OVERVIEW

Romeas Haek Primary School is an extremely poorly resourced school in rural Cambodia in need of urgent support. The school is in Romeas Haek Village, Ampil Commune, Romeas Haek District, Svay Rieng Province, and is 200 km east of Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia) and 5 km from the Vietnam border. Approximately 265 families of Romeas Heak village and neighbouring Sre Rousie village live near the school and the local pagoda.

At present, the school is built on an extremely old and weak infrastructure; it does not have a toilet, access to clean water, a library, or school materials for the students, etc. Students who are attending class are currently using the toilet and well of a nearby local pagoda. These poor resources have contributed to a decrease in student attendance year after year.

The school was established shortly after Khmer Rouge ended in 1979. It was originally conducted in a local home, which later found its venue at a local pagoda within the Romeas Haek District. The building we see today was erected around 1995, and over the years has started to decay and fall apart. Currently, they have one classroom (wooden) for Grade 1 and 20 students (7 girls and 13 boys) attending the school. The other classroom (bamboo) in the building lacks a stable ceiling and is not in use due to safety concerns for the children.

At the moment, the school only has one assigned teacher for the students, and he has been teaching in this community for the last 10 years. Students go to school from Monday to Saturday, from 7am to 11am.

STAR Kampuchea is committed to working with this local village community in building and developing a proper school building for its children. The Romeas Haek Primary School Project commenced on August 2018.

PLAN

SK is committed to working with this local community in building and developing a proper school building for its children. The plans are to build:

2 classrooms
1 library
2 restrooms & a well

OPERATIONS/MANAGEMENT

The School Building Committee is responsible for working with the Cambodian team (SK team) throughout the duration and completion of this project; the committee is also involved in the fund raising of the school. The committee was established on December 2018, it comprises of the community chief, the chief of the Buddhist pagoda, participants of the ministry of education for Romeas Haek district, and more.

ACCOUNTS/FINANCE

All proceeds and donations are fully directed to the construction of Romeas Haek Primary School. No administrative cost is charged by this project. To ensure accountability and transparency, there is a local bank account (ABA) open and all donation and payment have been transferred via these accounts.

update funds

Funds received from individuals and groups have been through several methods as below:
GoFundMe: 2183$
Terry Rockstad: 15000$
Rockstad Foundation: 5000$
Direct supports to School Building Committee (SBC): 1855$
Anonymous: 1000$
US supporters: 1800$
Total: 26838$

progressive results

Since the building commencement in September 2018, construction has continued throughout the whole fundraising process. The building’s foundation and classroom walls are complete, only a roof and restrooms are in progress, and if we continue at this pace, we think the school building will be finished in the next few months.

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Through financial support from Czech Embassy to Cambodia, on September 6, 2019, STAR Kampuchea (SK) donated water filter buckets and reading books to the primary schools of Koh Russey and Dontey, Chantrea District, Prey Veng Province. This donation is part of the project, tittled “Enhanced Don Tey and Koh Russey Primary Schools (EDTEK)”. The goal of this donation is to enable the students who study with these both primary schools to get higher education and develop themselves through good environmental schools equipped with books, clean toilets, and clean water. SK hopes that these 2 primary schools will comply with the educational standard and provide better services to the students. Hence, the rate of school dropping students will be decreased.

The people who attended the event were 13, three of them were women. The participants included, the directors, teachers, SK staff, Commune Accountability Facilitators (CAFs) , and students.

There were 12 water-filter buckets were delivered to the directors of both schools to place one for each of classroom. SK staff also advised the directors on the way to install and maintain the water-filter buckets.

Also, 1,065 reading books were donated to the directors of both schools to put in the library. Staff of SK also instructed them the ways to encourage the students to read books at the library and how to borrow the books to read at their home. Students who read most will be provided incentive.

The Koh Russey and Dontey primary schools of Svay Rieng province are the places where SK is implementing its project, called ISAF- implementation of Social Accountability Framework and the local good governance. These projects help to solve the problems and needs of the people through Joint Accountability Action Plan (JAAP). Both schools annually enroll and educate 207 students. 97 of them are female students. Now there are 5% of students who drop school, 50% of there are female students. The parents of the students are poor. Some of them follow their parents to work in Vietnam. All students also faced with lack of clean water. All ponds are drought during the dry season. Every day students bring water from home, which some of students do not have clean water because they do not have well or pond. Some common wells contain arsenic and high sodium which cause them sick when drinking it. So, the water-filter buckets are important for them to prevent from sickness.

It is hoped that water filter buckets will help students to access clean water which prevents them from sickness, reduce the use of plastic bottles, and reduce their daily expenses. Last but not least, the reading books will help the students to improve knowledge through reading the books.

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Cambodia education has been significantly progressive since the government improved the education system and strengthened the quality of education. However, they are still much behind the standard of western education and significant issues persist for many rural schools.

In Dontey and Koh Russey primary schools in Chantrea District of Svay Rieng province, where STAR Kampuchea (SK) implements the project, there are many issues to address. In these two schools there are 207 students are enrolled, 97 are females. Up to 5% of students drop out every year, 50% are female. Their parents are very poor and need to go to Vietnam for jobs. Many leave their children at home with their grand-parents. Some students, whose parents do not go to Vietnam, go into the forest to help parents collect mushrooms. The schools are very remote from the town and are located near Vietnam border. 20 students need to go by bicycles, but their families are not able to buy it for them. Even worse, drinking water is a big problem for the students. All the ponds are dried during dry season. Every day, the students need to bring water from home, but some students do not have clean water at their home because they do not have a well or ponds. Some common community wells were dug in shallow levels containing arsenic and sodium which makes them sick when drinking it. The schools need tanks with water filters for clean water to protect them from sickness. Furthermore, there are no library and books for students. Students are too poor to buy reading books. Currently, no NGOs support these schools. The problems to solve are to provide books, clean drinking water, transportation, improve sanitation with the commitment of the parents.

The project results are 1) 2 depth wells are built and maintained and each student is given a water bottles they can use during the day and fill to take home, 2) 2 sets of toilets with three rooms are built (for female, male, and handicapped students); 3) 1 library are built for Koh Russey Dontey primary school and 100 books are bought for both schools – books are periodically rotated to increase reading materials for each school; 4) 20 second hand bicycles are granted to poor students. Students understand that books, bikes and water bottles are an incentive to stay in school and study well. Success requires parent commitment. SK staff conducted community meetings and outreach with parents to discuss school improvements that address the lack of books, lack of sanitation and clean water and lack of transportation to instill pride and encourage attendance. The two target primary schools now meet the educational standard set by the government, attendance improved and the dropout rate reduced from 5% to 1%. The project is financially support by the Czech Embassy to Cambodia.