Be the Change Network

Thanks to Jill Hunter of Lander, Wyoming, the school now has playground equipment for the students.  In this weekly letter to Kari, Paul Chuk, who teaches English at the school and works with the School Sustaining Committee, wrote about Jill, Jenna and Justine’s visit to the school.  Jill recruited ten sponsors during the first annual campaign.  She hosted a fundraiser with Amanda Prom for the school on January 24th at the restaurant she operates in Lander.

Jill, Jenna and Justine are great guests and easy to please. They are amazing people who have shown great interest in our school.  Jill was here in 2005.  What a difference since she’s was here a few years ago she said.  She also said that there are many changes from inside the school ground to inside classrooms to the way students reacted.  They were thrilled to see our students speak some English.  They were impressed to hear our students sing ABCs, Old Mac Donald, and If You’re Happy songs.

The children love all the playground equipment.  They especially love to ride on the merry go round.  Beside the playground equipment, our special guests bought us a set of badminton, a soccer ball, two small balls, and a volley ball. They also gave us $40 to buy the uniforms for our me’sn basket ball team since they are number one in the district and need to move on to compete in the province level.  We are grateful to all of them for helping us.

By Sok Khemara, Voice Of America Khmer
Washington, 20 January 2010

Poor families in poor health, the loss of land and the legacy of war are all contributing to a child labor problem in Cambodia, the country’s national International Labor Organization coordinator said Monday.

“The latest studies we have show that in many countries, if there exists child labor, that country is in heavy poverty,” said the coordinator, Chhorvirith Theng, as a guest on “Hello VOA.” “In a country where educational development exists, that country has no child labor. So on both these tendencies, the government of Cambodia is paying attention. For instance, we take education as a core sector.”

The government and private sector are working to jointly eliminate child labor in Cambodia by 2015, Chhorvirith Theng said, through plans to educate people at the grassroots level, as well as vocational and skills training and microfinance.

A national survey in 2001 found 1.5 million children aged 5 to 17 who were economically active in Cambodia. Around 250,000 were working in risky occupations.

Child labor is not only a problem in Cambodia, but around the world, Chhorvirith Theng said. The ILO estimates as many as 250 million children involved in labor, with the majority involved in dangerous jobs that can be damaging physically, mentally and spiritually.