"Four large two-story buildings create a fortress-like setting for the 2,000 students who gather at the flagpole for opening ceremony. In straight lines, the children face the flagpole and listen to morning announcements then, with a sign I miss, move to their classrooms with noisy enthusiasm."
In Phnom Penh, there are schools just like what we have in Hong Kong or mainland China. Small pupils are energetic and naughty; they read English and study math. However, the difference is that the school have to provide rice to families so that they agree to send their to school and that many of the pupils still need to go pick up garbage every day in order for their family to survive.
In HIF's volunteer trip to Cambodia this summer, we have visited the school mentioned in the beginning, a school that is free for the local children and that is funded by a French organization called "For Smile of Child". The founders Christian and Marie-France des Pallieres were a couple who retired from IBM in France. Their school probably is the only chance for those little children to get education, and they said that they enjoy doing it because they love to watch those children grow and have the chance to lead a better life.
However, there are still problems with the funding. They have to spend millions a year in order to support the school to run. When those children grow up, some of them definitely will come back to support the school, but might all the money run out before that actually happen?
I believe this is a common problem faced by most of the charities that rely on donation to run their projects. As we continue to seek funding and improve the quality of education in Cambodia, may the solution lie in other field like mutual benefit business cooperation, through which Cambodian people are not only the object of help but also the people who can contribute to bring profit for business? Perhaps business can create wonder other than being the evil that blind people only to see money and power? But how we can make the change?
Further reading
- National Geographic on For Smile of Child
- A foreign reporter experienced An Ordinary Day at the school
- For Smile of Child website (in French)
- Other people's visit to the school
- See the garbage mountain that is near the school and that supports 2000 people's lives there (See picture on the left - credit to Thumbnails)
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