Well I think the title says it all. I always said that I was not sure what the orphanage was going to be like when I arrived and that I could never say what they would need as far as resources go.
Well, It's been full of surprises. I visited the orphanage to meet with the director, taking along Pouy, a Khmer friend to help translate (director refuses to speak English apparently). Pouy was not aloud to come into the meeting with me as the director had his own translator and I was also told that Pouy was not to come back to the orphanage as the director didn't like his long hair. However the director does seem to be a very nice man.
Next I was not made feel overly welcome to come to the orphanage during the day, outside of class hours. So for the first week I visited a couple of times to get to know the kids and do a few simple craft type activities with them.
Somehow I felt that there were very few children in the orpahange compared to the numbers that I'd been given. And this is when I found out that most of the ORPHANS will go home to their FAMILIES over Khmer New Year. How does this work? Only in cambodia does the word 'orphanage' mean home for a child whos parents allow them to become a voluntary orphan to ensure they get a free education.Hmmmmm.
The library room in the orphanage has been given many resources books and toys, however some of these are not used by the children at their leisure becasue the items are locked in a cupboard. The general area of the orpahange was clean and well manage. The director has just taken in 2 woman who were victims of domestic abuse to also help look after the children. So from what I could see over the few days that I spent at the orphanage outside of class time I decided that my fundraising money and my daytime hours could be used more by another organisation. So here started the search to find a well run organisation that was not influenced by Missionaries.
I taught my first few classes with no teaching program or content advice, whilst the paid Khmer teacher sat outside and waited for the hour to be up. Was this going to be how things worked?
Then it was Khmer New Year so no class and not many children.
After Khmer, class resumed and this time I had about 23 children in my class. Since all the children had come back from their home province there were now enough students for the teacher and I to each have our own class. So this made me a little relieved becasue I can guarentee that I wasn't going to be volunteering to do his job for him.
My, oh my, it all sounds so negative so far. I guess, as I should have expected, things are not always how they seem.
So I've stayed teaching English for 1 hour at night at the orphanage which is great fun but I'll occupy my daytime hours in otherways.
The kids at the orphanage are great and I definitely wont hold their órphan status against them because its the system that is failing the poor people of Cambodia, not the dishonesty of their parents. They deserve an education just like any western child so if their parents have worked out that they can get an education by going to an orphanage or by becoming a monk them good on them for making some small sacrifices to ensure their kids can learn and have a better chance in the future.
The kids in my class are loving the different style of teaching. The Khmer style often has the teacher scribing the english conversations onto the board, children copy into their books, then they do a whole class recital of the conversation and hope that the children memorise. There is definitely no hands on experiences or group work in these classrooms.
I spent a lot of time talking with local expats about projects that are going on in kampot and now think I've found an organisation which I'm willing to volunteer for and later contribute some resources and money to the different projects with the organisation. The organisation is associated with the Chumkriel English School. Over the years, Mr Tee has worked very hard to build a centre that promotes learning to the local community and offers the very poor the opportunity to access education in the english language. The students are only required to pay 300riel per class $1.25 per month to enable them to learn. This fee is used to pay the Khmer teachers, purchase books and pay for utilities. There is no profit and very few donations. Now that the english education project has becaome successful, a commity of volunteers got together to begin the Chumkriel Learning Centrte for children. This is a drop in centre for the very poor children of the local community. The centre gives the kids somewhere to go when they are not at class and also offers a fun space that promotes early learning skills and an enjoyment of learning. If you can get the kids to enjoy learning, they will come to school more often. Attendence is not important (only if your parents are paying the teacher to give you good grades).
The centre aims to give students the opportunity to gain a wide education and focuses on educationg about health care and the environment as well as encouraging their individual studies. Any projects that are started within the centre are funded by the volunteer commity and money support from the government does not exist.
So this is where i want to be involved, they seem to be doing a really good thing for the future of Cambodian kids and their community.
I start at the centre on thursday. And I know already that I'll be proud to say that I'm involved in this centre.
