Harry Potter in Cambodia

May 5, 2009
By Nicholas Kristof
New York Times

I’ve written occasionally about Bernard Krisher’s work in Cambodia, building schools and keeping girls in school through American Assistance for Cambodia. Bernie is a former journalist who developed a passion for Cambodia and has devoted his life to raising living standards there. Late last year, my own family visited Cambodia to see the opening of a school that we donated through Bernie.

One of the frustrations in trying to teach kids to read there is that, frankly, there aren’t a lot of great books to teach with. And exciting stories that might entice young people to read often aren’t translated into Khmer, the Cambodian language. So a few years ago, Bernie convinced J.K. Rowling to donate the rights to the first book so that a low-priced Khmer version could be published, so as to hook young people into reading. Now J.K. Rowling has agreed to donate the rights to the second book in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so that it can be published in Khmer as well. The upshot will be another cheap page-turner to get young Cambodians to read more — and kids in huts around the country will be starry-eyed about broomsticks and owls and Harry’s adventures. So, thank you, J.K. Rowling and Bernie Krisher!

Racist job offer in “The Cambodia Daily”?

23 Feb 2009
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

A school in Phnom Penh advertised a teaching position job offer, but only “white-skinned” people need apply.

“Native English and White-Skinned Speaker (Female is preferable)”. Some readers of the 21-22 Feb weekend edition of The Cambodia Daily must be surprised to read the job offer posted by a school in Phnom Penh. The requirements cannot be made clearer than this.

During a recruitment campaign, the Cambodia-Australia School is recruiting about a dozen teachers. The job offer involves two teaching positions for kindergarten and English classes.

When reached over the phone, a school official first hesitated to reply. Finally, he said: “This is not about racism. In the school, we have five or six black teachers, and after a survey we undertook, they (school) need white-skinned people.”

On the other end, Kevin Doyle, editor of The Cambodia Daily, explained that “this issue does not involve the newspaper editorial.” Officials at the newspaper involved in advertisement could not be reached.

Bernard Krisher, publisher of The Cambodia Daily, discovered the ad after the fact. He said that he was very affected by it. “This is a scandalous ad, and I wouldn’t have allowed it to be published if I saw such discrimination and such a violation of decency rules that we believe in.”

Bernard Krisher plans to present his apologies in the newspaper this week, and he calls on his readers not to apply for this job.

Ban on Burma Daily Should Cease: Group

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
23 May 2008

New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned Friday the ban by the government on the Cambodia Daily newspaper’s attempt to publish a supplemental insert, the “Burma Daily.”

By banning the insert, the Cambodian government was covering up abuses and other flaws of the Burmese junta, Human Rights Watch said.

Authorities have ordered copies of the insert to be seized.

“Cambodia’s press censorship on behalf of Burma’s abusive military government is shameless,” said Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith dismissed the call, saying Adams did not understand Cambodia’s press law.

Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher said the insert does not require a separate license to publish, as claimed by the Information Ministry.

Cambodia: Lift Ban on ‘Burma Daily’

Suspension Undercuts Credibility of ASEAN Initiative on Burma Cyclone

Human Rigths Watch

(New York, May 23, 2008) – The Cambodian government should stop protecting Burma’s junta from foreign press scrutiny by lifting the ban on copies of the Burma Daily, a new English-language insert in the Cambodia Daily newspaper, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Burma Daily was launched on May 16 as a four-page insert in the Cambodia Daily and carried primarily English-language wire service reports about Burma and Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 2-3, killing tens of thousands. With the publication of its second edition on May 19, the Cambodian Ministry of Information illegally ordered police to remove copies of the Burma Daily from newsstands.

The newspaper’s suspension comes ahead of a May 25 “pledging” conference in Rangoon organized by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-country bloc that includes Cambodia, to address Burma’s reconstruction and how to deliver aid to cyclone victims. ASEAN operates by consensus, so any country, including Burma or Cambodia, can stop coordinated action by the grouping that insists Burma open up to aid and humanitarian workers.

