Empowering Youth in Cambodia

EYC Opens 4th School: the Impact School

drew — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:08:51 +0000

We are excited to report that EYC has opened a new school to serve the underprivileged children of Phnom Penh: the Impact School. Located in a very deserving and poor community on the north side of Phnom Penh, the Impact School is located in a wonderful house that has been vacated to allow us to transform it into a school.

It is the most pleasant space of all of our schools, with a large bougainville, a tree and courtyard out front, and a spacious room that is the classroom. There is an additional room that we hope to convert to a computer lab, and a loft that is large enough for several people to live (students live in all of our schools).

The Impact School has been operating on a limited basis for a few months now, providing English classes two hours per day for children in the community. Our goal is to expand to offer the same programs at Impact that we offer at the other three EYC schools. But to add two more hours of English for little kids, two hours of English for teens in the evening, buy computers and have computer training throughout the day, as well as have a medical team come to offer free medical care one evening per week, we need your assistance.

If we can raise money to roll out our programs in this community, the benefits to these children will be significant. Here’s what we need to make this a reality:
• 6 computers at $200 each.
• An English teacher for kids – $70 per month.
• An English teacher for teenagers in the evenings – $120 per month.
• 2 Computer teachers – $50 per month each.

Please make a donation – it will make a difference in our students being able to find a job!

With your help, we hope to make the Impact School a full-time resource for the children and community. We hope for and thank you for your continued support!

EYC 2011 Year End Summary

drew — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:54:35 +0000

As we bring 2011 to a close, I wanted to share with you some of the accomplishments from the past year. All of the staff and students at EYC are very proud about what we achieved, despite the many challenges. We feel that we are providing opportunities that matter for our young people that wouldn’t be provided if not for our work.

English Training

Each of our 3 schools has at least 7 hours of English training each weekday to over 300 students. Our teachers had a total of 5,000 hours of classroom teaching time. The results are hard to quantify, but we estimate 40% are competent with basic writing, reading (words) and pronunciation, while another 30% are basic conversational (phrases), and 15% are competent English speakers. All are making progress in learning a 2nd language, a key exercise in mental development in young people and a valuable skill for many industries in Cambodia.

Computer Training

Our 3 computer labs have generated tremendous results and students who had never used a computer are now competent to proficient. Staffed exclusively by students of EYC who have learned through our computer labs, we provided 8 hours of instruction in each lab to 160 students (1 hour per day per student) through short courses and ongoing training as well as time for self learning and general computer use. Students study MS Office, email and social media, as well as programming and blogging.

Health Care and Training

Our medical program had an impressive 2,500 patient-doctor visits, serving the entire communities, complete with medication if needed. There were 900 patient-dentist visits for cleaning, fillings and extractions. A few lucky ones were given replacement teeth. All were given toothbrushes and training. Our birth control team assisted 78 women to receive much wanted long term birth control, primarily IUDs, and hundreds more were given family planning education. The total expenses by EYC for these programs will be $12,000 for the year, though the programs are also subsidized by our partners One 2 One, Global Child Dental Fund, Cambodian World Family, Chibodia, and Camkids.

Community Organizing

Seeing the need to engage the community to be involved in solving their own problems, EYC’s Community Organizing Officer Hem Nareth trained 3 teams to work in their communities and oversaw their projects. In addition, Nareth is hands-on within the communities to troubleshoot, listen and fill gaps to facilitate the development of the communities where we work. The development of the young people to be leaders and community organizers is ongoing.

Scholarships

Our scholarship program grew considerably and we feel this is a great investment of donor funds. 35 students were given financial aid and/or scholarships to attend university or a private high school. In total $15,500 was distributed to our students to attend high school and university.

Leadership and Job Placement

Our support of young people to be involved in leadership trainings and opportunities for personal growth are integrated throughout our programs, with our students also acting as teachers, medical assistants, party organizers, and generally running all aspects of their schools (though we do also hire trained teachers as well). Weekend trainings are offered for segments of our students once or twice quarterly, and in 2011 we had 150 students attend a week long jungle adventure camp by ADRA where they learned team work and respect for the environment.

Sports

2011 saw a great increase in our offerings to get our young people engaged in sports, including cycling, soccer, yoga, frisbee, gym visits and dance programs. In particular we have 2 soccer teams in competitive leagues, our cycling team won several medals, and we now have space for yoga in an apartment we rent near Aziza School. We are encouraged by our students desire to improve their health and they always have fun doing it. We will continue to encourage girls to get involved.

