Recent Tragedy of Cambodia

Since the late 1960s the warm and friendly people of Cambodia have suffered deeply from the impact of wars, genocide, unrest and ongoing political instability. By 1978 the Khmer Rouge had killed nearly all educated Cambodians. There were no longer any teachers, doctors, writers or scientists in the country – 25% of the population died in The Killing Fields. Most parents of the current generation did not receive much of an education themselves; as a result the value held in education has been lost. Less than 5% of Cambodian villages have a secondary school and many of the older children don’t regularly attend as their parents require them to work in the fields. Between the ages of ten and thirteen, 10% of Cambodian children are engaged in hard manual labour; between the ages of fourteen and seventeen the rate climbs to 42%.

We have links with a growing number of schools in the north west of England who help us with fundraising, and have recently introduced the Times Table Challenge which links educational needs across 6000 miles !

The Khmer Student Hostel Project (KSHP) will not only provide accommodation during the week for these high school students but also through working in the home garden of the hostel they will learn new methods of propagation, cultivation and irrigation. When they return to their home they will pass these new skills on to their families enabling them to improve the food production and overall self-sufficiency of the village