities required to fully understand the subject material, while bringing in fun and creativity at the same time. We are now ready to roll these lessons out to our wider cohort, reaching and inspiring more students to find their inner geeks!
The list of resources that make these lessons so much fun ranges from the expected – owl pellets, tweezers, and magnifying glasses – to the downright mind-boggling – shaving cream, marshmallows, Q-tips, and Styrofoam balls!
It’s a jam-packed curriculum full of surprises and, with your help, $2,000 will allow us to inspire even more budding scientists!
- Target $2,000
TERTIARY SCHOLARSHIPS
As we approach the crucial tipping point of having as many students in secondary and tertiary education as in primary, and due to our finely-tuned programs in the earlier grades, more students are now staying the course through school and getting to the Grade 12 national exam. With those G12 graduates in turn breaking into higher levels of academic achievement, we need to grow our high school, university and vocational training scholarships program accordingly.
Ensuring that students from impoverished families achieve their full potential and take advantage of the same opportunities as the elite is always our goal. Developed to offer the best chance of success at the critical junctures of a student’s learning journey, our scholarship programs enables them to go on to further education, better job prospects, and contribute to a more equitable future for their communities and their country.
Donating to our scholarship fund today can help students’ dream futures come true tomorrow!
- Target $7,000
READING ROCKS!
Encouraging a love of books will always be a big focus – for students of course, and their families too – in the push to improve literacy rates and the value of education in the wider community.
We run 7 libraries in total, which requires a wide range of titles and shelves-loads of books. Keeping all our libraries stocked with engaging material costs $2,000 per year, and in 2023 your support enabled us to do just that. Will you help us stock up again for the year ahead?
- Target $2,000
BOOSTING BRAINS
In addition to the filling and nutritious daily breakfasts that primary students receive, we also try to serve a monthly all-you-can-eat lunch at Koh Ker and Romchek schools, where many families still live with food insecurity.
These lunches provide an extra boost to students, who are encouraged to take home servings for their families as well. Pre-Covid, these were facilitated by visitors coming to take part; post-Covid, we are still not back to receiving regular visitors to fully reinstate this.
One monthly lunch costs $350, bringing the total for the year to $8,400.
- Target $8,400
Looking for another way to join in? Head over to our Get Involved page and see if there is something just right for you!