SIEM REAP, Nov 3 (IPS) - For thousands of daily visitors to the sprawling 12th century Buddhist monument of Angkor Wat, it is a hassle avoiding touts attempting to selling souvenirs and postcards. But most are happy to see the saffron-clad monks and pose with them for photographs.
Angkor Wat is not a functioning Buddhist monastery but monks can be seen around the monument, chatting with gawking foreign tourists. One of them uses the opportunity to ask for donations that would go into English-language classes for orphans and poor children who are out of regular school.
''I don't see soliciting funds (at this tourist monument) as something unethical because we are only asking the tourists to help us educate young children who will otherwise end up begging in the streets,'' said Nn Rathana, a young Cambodian monk. He invited IPS to visit his school, barely 3 km away.
During the day, Rathana studies at a local university for a degree in Development Studies and Management. English Literature being one of the subjects, he speaks good English and wants poor children to get a grasp of the language so that they can survive in this city which is developing into a tourist destination, supporting a hospitality industry.
At his school, there were over 200 students aged between 5 - 20 years, taking English lessons in four classrooms -- basically huts made of bamboo and thatch. Two of the classrooms are conducted by British volunteer teachers while the other two make do with locals. The periods last from 5 -8 pm.
''I do not get any funding from the government or international funding agencies. I meet tourists at Angkor Wat and ask for donations from them. Some come here to see the place first and then send money to my bank account when they get back home,'' said Rathana.
He explained that the parents cannot send the children to regular school because they cannot afford the daily fee of 300 Riels (six US cents) or the costs of transport, meals and books.
"My mother is a housewife and my father is a welder who earns about one dollar a day," said 15-year-old Sa Brak, one of the students. "That's why I cannot go to school -- it costs about 1,000 Riels (25 cents) a day if I go to school."
Sa Brak rides a bicycle to school in the evening with two friends and says he wants to learn English to get a job in a hotel, where knowledge of English is essential, even for a cleaner's job. Most other students IPS spoke with gave similar reasons for wanting to learning English. Most are school dropouts and helping out their families, doing odd jobs such as collecting used bottles and selling them for recycling or even begging in the streets.
"I had stopped studying and was staying at home with my brothers and sisters, when I heard about this school," said Chanthorn, a charming 20-year-old girl. "I want to learn English because maybe then I can find a good job in a hotel.''
In Cambodia, 85 percent of the population is Buddhist and temples have traditionally been the centre of education, especially in the villages. Education at Rathana's school, called the Volunteer Development Poverty Children School, is free, but a condition is that they need to come to the temple every Saturday for Dhamma (Buddhist teachings) lessons and meditation.
"In future I want to teach Cambodian culture,'' says Rathana. ‘'Because, if you know English and also our culture, it is easier to find work in the (booming) tourism industry.''
The school, he explained, does not enroll those who can afford regular schooling. "We conduct interviews and check backgrounds to identify deserving cases-- we even go to their homes to check.''
Currently the teachers work on a voluntary basis with the local teachers given a small monthly allowance of about ten dollars. A British volunteer organisation called ‘Frontier' that sends university students to teach English overseas on short assignments, is providing the teachers this year.
Rathana would like to have better funding to help expand his school and build a library and an orphanage to accommodate some of the estimated 60,000 orphans in Cambodia. He says he only needs about 5,000 dollars a year to help him maintain a permanent ‘volunteer' staff of six teachers and a manager, build a library, maintain an office and pay for the land lease.
The monk dreams of setting up a network of similar Buddhist schools in poor village communities after he graduates. His one complaint is that, though there are hundreds of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) operating in the country, it is difficult to get money from any of them because they have their own networks and programmes which do not cover grassroots self-help enterprises like those run by the temples.
According to statistics at the Cambodian NGO Forum, in 2002, some 200 INGOs spent 76.9 million dollars in Cambodia but only 17 percent of that money was allocated for education.
The Khmer-Buddhist Education Assistance Project notes that grassroots, self-help community development is a tradition promoted by Buddhist temples in Cambodia for centuries. That system fell into neglect during the Pol Pot years and it was not until the 1990s that Buddhist NGOs emerged to revive it.
Rathana argues that self-help does not mean self-funding because the resources simply do not exist at the community level. "At the moment we are dependent on volunteers. If there are no volunteers there's no school," he points out. ‘'That is why I'm looking for funds to give these teachers a basic salary -- which is only ten dollars a month.''
