Today we helped a third child enrol at High School.
It may not seem such a big thing for us in the developed world to manage the transition from Primary School to High School. Yet here in Khvein it can prove very difficult, perhaps even insurmountable an obstacle.
It’s true that education is ‘free’ but simply complying with the requirements may prove too difficult for a village child.
Firstly, the High School is situated several kilometres away – you must travel from Khvein, up the road past the airport and on until you reach Cosmo High School. Not for Khvein school children is there a school bus so much taken for granted by our children in the West. So a Khvein child must cycle; but what if they don’t have a bike? The cost of a bike is one month’s wages for a teacher – how can all village children afford one? Yet surprisingly many do.
Secondly, they must get an application form from the High School and attach a personal photograph for I.D. So they must cycle to the school, collect a form and………….
………well, how do they get a photograph? They certainly don’t have a camera, let alone a mini-lab to process their photo. So what would you do?
They must somehow get to Siem Reap to get a photo taken and processed. How do they get there? It’s several kilometres away. Sure, they could walk – it could be done in a day but what about getting back?
Not only that but a photo for I.D. costs 5,000 riel (about $1.25), as it did for K………….. The price may not be much for our children, but for Kong Nhar it meant perhaps two days work.
These are the types of issues that we might never have thought of until we came to Khvein.
So it was that we were asked by Mr Hon if we might help another child get to High School. Her name is S………….; she is 16 years old and dearly wanted to get to High School. Like many malnourished children in the village, she’s much smaller than our own children, yet she truly lives up to her name of S…………. which means “calm, peaceful”.
S………….. lives in a dwelling close to the Primary School with her father, mother and older brother – he is 18 years old and is a construction worker and is helping support the family for S……….’s father has just one arm.
Today we took her in to Siem Reap and firstly bought her a school uniform in the markets. From there it was just a short distance back to the bike shop for yet another bike! She chose a silver painted one and, equipped by Margaret with two bottles of water, she started her ride back to Khvein. We followed her for part of the way as we were concerned about the distance but Phath said not to worry, “Now she is dreaming” – now she has hope of a better life.
We do hope so. We shall visit the family tomorrow morning with a small gift for S………. and intend to follow her progress.
Martin and Margaret