About Us

Progress Reports
        Contact Us

The mission of the Cambodian School Project is to raise funds to help 
poor rural children and their families in Cambodia.  
We will build schools with basic sanitation, provide school uniforms and supplies, 
help the poorest families become economically self-sufficient 
and prepare poor rural children for economic survival.

The Cambodian School Project is a privately run, non-profit (501c3) corporation, formed to assist poor children and their families in rural Cambodia .  We are a small and personal organization and most of our Board members have some connection with Southeast Asia and Cambodia .  Because of this personal interest, we Board members donate all the fund raising expenses so that 100% of all contributions will go to the project in Cambodia .

We began in 1999, supplying school clothes and supplies to poor farm children to encourage declining school attendance.  In 2000, we asked for help from churches and individuals.  Donations increased each year.  In 2003, we had enough to build a school in Poum Steung ( River Village ).  Many children here had not attended school, as the closest was 5km. away.  Some parents also kept their children home to assist with subsistence farming.  Now that they have a local school, and the class schedule has been made to fit the harvest, we have nearly 100% attendance for 200 children in this small farm village.

Thanks to other contributions, we were later able to add a well that now gives clean water to both the school and the village.  We planted trees (some of which are now beginning to shade the school), fenced the yard to keep out wandering water buffalo and also built bathrooms.  The villagers built an outdoor kitchen in the schoolyard where mothers now prepare breakfast from food donated by a Japanese charity.  The school is a great success.

We also expanded the distribution of school uniforms.  A church gave sewing machines, and we trained a few of the poorest young women in the village to sew the uniforms.  Most are these young women are oldest daughters without parents and the money they earn supports them and their younger siblings.  Several have now been with us for years.  They also give out the uniforms at rural schools and quite enjoy the reception these gifts get.  The cost of materials and salaries is no more than buying uniforms on the market.

Many contributors have been with us for years.  With this steady support, in 2005 we began to plan to build another school.  This was for an ethnic group (the Kouy) scattered and decimated during the civil war.  In 2006, we had the funds to build a four-room school for the several hundred Kouy families moving to land given by the government. 

Also in 2006, an anonymous contributor gave us enough ($7,500) to build another school.  A village near the Kouy, with a ruin of a school unusable during the long rainy season, was chosen.  We started our third school at Srei Pou (Rice Field by Large Tree) Village also in 2006.  By the end of the year, both school building were nearly complete.

The way of life of the families we help is disappearing as Cambodia modernizes.  If they  cannot read or write, these farms children will have little chance of escaping lifelong poverty.  With literacy and the ability to learn, they have hope for economic survival in the much more modern economy they will live in as adults.

You can read the history of our project in the Progress Reports.  If you would like more information or if you plan to go to Angkor Wat and would like to visit any of these schools and see the project first hand, please contact us.

Back to Top

The Cambodian School Project is a registered 501c3 charitable organization. Your donation is tax deductible.
Last updated: November 17, 2006.