The HH School

We operate a school in the village of Prasat Char. Amongst other things, we teach the children English, Cambodian reading and writing (to a kindergarten class) and health and hygiene related issues.

Children study English – an absolute necessity if they want to get a good job one day.

The curriculum is designed to complement, not replace, the education provided by the Cambodian government schools. Students are only allowed to attend our school if they are also enrolled in the government school. Cambodian children only attend government school for half a day, which means the students are free to attend our school during the other half of the day.

We have approximately 250 students and an almost even number of girls and boys.

We run our Cambodian (Khmer language) reading and writing classes for our kindergarten students. It has become apparent that when these students start to attend the government school they do cope better than the children who haven’t been attending our classes.

The school has solar power, a state of the art water pump, a vegetable garden, and the first toilet in the village.

Our small library is a very popular spot. The children have no books at all at home.

All of our older students have the opportunity to go on excursions to Siem Reap to learn about the job opportunities available to them if they study hard.

OUR BREAKFAST PROGRAMME

All the students that attend our school in the morning (approximately 100) receive a nutritious breakfast. The meal they receive is prepared in accordance with guidelines from the World Food Programme and is aimed at combating protein malnutrition.

We decided to start a breakfast programme after a random survey of 10 students revealed that of those 10, 8 had nothing to eat before school, 1 had a small amount of plain rice and 1 had a piece of candy. Many Cambodians only eat two meals a day, consisting predominantly of boiled white rice.

It costs approximately 20c (usd) per day per child.

We have a vegetable garden at the school and the produce is added to the breakfast.

HEALTH AND HYGIENE EDUCATION

Every Monday the students are taught a different health and hygiene topic. The subjects are very basic and cover such things as; the importance of using a toilet, washing your hands, food hygiene, drinking only clean water; and the causes of the main illnesses in the villages, such as diarrhoea, respiratory infections, etc.

The students are encouraged to go home and tell their parents what they have learnt. The feedback that we get from the teachers regarding this is very encouraging. They report that many people within the village of Prasat Char are beginning to adopt better hygiene practices and are gaining a better appreciation of the importance of health and sanitation issues.

All of our students have been given toothbrushes and taught basic dental hygiene. Out of a class of 40 students only 4 owned toothbrushes.

All of our students also receive two school uniforms. Some of the children literally only had one set of clothes. How could we teach them about personal hygiene when they had to wear the same clothes every single day?

Each year we provide each student with two white tops and two navy blue skirts or trousers/shorts. The reason we give them white tops and blue bottoms is because this is the uniform that children are required to wear at the government school. (Without the required uniform they cannot attend the government school.)

The uniforms we provide the students with are second hand and are imported from richer Asian countries. We have found that the second hand uniforms are of a much better quality and therefore last much longer than the new uniforms available in the Siem Reap markets. They also cost considerably less.

As part of our ongoing health and hygiene education the students are constantly encouraged to wash their hands with soap after using the toilet. In Cambodia, the biggest killers of young children are respiratory infections and diarrhoea. In fact, in Cambodia, 38% of deaths in children under the age of 5 can be attributed to diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia.

It has been shown that the simple act of hand-washing with soap can lead to a 50% reduction in these illnesses. (Sources: World Health Organisation, UNICEF’s State of the World Children Report, International NGO Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP).)