Chrolong Village School, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Chrolong Village School has been set up by Ouk Pat, a local 'tuk tuk' (rickshaw taxi) driver with a passion for his country's future. After 20 years of civil war, Cambodia remains the most heavliy landmined nation on earth. Thankfully many of the landmines in the Siem Reap area have been cleared, however their legacy and that of the civil war has left much of the area around Chrolong Village economically very poor. Many villagers are subsistance farmers making just enough to survive on on a day by day basis. There is a void of highly trained professionals due to most of them being executed en masse during the Pol Pot era. As such the school has to employ government teachers from the state school in addition to funding the building of another classroom, student workbooks, pens and teaching resources for in excess of 60 students!

The school teaches oral and written english at the end of the traditonal school day. English is seen as the medium that will assist young people into leveraging off the emerging national economy and local tourism industry. Small gains in income will enhance their education, health, social and environmental conditions and opportunities. It is Ouk Pats wish to see happy, healthy, sustainable commnuities become a Cambodian way of life for now and into the future.