“Cambodia’s press censorship on behalf of Burma’s abusive military government is shameless,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “When ASEAN members like Cambodia go to bat for Burma’s generals, it makes it hard to believe that the association will genuinely lean on Burma to allow international aid for desperate cyclone survivors.”

Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher, who said he launched the Burma Daily only temporarily as an insert in the Cambodia Daily before launching it as an online publication at www.burmadaily.org, announced on May 21 that the Burma Daily would no longer appear in the Cambodia Daily. At present, the online version has articles only until May 21.

In a speech on Cambodian national television last December after Burma’s crackdown on widespread protests, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen criticized the United Nations for “opposing and putting pressure” on Burma, rather than letting Burma solve its own problems. “Now, Burma has proceeded smoothly, but they go and disturb it again,” Hun Sen said.

On May 21, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith threatened to file a legal complaint against the Cambodia Daily for launching the Burma Daily without obtaining government permission. Kanharith stated that the Burma Daily could negatively affect relations with Burma, according to the Cambodia Daily. Despite the prohibition on the English-language insert, Kanharith has publicly stated that the government will allow the Cambodia Daily – which has been registered with the government since 1993 – to cover news about Burma in its regular international section.

Cambodia’s 1995 Press Law requires new publications to submit names and addresses of their editor and printing house to the Ministry of Information and authorizes the government to ban, suspend, or confiscate publications deemed to violate “national security and political stability.” While publications that do not file applications with the Information Ministry are subject to fines, the Press Law does not specify that such publications are illegal or subject to confiscation.

Outspoken editors and journalists in Cambodia are regularly threatened, subject to physical attacks, or even assassinated. The government also periodically confiscates, bans, or suspends controversial publications. In 2007, the Khmer Amatak newspaper was suspended for refusing to retract a story alleging that political rivals of Funcinpec party leader Norodom Ranariddh had removed his name from a school. Publications that were confiscated by authorities in 2007 included a report by Global Witness, an international environmental advocacy group that alleged government complicity in illegal logging, and Free Press Magazine, a Cambodian-language publication that carried articles critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodian authorities have recently threatened Buddhist monks with eviction from their pagodas or deportation to Vietnam for circulating bulletins published by the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation (KKKF), an organization that advocates for the rights of Khmer Krom people (ethnic Khmer originally from southern Vietnam). One of the allegations against Khmer Krom monk Tim Sakhorn, who was arrested and deported from Cambodia in June 2007 and subsequently jailed in Vietnam, was that he had circulated copies of the KKKF bulletin.

“The Cambodian government has a sad tradition of using its press law and other tactics to silence criticism not only of Hun Sen and other top leaders, but of neighbouring countries with which Cambodia has strong economic and political ties,” said Adams.

While foreign-language publications in Cambodia have generally been more immune to threats of confiscation or closure, in 2007 the owners of the French-language daily Cambodge Soir buckled to government pressure by firing the paper’s Cambodian news editor for publishing an article about the Global Witness logging report. The paper’s management decided to close the paper after staff went on strike to protest the editor’s dismissal, reopening several months later with a much less critical editorial tone.

Government Seizes Newspaper Supplement

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
20 May 2008

The Ministry of Information has begun the seizure of a supplemental section of the English-language Cambodia Daily that covers news about Asean neighbor Burma.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the Daily’s insert was “not a supplement” but a newspaper.

“They must have a license before publishing it,” he said, adding that the Cambodia Daily could face closure itself if it continues publishing the Burma insert.

The Cambodia Daily has run two “Burma Daily” inserts inside it’s own pages, which cover Cambodian, regional and international news. The insert covers news relevant to Burma, which is in the throes of slow governmental response to a devastating cyclone.

The insert has not increased the price of the Cambodia Daily.

Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher said the insert did not constitute a newspaper and said he would not stop publishing it.

“The confiscation of the newspaper I think is a bad act,” he said, adding that the Cambodia Daily is “an independent newspaper.”

Newspaper to end supplement that led to seizures in Cambodia [-Supplement is a publicity stunt?]

May 20, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - A standoff between the Cambodian government and a US newspaper publisher appeared to be over Tuesday after the government seized copies for the second day of The Burma Daily, a supplement inside the English-language Cambodia Daily.

