Big Strides in Education for CCH Children

Twenty nine children at CCH have made a remarkable promise: To finish Grade 12---to become high school graduates. Pictured above are 19 of these students. There is much to tell here.

First, CCH has received very generous grants from Happy Hearts Fund, in partnership with Give2Asia in the United States, to finance 21 children, grades 7 through 11 to attend Pannasastra International School in Phnom Penh (PSIS), a local Cambodian private school. Two more students will be financed at PSIS by individual donors. Another three students are being financed by Happy Hearts/Give2Asia to attend an international school in Phnom Penh which confers the highly prized International Baccalaureate degree. This is in addition to three more students who are already enrolled in such IB programs in Phnom Penh, Singapore, and Canada, thanks to a private donor and the generosity of United World College.

A recent report by Dr. Judy Ledgerwood of Northern Illinois University in the United States reports that 36.3% of Cambodians are illiterate, 26.6% are semi-literate and the remaining 37.1% are considered literate, at least at a basic level. In sharp contrast, literacy for CCH children will approach 100% as the years pass, due to the strong emphasis on education by the CCH staff.

Equally important, Dr. Ledgerwood reports that the enrollment of Cambodian girls in upper secondary school is only 31.8% of total enrollment. By contrast, of the 29 CCH students attending the new education programs, 15 are girls and 14 are boys. This represents nearly all the CCH children Grade 7 and above at the orphanage.

Why private schools instead of the Cambodian public schools? First and foremost, the public schools are of very poor quality. Second, the private schools promise much better English instruction. Third, children will attend a full day in private schools, as opposed to half day in the public schools. Further, public schools are charging more fees now---they are no longer really free. And finally, there is a marked tendency for older students, including CCH children, to want to drop out of the higher grades in public schools, due to the rather stifling environment.

This big push for quality education at CCH is part of a bigger strategy to ultimately achieve sustainability for the orphanage, apart from dependence on foreign donors. This goal is still far off, but Director Mech Sokha sees a day when the well educated, highly motivated alumni of Center for Children's Happiness will provide the bulwark of management skills and financial support for other needy children of Cambodia.

Study Time!!!

Library Time

The Rising Price of Food

Yes, the rises in international food prices you have been hearing about on the news are very real, and affect CCH in a significant way. Last year (2007) the total food budget for all of Center for Children's Happiness was about $57,000. With rises in prices over the past six months, the total food budget could climb to as much as $68,000, or an increase of about 20%, in a fund raising environment which has leveled off or even declined in many Western countries. Fortunately, CCH has a bit of a cash reserve, but as the Washington Post reported on 30 May, certain economic factors such as demand for food products to manufacture alternative fuels, and increased food demand in India and China, would indicate that at least some of the recent food price rises are likely to be permanent, or will even increase.

According to Susana Rico of the World Food Program, "I don't think there is a single program that doesn't have some kind of concerns because they have to scale down...The majority of countries will suffer some kind of cutbacks in rations or programs in the next three to five months." On 30 April, the New York Times reported

Short of cash, the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that feeds the world’s poorest people, can no longer supply 450,000 Cambodian children with a daily breakfast of domestically grown rice supplemented by yellow split peas from the United States and tuna from Thailand.

Again, fortunately, CCH has not yet been hit with this dire necessity, but its basic needs for coming years will definitely be more expensive, and will require additional revenue.

Let it not be said that CCH children do not know where food comes from. Above, the buying of food at market, and its preparation and serving. Below, pigs raised for meat at a farm facility owned by Director Mech Sokha, and a vegetable garden at the CDCC facility, planted and tended by the children themselves.

Special Fund Raising

Cambodia does not have the only remarkable children in the world. Please meet young Mr. Austin Zappia, aged 8, (left, below) who recently visited CCH with his mother, Kelly. Austin was so taken with the plight of orphan children in Cambodia, that he immediately went home to Virginia, in the U.S.A., and began to raise money to sponsor children at CCH. To date, Austin has raised almost $1,200 by selling lemonade! So successful has he been that he is also a home town celebrity, appearing on a local news station (see it by clicking here).

Austin's mom, Kelly, works for the Claire V company, which designs and sells unique silk purses and accessories worldwide. Claire V was founded by Laura Bradford Godfrey in 2002. Laura, along with her mother, Kristen Way, Director of Sales for Claire V, also visited CCH, and have been long time supporters of the orphanage, providing funds for child sponsorship, special events, and land purchases. Laura is in front, in the photo below, left. Austin and mom Kelly are right behind Laura. Kristin, in photo at right, enjoys a moment of fun with the CCH kids. Austin's special fund raiser may also be accessed on the Claire V website here.

More Scenes of Life at CCH

Girls Sewing Bags to Earn Extra Spending Money

Public electricity is always going out in Phnom Penh. Hence, generator repair is always a priority. And it's pretty dusty there too, so CCH vehicles need cleaning.

On a Road Show to far off Ratanakiri, CCH kids teach poor village children, but also take time to cool off in a lake.

And finally.....

As always, for help great and small, the children at CCH are always ready with grateful hearts...................

Want to make a donation to CCH? Click here to find out how.

Contributors to this report:

Content: Mech Sokha & Elia Van Tuyl

English Editing and Layout: Elia Van Tuyl

Photos: Chin Sayorn, Elia Van Tuyl