The standard of the school at Khvien has been recognised by the government in Phnom Penh and recently they held a conference of all the district’s teachers, not in the town of Siem Reap as may have been expected, but in the library at Khvien village school. The School director, Mr Hon, has been promoted to director of schools for the area, so he now is responsible for 7 schools! These schools range from a very large one of 2,536 students close to the “city” of Siem Reap to very poor schools not far from Angkor Thom. In total his schools have 5,000 students! Quite a jump from his one school at Khvien which presently has 352 students. In addition the governor has directed that teachers from surrounding schools spend time teaching at Khvien which is being used as a model school. Khvien school models exemplary care of the children and it has always been our aim to see quality education there, in a village that is so poor. Why should the poor be deprived of the means by which they might see a brighter future? In doing this, we have endeavoured to be good christian models for them, which we believe they recognise.
For us now, we see the opportunity to share with and support more who are in need. To this end we will be visiting two more poor schools, in the villages of Kok Tachan which has 138 students, and Kok Beng which has 250 students. In collaboration with Mr Hon, we will be selective in which students are needing help. Mr Hon feels some students there are able (and should) buy their own uniforms,books, pens and so on. However, others who are very poor will be selected by Mr Hon and our plan is to arrange for them to have tailor-made uniforms, just like at Khvien, as well as books and pens. We don’t intend at this time extending the rice program there, So we are thrilled with how such progress has been seen – we are so thankful and encouraged.