Cambodian School Project Finances

We are proud of how we care for the donations given to our small charity, and want to share with you some of the details. Use of Funds – 2008 We spent $30,930 in 2008, $17,900 for new construction, $3,180 for teacher assistance, $6,350 for improvements at the schools and $3,500 for the sewing project. There were no administrative expenses (see discussion below).  

 

Administrative Costs

Our By-Laws do not allow expenses for administrative purposes. This limits the size and scope of our work somewhat, but overall, we believe it is an asset. Here are some things that result:

1. All costs of mailings (postage, copying, paper) are paid for by members of the Board of Directors. As a result, we try to make sure our mailings contain something important when we do them. If you are on our mailing list, we hope you will agree.

2. The costs of hosting this website are donated by one of our long term supporters, a relative of a Board member, so there is no out-of-pocket cost to the charity. The designs of the website (this is the third generation) were done by volunteers. (And we think they have done a great job.)

3. Travel to Cambodia is expensive, but when we go, each person pays their own costs. We get most of our work done through phone calls to a few individuals in Cambodia who are helping us purchase the materials for our buildings or address problems at our schools. These people are given payments as part of the cost of building our buildings or running the schools. The cost of the phone calls are paid for by the Board member making the call. 

 

School Uniforms

We call them uniforms, because they are, well, uniform, of a color and type that is used in many Cambodian schools. There is no requirement for our kids to wear special clothing to attend our schools, but we want to encourage them by giving them something that they are proud to wear. In many instances, the children wear the only set of clothing they have – and have never had new clothing. By providing them something new to wear to school, we believe we are encouraging them to come to school rather than to stay at home.

We discovered early on that we could provide employment for several young girls who were illiterate, and had no other job skills and deliver the uniforms to the school kids using material we believe to be better quality and at a final cost that we think is competitive to what we would pay if we bought the clothing at the market in Phenom Penh.  

As to how much the sewing girls are paid, they receive a piece price payment for every uniform they make. At their normal pace, they will receive payment close to the same that the Cambodian government pays school teachers - about a dollar a day.

In 2008, we paid $3,500 for uniforms, with about half of it going to pay the sewing girls and the other half for material. They work on sewing machines that were donated in 2003 by some of our benefactors and are kept at the cottage of Sarith Ou’s sister-in-law.  

 

The Schools

The strategy when we build a school is this. We want to build something that will attract kids to come, in a manner that encourages the parents to send them. (The parents can always use the help of the kids in raising rice to help the families eat, so they are tempted to keep them from school and have them work in the rice fields.) We will use the building materials available to us locally and do the skilled work with hired workmen. When we reach a part of the construction that unskilled laborers can do, we provide the materials and food for workmen, and invite the villagers to do the labor. Finally, when the school is complete, we travel to the school and hold a village celebration.

The result of this approach has been exceptional. Our four schools have cost between $8,000 and $25,000 to build. We believe this is an extraordinary accomplishment. What’s more, the sweat equity invested by the villagers has resulted in their strong support of the schools. They have sent their kids almost without exception, and we have a very small drop-out rate.

There are other times when sweat equity has been of value to us as well. We used it to build a kitchen at one of our schools. This allowed another charity to provide rice for a breakfast for the kids. As you can see by the small size of the children in our photos, malnourishment is a huge problem. The parents were very willing to assist in the building process when it meant that their kids would get a good breakfast when they came to school.

There are additional costs that we incur. We’ve found that we often need to build a well at a school, as often water is not available, and wells cost about $1,500. And we have found that we need to provide some teacher assistance (for training, stipends, and general encouragement) and some school materials such as pens and notebooks for kids. And, most recently we have chosen to strengthen the educational process at our existing schools rather than adding more schools, providing instruction in English to the teachers who then pass it along to their students. Each year we evaluate the progress in the schools and try to determine how best to apply the funds we are given by our donors in the coming year.  

We have also been supported by churches in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and schools in Wisconsin who make our charity the focus of their giving. On behalf of all the kids that they have helped by their generosity, we want to thank all our donors. You have indeed made a difference in the lives of these kids.  

In Summary

We are proud of the fact that a dollar given to our small charity results in a dollar of benefit to the Children in Cambodia. By paying close attention to each expenditure, we try to obtain the greatest benefits we can from those gifts given to us by our supporters. A copy of our 2008 Tax Return can be viewed by selecting "Finance Documents" in the list along the left side of this screen. We invite any questions you may have regarding our project.