Sylvia Lasky Memorial School.
Sustainable Cambodia began as a small school project but has quickly grown to encompass education and village development. The initial school project - the Sylvia Lasky Memorial School - has grown rapidly as well. Established in 2001 on the outskirts of Pursat, the school originally provided books, clothes, school supplies, bicycles, and English classes to approximately 60 local children. Many of the families were also provided with monthly food supplements, helping them break the cycle of need that kept their children working in the fields rather than learning new skills in school and applying knowledge that could help their community develop.
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Today the Sylvia Lasky Memorial School has more than 400 children enrolled and serves several nearby villages. Everyone in the villages - every child, parent, and volunteer are transformed through education. The people of Pursat are resourceful, hard-working, and loving. They want desperately to improve the quality of life for their community and their children. And the Sylvia Lasky Memorial School helps them do that. Your sponsorship of a child helps to keep this dream alive.
Village
Preschools.
Sustainable Cambodia's preschools have become one of the most popular programs with village families. The concept was originally proposed by the mothers in the first village in which SC worked. They proposed that their families would build the preschool if SC would assist them with materials and support for the teacher.
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The program worked so well that most of the subsequent villages chose to build preschools, too. The schools provide the village mothers with a place to care for their young children (3-6 years of age) during the day, so they can be gainfully employed. Sustainable Cambodia provides training to the village women who staff the center, and contributors have donated many fun and educational toys.
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The preschools have also become an important link in the health and nutritional wellbeing of the children. Within the first year of the first preschool, SC's health managers realized that many of the young children who were attending were severely malnourished. Working with the village families, and with Rotary clubs in Western Australia, a nutrition program was developed whereby the children get a hot, protein-rich nutritious meal once a day, provided by village mothers with the funding assistance of the Western Australia Rotary clubs. The result has been astounding.
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The program is designed, as well, to include interactive toys and games, and a stimulating environment to entertain and teach at the same time. The intention is that children who spend their formative years in these centers will enter school ready and anxious to learn.
Kravanh Bright Future Center.
In February 2008, this special school was established by Sustainable Cambodia in Kravanh district to assist low-economic families in keeping their children in school until they graduate. Kravanh Bright Future Center (KBFC) was named by the very first enrolled students who wanted to build bright futures through education for their homeland and Kravanh communities.
KBFC provides free classes in English, Khmer, Math, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology to help students keep up with the lessons and advance to the next level in state school, especially in passing grade 12. Otherwise they would have to join expensive private classes that they cannot afford. And for students living in remote villages, we have a dormitory for 26 girls. The boys stay at a local monastery.
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The KBFC library has more than 4,000 books in Khmer and English and our computer lab helps students gain skills they need to be successful in university and in their work lives.