EENET asia Newsletters : inaugural issue JUNE 2005 Contents

Community Based Project School with a Difference

Olof Sandkull

The Life Skills Education for Vulnerable Cambodian Children Organisation is a small community-based project school in a slum area of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. The project is located in an area known as 'Kilometer 6(KM 6)" on the way to Kompong Cham province. Around 250 children are enrolled for English and some for computer classes at the project school, served by 5 teachers. There are morning and afternoon classes. The project is unique in that it recruits large numbers of children that were previously working and begging on the streets. This is done by targeted advocacy with parents, including a 'contract' that the parents sign, promising to allow their children to go to class for at least 2 hours a day, in exchange for free basic education and books (which are provided by the project). The project has close links with the public primary and secondary schools in the KM 6 area, as well as with the temple. Project staff has managed to reduce or eliminate the compulsory 'informal fees' levied on students in the public schools in certain instances of extreme poverty through their advocacy efforts. As a result more and more children who earlier were excluded are now going to the public schools. The project started in 2001 and is supported by UNESCO Bangkok, local fund-raising activities and Dutch charities. It has reached around 500 children with educational activities since then.

Mr. Olof Sandkull is the focal point on inclusive education at the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok. He can be contacted at:

UNESCO Bangkok
920 Sukhumvit Road
10110 Bangkok
Thailand
Tel + 6623910880(ext 321)
Email: o.sandkull@unescobkk.org

EENET asia Newsletters : inaugural issue JUNE 2005 Contents