The Pheonix Project

Following the great success of  our English language programme run at Osborne House we want to help more children benefit from acquiring this vital skill. It is our goal to set up 10 English Language schools by the end of 2010. Each school will operate at three levels and each level will have about 150 students. One level will take one year and at the end of that year the students move up a level and a further 150 children will come in. Level 3 will start in year three. We already employ an Education Director who will oversee the programme. Some of these schools may develop into community centres where there is sufficient local involvement.

Land will be rented for each school and it is proposed to build two bamboo classrooms, security fencing, a toilet block, bamboo accommodation for a caretaker family (one of the homeless families currently being assisted under the COF Family Support Programme). Funding will be required for desks for both classrooms as well as ancillary educational materials.

Long term sustainability will be achieved by using volunteers from the large pool of volunteers who continue to make their skills available to COF. An important part of the project will be capacity building where COF will recruit Cambodian Nationals to train alongside the foreign volunteers so that they will be progressively trained to take over teaching positions.

Outreach programmes (Family Support Programme) for the parents of students will be offered by the school staff with the goal of providing means to enable families to break the poverty cycle . Skills training will include: parenting skills, child development, nutrition and hygiene as well as training in basic income-earning techniques. Vocational training will later be included at the school. There will be a strong emphasis on redressing the imbalances of the genders in Cambodia with a focus on supporting women

The approximate cost of setting up one basic school is $5000. Some schools will have additional facilities and need  higher funding.