Children: “simply the best”
Friends of Kakot focusses on the young generation of Kakot. It is essential to offer more and better education when we want to improve the overall living conditions. To realize this, we need to invest in the start-up of a kindergarten, whereby children do not have to miss school because they have to take care of a smaller brother or sister.
Furthermore, we want to improve the quality of the education at the elementary school by offering English lessons, computer lessons, sports and games activities and open a library. With these elements, the children will be better prepared for the secondary school.
Kindergarten
Assumptions:
Who: The kindergarten is for children from 0 till 6 years of age whose parents go to work on the field. Usually the older sister or brother (or relatives) have to stay at home to take care of the small children, and therefore cannot go to school. By introducing the kindergarten, the small children will develop in a safe environment, where there is also attention for food, hygiene etc. Apart from the fact that the older children can follow their lessons at their own school, the kindergarten also create jobs in the village.Also, the kindergarten will become a place for creating awareness to be passed on to parents regarding food, hygiene and health.
What: Kindergarten will offer 25 children between 0 and 6 years a safe environment during day time. One professional worker supported by volunteers from the village will guide the group. There will be lunch served and – in the future – the food served will be from locally grown produce.
Where: Friends of Kakot will start the construction of a new building next to the primary school that will include the library, accommodation for teacher (who will stay overnight), and classrooms for English lessons and computer courses. Fund raising for this has already started.
Why: small children need care and attention whilst the parents are out at work. The kindergarten enables the parents to go to work without requiring other children to take care of these kids and thereby miss attending school themselves. Also, the kindergarten creates the opportunity to communicate with the parents about the developments of the child and, if needed, make a referral for individual help.
Status August 1, 2017
The kindergarten of Kakot started in August with 30 children of disadvantaged families, who come to the kindergarten 5 days a week. The supervisors the enthousistic, 23-year-old Chin Lyta. She completed successfully High School and the training “Kindergarten teacher skills”.
The community can pay her not more than $25 per month. From the government, there is no support for a Kindergarten whatsoever. Therefore, the opening hours for the kindergarten are so limited. And is it not possible at the moment to have more children at the kindergarten. At the moment, there is a lack on game and playing materials. There is no room for the teacher to prepare the program and store her belongings. Meanwhile she purchased some materials herself, which she takes home every evening.
Miss Chin leaves home at 5 in the morning to clean and prepare the room before the children arrive. The area around the building is messy, with many shrubs in which, to her displeasure, many pests live. She does her job with a lot of energy and enthusiasm which she gets back from the children and makes her happy, that’s what keeps her going.
The first sponsors for the Kindergarten and Primary school support have signed in meanwhile. Also, general one off donations have been transferred. The start is there.
Miss Chin Lyta with her young kids. In the background is mr. Phalla, Social Worker in Kakot.
Primary School
Who: Children of 6 years go to primary school. The school has 6 classes and after that there is the possibility to go to secondary school and high school. In Cambodia children go to school on 5 day per week, from Monday to Friday in two 4-hour sessions (from 07.00-11.00 and from 13.00-17.00). During these 4 hours the main attention is on literature, (Khmer) language, mathematics, culture, such as dance and singing and social skills. “Life skills” such as food and hygiene. Problem is to find apprenticeship for sport and culture. The primary school in Kakot has 5 classrooms, but 6 groups/levels. One group consist of 35-40 children with different levels. There are few if any school materials available, which makes education even more difficult.
Where: the primary school is situated along the National Road in the Kratie province. The children have to cross this road several times per day. A fence is needed to improve the safety as well to keep the animals away from the playground. During the weekend and in the evenings cows graze on the school ground. That’s why there is no playground equipment for the kids. The animals frequently drop something as a gesture of thanks. A fence would be very welcome, not only to keep the animals away, but also because of the danger that children run on the road during playing. There are currently no plants in this area simply because the animals will eat them. Children would love to play football and volleyball, but there is no money to clean the ground and buy materials. In general, there is a lack of money for maintenance and repairs for school buildings in Cambodia. On the same ground there is the Pagoda, a simple small building where boys study to become monks. There is little contact between the monks of the Pagoda and the school.
The school was built in 2011, financed from the Lased-project, which is a part of the Social Land Concession Plan. Due to lack of money there have been no repairs or maintenance carried out on the building, which is desperately needed.
Why: We believe the school is an important part of a society. Both parents and children benefit from a good functioning school. In the primary school the foundation is set for a future shaping/development of the children within (vocational) education. Knowledge will lead to improvement of living conditions. Also, in the primary school much attention is given to hygiene and other “life skills”, which will reduce the number of diseases. Parents are still not involved enough with the school, primarily because they have no time for this. In the rainy season, they have to spend (too) much time in the fields.The school team wants to involve parents more with the daily school activities. They realize that the parents need to be involved to optimize the schooling process. Awareness regarding health, hygiene, planting techniques and other developments are carried out by the social workers and the health centre. Problems: absence of children; lack of education materials and storage space; and no library.
Children frequently have to help their parents in the field or take care of a younger brother or sister. Children are missing important reading time. Teachers try to catch up this backlog after school hours but for a number of children the result is they cannot flow to the next class level.
Sometimes children can only start at school when they are older simply because they lack a birth certificate. Also because of poverty families cannot sent their children to school as there is no money for school books, uniform, schoolbag and transport. There are no lockers and books and papers are laying on the floor. Posters with instructions regarding hygiene (such as washing hands after toilet visit), are hanging on the wall. School results of the children are also displayed on the walls.
The donated water purifiers in the class rooms are broken, so there is no clean drinking water at the school.
There is no overnight accommodation for the teachers who have long travel times. There is no storage room for school materials. A small library with varied lesson material is missing.
Friends of Kakot’s goal is to make this school “Simply the best” so that children can be proud of the school and eager to learn.
Therefore, the creation of English and computer education is required. So that more fortunate children “worldwide” can communicate and follow the developments. An infrastructure for internet and mobile phone is therefore needed.
