Where We Work
Cambodia’s bloody history has had a massive effect on the country’s infrastructure as well as on its citizens in very specific and personal ways. During the Khmer Rouge rule, Cambodia experienced a traumatic and unforgettable genocide that changed the country forever. Approximately 1.7 million people were killed in a little less than 4 years.
More than thirty years later, Cambodia still struggles to provide basic education for its people. Literacy is a significant issue, with the majority of Cambodia’s illiterate population living in poverty in remote and rural areas. Without improving access and quality of affordable education, there is very little hope of Cambodia pulling itself out of poverty.
As with most free education systems, families are still responsible for covering the cost of school uniforms, notebooks, pens and pencils, and (in upper levels) course materials and exam papers. However, even these relatively small costs are too much for the average Cambodian family. Students also face lengthy travel times to nearby villages or towns where schools are located. When they arrive to school after an hour or more of travel, Cambodia’s formal education system has inadequate facilities and large class sizes. It is a daunting experience for students and families from education cost and available resources to travel and ramshackle facilities.
Government salaries for teachers range from $30- $50 per month, and unofficial school fees are placed on students in order to supplement teachers earnings. For families who can afford it, this allows their children to study in smaller class groups— where the real teaching occurs. Students from poorer families are unable to attend these fee-paying classes.
This Life Cambodia’s targeted programs are therefore aimed at such households in an attempt to overcome this inequity in access to education.
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Full Name: Kingdom of Cambodia
*Sources: The Word Bank, CIA The World Factbook.
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