We’re not as small as we used to be, but we feel our accomplishments are really very large for the resources (budget) we work with. In 2011, we will have spent $130,000 for the year, and received a lot of in-kind contributions from our partners. Our financial information, detailed and in summary, is available upon request, and questions of any kind are welcomed. We close 2011 with a clear sense that it was our best year and biggest accomplishments, and we certainly could not have done it without our wonderful donors. A huge thank you to all everyone that supports us. We hope for your continued support in 2012.

From everyone at EYC,

Happy New Year!

Best regards,

Drew McDowell

International Human Rights Day at EYC

seth — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:40:47 +0000

On December 10th, we honored International Human Rights Day at Aziza, Lakeside and Youth School. There were human rights events going on all across Cambodia and EYC felt it was important to proactively demonstrate the importance of respect for rights since the populations we work with are very vulnerable. Our Khmer staff focused on educating our students about their human rights and encouraged discussion on what they can do to protect themselves and their family. This included learning more about the International Declaration of Human Rights and the Cambodian Constitution. Many people in developing countries like Cambodia don’t know they have ‘rights’ and don’t know what to do if their rights are violated. This contributes to land grabs, human trafficking, poor labor conditions, and other abuses, especially among the poor. By providing education in areas like English, computers, and human rights, we’re doing what we can to empower young Cambodians to build a better future.

A New Location for our Youth School

seth — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:52:02 +0000

In 2009, we opened our Youth School in Boeung Kok’s Village 14 to provide education and community organizing to the residents there. We’ve had a lot of success there, including:

English classes for 143 students (6 hours/day, M-F)
A computer lab where students learn Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Email, etc
Medical clinic run by medical doctors finishing their residencies on Saturdays
Weekly dentist trips for kids (under 18) for cleanings, fillings, extractions, etc
Sports programs, including a soccer team (kids under 14) and a cycling team
Community Organizing training on Sundays

We couldn’t continue the lease at our previous location, so we found a new facility about 1km north along the tracks. We have more space and an overall better situation. We’ll miss the old space, since it was a pretty special house, up high on stilts!
There is still renovation to be done, including finishing the computer lab, but English classes and other programs are going strong. Almost all of the students from the old location still attend, and we’ve gained a few too!

Our school is renting five rooms in a mostly residential complex.

We are still close to the train tracks, which are currently not in operation. Our school room is on the left.

There is a lot of life going on in the community near the Youth School.

Our Youth School Manager is Kungkea. He’s doing a great job!

Sopheak’s Summer Camp Adventure at Jombok Hoas

drew — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:54:51 +0000

“Hello! My name is Choum Sopheak. When I went to the adventure camp I am happy, excited, and afraid also. Now I want to tell everybody about my interesting experience from there with the other students from EYC organization.

“When I came to Jombok Hoas I thought that this place was for making people struggle, like in the army. But when I stayed there and participated in the activities, it was way different to what I thought. Through all many experiences and the learning activities, this place has encouraged a greater consciousness and self confidence in me. Most activities have impacted my social life, my individuality and the people around me. Jombok Hoas is a place for helping people to work together, to build teams and to forgive the other people in the group. All the games always create knowledge, new ideas and we gain experience from it. They showed us a method to solve the problems that I face in my life, like studying, family, and working. I got a lot of creative ideas, leadership, relationship, and how to work with co-workers in organization. There are some games scary. I am afraid, but I still can do it, because of the facilitators and friends, who always encourage me, something that I thought that I can’t do it, but I was way different to what I thought. So I can do it all the games including the high ropes courses.

“Thanks to EYC, Camkids and operators of Jombok Hoas who offered the opportunity for me to get more knowledge and experience from there. So I’ll share knowledge and experience to everybody who I know and other people, especially I’ll practice it in my family and workplace with co-workers and manager.

“I wish you have a good luck forever and that your work goes well. I hope that I go to camping again in future.”

EYC Takes Home the Bronze in Mt Bike Race

Empowering Youth in Cambodia — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:38:52 +0000

EYC students were introduced to the great sport of mountain biking and loved the
experience. The top students from each school were selected based on their
peers confidence in their strength to compete in a race, and 4 boys and 4
girls were chosen to take part. The race was in a mountain area called
Kirrirom about 3 hours from Phnom Penh.