Angkor Wat is not a functioning Buddhist monastery but monks can be seen around the monument, chatting with gawking foreign tourists. One of them uses the opportunity to ask for donations that would go into English-language classes for orphans and poor children who are out of regular school.
''I don't see soliciting funds (at this tourist monument) as something unethical because we are only asking the tourists to help us educate young children who will otherwise end up begging in the streets,'' said Nn Rathana, a young Cambodian monk. He invited IPS to visit his school, barely 3 km away.
During the day, Rathana studies at a local university for a degree in Development Studies and Management. English Literature being one of the subjects, he speaks good English and wants poor children to get a grasp of the language so that they can survive in this city which is developing into a tourist destination, supporting a hospitality industry.
At his school, there were over 200 students aged between 5 - 20 years, taking English lessons in four classrooms -- basically huts made of bamboo and thatch. Two of the classrooms are conducted by British volunteer teachers while the other two make do with locals. The periods last from 5 -8 pm.
''I do not get any funding from the government or international funding agencies. I meet tourists at Angkor Wat and ask for donations from them. Some come here to see the place first and then send money to my bank account when they get back home,'' said Rathana.
He explained that the parents cannot send the children to regular school because they cannot afford the daily fee of 300 Riels (six US cents) or the costs of transport, meals and books.
"My mother is a housewife and my father is a welder who earns about one dollar a day," said 15-year-old Sa Brak, one of the students. "That's why I cannot go to school -- it costs about 1,000 Riels (25 cents) a day if I go to school."
Sa Brak rides a bicycle to school in the evening with two friends and says he wants to learn English to get a job in a hotel, where knowledge of English is essential, even for a cleaner's job. Most other students IPS spoke with gave similar reasons for wanting to learning English. Most are school dropouts and helping out their families, doing odd jobs such as collecting used bottles and selling them for recycling or even begging in the streets.
"I had stopped studying and was staying at home with my brothers and sisters, when I heard about this school," said Chanthorn, a charming 20-year-old girl. "I want to learn English because maybe then I can find a good job in a hotel.''
In Cambodia, 85 percent of the population is Buddhist and temples have traditionally been the centre of education, especially in the villages. Education at Rathana's school, called the Volunteer Development Poverty Children School, is free, but a condition is that they need to come to the temple every Saturday for Dhamma (Buddhist teachings) lessons and meditation.
"In future I want to teach Cambodian culture,'' says Rathana. ‘'Because, if you know English and also our culture, it is easier to find work in the (booming) tourism industry.''
The school, he explained, does not enroll those who can afford regular schooling. "We conduct interviews and check backgrounds to identify deserving cases-- we even go to their homes to check.''
Currently the teachers work on a voluntary basis with the local teachers given a small monthly allowance of about ten dollars. A British volunteer organisation called ‘Frontier' that sends university students to teach English overseas on short assignments, is providing the teachers this year.
Rathana would like to have better funding to help expand his school and build a library and an orphanage to accommodate some of the estimated 60,000 orphans in Cambodia. He says he only needs about 5,000 dollars a year to help him maintain a permanent ‘volunteer' staff of six teachers and a manager, build a library, maintain an office and pay for the land lease.
The monk dreams of setting up a network of similar Buddhist schools in poor village communities after he graduates. His one complaint is that, though there are hundreds of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) operating in the country, it is difficult to get money from any of them because they have their own networks and programmes which do not cover grassroots self-help enterprises like those run by the temples.
According to statistics at the Cambodian NGO Forum, in 2002, some 200 INGOs spent 76.9 million dollars in Cambodia but only 17 percent of that money was allocated for education.
The Khmer-Buddhist Education Assistance Project notes that grassroots, self-help community development is a tradition promoted by Buddhist temples in Cambodia for centuries. That system fell into neglect during the Pol Pot years and it was not until the 1990s that Buddhist NGOs emerged to revive it.
Rathana argues that self-help does not mean self-funding because the resources simply do not exist at the community level. "At the moment we are dependent on volunteers. If there are no volunteers there's no school," he points out. ‘'That is why I'm looking for funds to give these teachers a basic salary -- which is only ten dollars a month.''
1 comment:
i really love and appreciate your effort to educate our young generation . keep on going , don't lose our spirit and hope.
you have done much better job than those on the top of botle full of our countrymen's blood!!!!
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