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A New Learning Center is now opened in Battambang, Cambodia

A  new Learning Center is now opened in Cambodia

I have a great news to share with my friends. Very recently, my family visited a small village in Battambang province in Cambodia where my daughter Natascha officially opened a Learning Center built by the Hope is Life Foundation. We were so glad to see more than 100 children in the village who will now have access to some form of education. The villagers, the Chief District Officer, Head of the District Education Department, the Head of Village Council village children and many of our friends attended the opening ceremony. It was a proud moment to all of us. The school is now officially opened. 

Village children waiting for the guests arrival

Visitors and children posed for  group picture during the opening ceremony

After enduring nearly three decades of brutal warfare and the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. During Khmer Rouge’s rule, it was estimated nearly two million Cambodians died of starvation, torture or execution. Two million Cambodians represented approximately 30% of the Cambodian population during that time.

Today, of Cambodia’s estimated 14 million people, nearly 42% live on less than 50 U.S. cents a day. Another 30% of the population is only earning marginally more than that. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in Asia. Low spending on education perpetuates poverty, as children of poor families are forced to drop out of school – making it harder for them to access opportunities as adults. Those who cannot afford the educational fees, such as the 10,000 to 20,000 children living on the streets of Phnom Penh, do not go to school.

Although the Kingdom of Cambodia is rich in natural resources, decades of war and internal conflict have left it one of the world’s poorest countries. The legacy of strife includes social and economic scars. Many millions of land mines were sowed throughout the countryside, where millions of them still lie, hidden and unexploded.

As you all recall, in a fanatical attempt to create a pure peasant society, the Khmer Rouge turned their country into a giant labor camp, evacuating cities, banning commerce and religion, and trying to exterminate the country's educated class. From 1975 to 1979 at least 1.7 million people were executed or died of overwork, starvation, torture or untreated disease.

Responding to the devastation of Cambodia after years of war, Cambodian Organization for Research and Development (CORDE) has been working in Cambodia for many years with the mission to facilitate the transformation of communities through the education of individuals. It has been a challenge to bring poor Cambodians back from such a tragic upheaval of their nation and the complete disintegration of the family as an institution where love and trust died under brutal oppression, and a whole generation grew up with no understanding of what it means to have a loving family. 

According to CORDE, the only way is social transformation through education - to rebuild the foundation of families and community relations on which a nation can be built. And the only way to build up education in the country is to help people learn to do it and sustain it themselves.

                              The Education Officer and the Village Chief thanked Hope is Life Foundation for                                                       giving an opportunity for the village children to attend school and receive basic education. 

The new Learning Center was built by the Hope is Life Foundation in collaboration with with Cambodian Organization for Research and Development (CORDE). 

More than 100 children in this village will be attending classes at this center. These Centers invite children and youth to deepen their literacy ability and increase their power to express themselves. 


The new learning center is now opened

Classes for children and junior youths will be conducted daily in the new learning center. The land was donated by a farmer from the same village.

Comments

Mallory said…
I think it is so amazing what you are doing for these underprivilaged children! It really makes me feel like there is HOPE in the world! Thank you for that! =)
Sincerely,
Mallory Kozakiewicz, Buffalo NY
February 25, 2009 at 9:12 AM
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