The scenery resembled Colorado and was a refreshing experience for us, as some students literally live over a sewage containment lake and all live in cramped dirty conditions. We
arrived on Saturday and most of them tried a mt bike for the first time.
That night we slept in a local village with families that make their homes
available for $3 per night. Early in the morning we took to the trails for
a race of a lifetime as they competed on a 10 or 20 kilometer course. Aziza
School’s Srey Mom took 3rd place overall for the women events, and first in
her class (4 of the 7 women competing were our students). The next day Srey
Mom missed work as a house cleaner because her arms and shoulders were so
sore, but she said she is interested in joining the women’s cycling team
(she was invited by the local bike shop). A highlight was swimming in a
cold mountain stream, and everyone had a great time.

Mike Kiess, EYC’s mt biking coach and sponsor took 5th place in the over 35
category!

Scholarship Candidates

Empowering Youth in Cambodia — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Dear Friends,

This year we have several students who have graduated from high school, many of them with honors, and we are now seeking funds to be able to offer them scholarships to be able to go on to university. This is a plea with some urgency, as university will be starting soon. It is also a time when we have no extra funds to be able to contribute to them, so please consider making a donation. It will be a great investment!

Here you can read about our candidates.

Thank you,
Drew

Christmas Parties 2009

Empowering Youth in Cambodia — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:14:31 +0000

CHRISTMAS PARTY 2009

People around the world enjoy to celebrate join together to enjoy Christmas parties. The new generation of Cambodian people are taking example from this traditional celebration. Most of the Organizations, NGOs and Churches celebrate Christmas with a party for their staff’s enjoyment. However, EYC, which is running three slum schools, also celebrates its party for all of the schools’ students.

We celebrated the party on two different days. We had the party for Aziza School on December 24th, 2009 and December 27th, 2009 for Lake Side and Youth School together.

With the generous support from our donors, the party went so well. We prepared more than 400 gifts to give out to our students as a Christmas present. All of our students were very happy and thankful to our donors for their kindness and charity toward them.

The village people were very impressed and happy to see their children’s talents showcased as part of the party show, with performances they were taught by our staff. Our staff worked very hard to teach and train to these students how to sing (both Khmer and English), dance, role play, answering questions….

The parties have strengthened the relationship between the students, between our organization and the village people, and between our organization and local authorities. This is an excellent outcome for the benefit of our organization as a result of the kindness and generosity of donors. Again, we want to thank all donors who kindly gave funds to make this happen.

Our schools are growing!

Empowering Youth in Cambodia — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:52:34 +0000

Our organization, Village Earth Cambodia, has opened our new school called Youth School in the train track area in October 2009 to empowering youth in that area. In the first month we opened the school, we started with only three classes: one in the morning, afternoon and evening, each with 20 to 25 students. Last month, sometime in November, we separated this into five classes because more students were interested in education and began to attend.

Because the number of students have increased, we are planning to open up a new class in Jan 2010 by separating the evening class to two classes. We are so excited about this because we can see that the youth are starting to understand the importance of education in their lives. We really need support from the government and also from other people to encourage and give opportunities to the young generation to really participate in the growth of the country in order to reduce poverty in Cambodia.

10 Children Given the Opportunity to Start School

Empowering Youth in Cambodia — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:22:48 +0000

We, Village Earth Cambodia, recently have opened a new school in Beong Kak area called Beong Kak Youth School. Our purpose of opening this school is to develop human resources in the community by providing English classes, dancing lessons, dental care for little children, and a medical clinic….

Many students come to register because it is free of charge for them. Our staff and teachers who are working in Youth School found out that some of those children do not go to school because they don’t have money. We are so concerned about their future and their family’s future if they don’t go to school.Some of them live with a widow mother and some of them have moved from a province and they don’t have any money to transfer from their province school to the city school. Our staff and teachers in Youth School worked very hard to get these kids into public school.

Finally, we got 10 kids to go to school. In order to keep them in school, we have to support them constantly so they will not be chased out from school. In Cambodia, because the government pays a very low salary to teachers, the schools have to collect money from students every day to support the teachers’ sustainability.

We also have provided each of the students with some money to pay their teachers, as well as some school materials such as books, pens, pencils, writing boards, uniforms, and bags. They were so excited and grateful for a chance to go back to school.