Emily Cohen from Stichting Dom-Ray was able to visit the CSEP this summer, and met with Seanhong, the new teacher working there funded by Golden Futures. She has sent these two videos, one of Seanhong speaking about what it is like to work at the CSEP, and one showing his English lessons in action. 

About a year ago, Emmy Cohen from Stichting Dom-Ray approached us to ask if we could support the hiring of another teacher for the Countryside Education Project, the school established in Kor village by Chork Ratana, one of the very first students that Golden Futures supported. Thanks to the funds raised by the Virtual London marathon, and the support we were able to secure from the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Settlement, we were able to contribute to this and jointly support NFC in hiring this additional member of staff.

Here is a rundown of the progress of the project, and how the money has been spent.
The planned total project budget was: US$15,597, so at that point around £10,925.

(The cost of our projects varies significantly due to exchange rates. All the money we spend in Cambodia is USD, and the money held by NFC on our behalf is in a USD denominated account. As the value of the pound changes, the amount that projects cost us changes considerably. For example, at the planning stages of this project £1 was worth $1.40, it is now worth $1.20. That change has meant we need to find an additional £1,821 for the project. We can safeguard against this risk by holding more money in USD, but that has an additional risk as that means keeping money in Cambodia without the same safeguards that we enjoy in the UK.)

The overall project costs for 3 years were:
Salary costs - US$10470 (Salaries for staff are set by NFC, as the employer, based on the Cambodian market rates. NFC always tries to pay fairly and this allows them to recruit better quality staff who work with the projects for longer.)
Tax @ 10% - $1047
Lunches at project* - US$2520 (NFC covers the cost of simple lunches for staff whilst on project as the remote location makes it difficult for staff to buy their own lunch)
Expenses (Travel and telephone costs) - US$1260
Health fund contribution - US$300
 
Suon Socheat, Director of NFC, has reported:
“The second teacher of CSEP, HAY Seanhong, started working on the project in early October 2021. He and the rest of the staff work a minimum 8-hour per day, from Monday to Friday. Sometimes they were asked to work overtime and weekends when we needed to. We are really satisfied with the work they perform on a day-to-day basis. The CSEP children really benefit from their hard work, especially on their extra education in the project, such as English, computer, and learning habits on their Khmer general education. According to my observation, I have found that the children have been improved from time to time, particularly learning becoming their preference.”

The post-Covid labour market in Cambodia is challenging, and with the project located in the countryside it can be doubly challenging to find high-quality staff members. Whilst New Future for Children were unable to appoint in their first round of interviews, the position was re-advertised and local partners and networks were used to ensure a strong candidate willing to work outside the city could be found.

Regarding challenges in implementing the project, Suon Socheat added:
“From the beginning there was some doubt from the children's parents whether it is necessary to allow their children to study at CSEP. But, their minds have drastically changed when they could see their children's achievements. For instance, when their children start to speak English, they are able to use computers, and older children obtain scholarships to study at university in the city. Now we have about 170 underprivileged children in the CSEP classes (English and computer), and about 50 children have registered but are waiting for the classes too. They must wait until we have a third teacher of English and more rooms for the classes. We plan to have a third teacher of English.

COVID-19 produced a very bad impact on our CSEP project. Almost two year that our CSEP classes could not open physically. We had some experiences opening and closing the physical classes frequently. Our children could not get regular education. Indeed, our staff processed online classes but the majority of the children could not attend because they did not have a communication device and internet to assess the classes. We were suggested to them to form group learning but it worked slowly because of the internet connection and the concern of infection transmission.   

CHORK Ratana, our project coordinator and a co-founder, stopped working before the covid-19 outbreak, and then we recruited a new project coordinator. The second project coordinator worked about 2-month also resigned during the terrible covid-19 outbreak. Then, we hired the third coordinator, HEAM Sambath. He worked about 2-years and then resigned because he wanted to move to live with his wife in the city. However, right now we have been hiring the fourth CSEP coordinator, MAO Bean, who has family in the same province of CSEP, and who has committed to stay longer with us. He has a very good experience on community development, teaching English, and working with children. He has started working at CSEP in early July 2022.    

Our teachers of English and computer teachers had some experiences in teaching before, but their teaching pedagogy and technology were limited. To improve their teaching and working capabilities we sent them to get some training from our NFC staff and volunteers. After spending one week each, they gained new knowledge and more experiences in teaching and class management.”

Our next challenge is to look at securing funding to continue supporting the CSEP after this round of funding finishes, and if possible to find money to support a third staff member so the 50 children on the waiting list are able to access education as well. Donations to support with this can be made through People’s Fundraising here.