Sandra Lauckner-Rothschild: Project visit to Krousar Yoeung, Phnom Penh

02.12.10

I am off this afternoon to visit Krousar Yoeung (KrY), a charity focusing on pre-school education.

I meet young and earnest Mr. Ponlok, the CEO’s secretary and knowledgeable and insightful Mrs. Kimheang, a senior social assistant, at their offices in the leafy northeast of town. I am kindly welcomed and handed a printout with a concise overview, of where, when, what exactly we are going to be doing for the next view of hours – the German in me is impressed! From the offices we drive some 15km northwest to Phnom Penh’s outskirts.

We are to spend some time at Kok Roka primary school, on whose premises KrY is helping to run a pre-school. Described to me as a suburb of Phnom Penh, I struggle to adjust my vision of middle-class achievement, with the dust-road and barren-land surrounding I find myself in.

Everybody has been expecting me, Prospero World that is. I am shown three classes of pre-school children, who are all performing a song for me and are then read a story by their teacher.  The teachers are young and not just physically, beautiful women, who have their children under wrap with their illustrative story telling. I look at these children and wonder, when I last had my two sitting this still and captivated?

After the children, I meet with three male members of the parent-committee, which runs the pre-school. KrY is passionate about early childhood development and believes that a healthy environment for the young child consists of educated, responsible and active parents. Under this premise parents of a community are encouraged to set-up their own pre-schools for their children. KrY provides help in the form of a loan to set-up the school, and material and technical assistance.  The head of the committee, an expressive, I would guess around 60-year-old distinguished looking man, tells me of his wish for the government to provide both teacher training, currently only done so by KrY and teachers for the schools, so the committee/parents are eased of the burden to pay for teacher salaries. On the other hand he does like the autonomy of a committee, rather than government-run school provides.

Next on our list is a visit of Anchanh community. This is situated on the city’s very outskirts and with the recent wave of evictions in Phnom Penh, ever growing. This is a sad place. The streets are littered with trash, the houses look makeshift, though likely they are not and one can breathe the misery this place exudes. Here KrY comes into full force. They provide an integrated support programme, consisting of one-to-one family counseling, parenting discussion groups, a children’s club and family preservation project, for those families, who find themselves dis-empowered, bereft of hopes and dreams and hence not able to provide the healthy environment the young child’s needs.

I observe an actively participated discussion group on child health, with parents from the community and one outreach worker sitting in a circle on plastic sheets out on the road. The lesson is on hygiene and the outreach worker explains the importance of washing hands, wiping surfaces and the likes to prevent diseases. To finish the lesson off they all join in to sing a song, which depicts all theses messages. In a culture that places high value on music, this is exactly the kind of intervention that is likely to bring about change, with messages being absorbed.

After that I find myself sitting with one family and its outreach worker, compassionately discussing recent developments, concerns and own solutions. This family has recently been evicted from its home in Phnom Penh to make way for new developments. They now find themselves struggling to make a living for themselves and their three young children. To earn a living they sell home-made fried bananas. After tasting one – I want to set up an import business to the UK! Their current concern is that with their meager earnings they cannot afford to send their middle child to the community pre-school anymore and they complain that education should be free. Couldn’t agree more! The outreach worker shows understanding, but explains that the concept of the community-run pre-school is based on all parents and community members contributing in order to make it work and also to aid the development of a culture of active responsibility. KrY have agreed for this child to attend the morning classes for free, but she cannot stay for lunch and the afternoon. The cost this family cannot afford is R 10.000 (£2.5) a month.

This is as grassroots as it gets and I believe I saw, the magic ingredient that is trust-based relationships and supportive and empathic ways of interaction doing their work, in encouraging development.

Sandra Lauckner – Rothschild

Tags: Community, Grassroots, Intervention, Krousar Yoeung, Pre-school, Sandra Lauckner-Rotschild

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Cambodia Field Trip 2010, Sita Schutt's posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.