'The Burma Daily will not appear in The Cambodia Daily again,' Bernard Krisher, publisher of both newspapers, said while adding that the supplement would now publish in earnest toward its intended market in Myanmar and be available on the web and by mail.

Krisher said by telephone that the aims of his donor, the Adam Lincoln Steele Foundation, had been achieved and he was satisfied with the exposure the publication had gained.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the paper was confiscated because it was unlicensed.

'We have issued a formal notice to The Cambodia Daily today, and we will close it Wednesday if it continues to publish,' he said.

That threat appeared to have been averted Tuesday, but Krisher denied any wrongdoing, saying The Burma Daily was a sponsored supplement of The Cambodia Daily and did not require a license.

The Burma Daily, which had appeared since last week as a four-page insert with an identical masthead as its sister publication, 'is designed to introduce to the Burmese people what a free and responsible newspaper looks like,' Krisher said.

The publisher, The Cambodia Daily and the Cambodian government have enjoyed a mixed relationship over the years.

The Daily is seen as a primary news source by many expatriates, and Krisher has raised funds for more than 400 schools and operates or supports a number of aid organizations.

However, Prime Minister Hun Sen has publicly criticized the paper as biased on more than one occasion and it often leans toward the views of opposition parties and against the government.

Myanmar and Cambodia enjoy warm relations despite an international outcry over the Myanmar military junta's appalling human rights record.

Kanharith said that despite a policy of freedom of the press, Cambodia would not be a haven for publications about other governments.

The Burma Daily: The confiscation continues

20 May 2008
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

The supplement [to The Cambodia Daily] continues to be pulled by police officers from vending kiosks on Tuesday 20 May. This measure started on Monday 19 May. The authorities blames the 4-page publication – which was launched on Friday 16 May by Bernard Krisher, the founder of The Cambodia Daily – of not having a proper license allowing it to be published in the kingdom. Khieu Kanharith, the minister of Information, confirmed this issue, saying: “We consider The Burma Daily to be a different publication from The Cambodia Daily. It must have an authorization beforehand prior to its publication. On Monday 19 May, instead of a request, we saw the publication of its second edition. It is an illegal edition.” These criticisms were rejected by Bernard Krisher, who was interviewed on Monday evening by the club of Cambodian journalists, saying: “The Burma Daily, financially funded by a US foundation, is not illegal. I hope that the government will respect the freedom of the press.” In an op-ed published on Friday 16 May in The Burma Daily, Bernard Krisher explained that he wanted to give “the Burmese people the possibility to express themselves, but also to be able to obtain free and independent information.” The Burma Daily publishes articles on Burma printed by the International news media.

Burma Daily keeps on published in Cambodia, despite police confiscation

PHNOM PENH, May 20, 2008 (Xinhua) - The Burma Daily still managed to be published here Tuesday as "a supplement" to Cambodia's leading English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily, after the police confiscated its second issue marketed Monday.

"The Burma Daily is a supplement, also on the web at www. burmadaily.org, sponsored by the Adam Lincoln Steele Foundation," said a notification on the third issue of the paper.

"The (New York-based) Adam Lincoln Steele Foundation is dedicated to developing a free and responsible press in countries that do not enjoy a free press," it added.

"The Burma Daily has no political agenda. It is designed to introduce to the Burmese people what a free and responsible newspaper looks like," another English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times Tuesday quoted Bernard Krisher, publisher of the Burma Daily and the Cambodian Daily, as saying.

Earlier Monday, he vowed to keep on publishing the Burma Daily, as a supplement but not a new newspaper.

The credits on both papers showed that they were published by the same group of staff members.

The first issue of Burma Daily hit the market on Friday, without causing obvious official crackdown. The four-page black- white tabloid was folded inside the Cambodian Daily.

However, when the second issue appeared Monday, it incurred immediate ban. Police tried to confiscate all the copies within its distribution areas.

Government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that the Burma Daily was published without permission, so its publication and distribution must be terminated.

"Before we confiscate the newspaper, we informed the Cambodian Daily, which (first) published the Burma Daily on Friday. Bernard Krisher looks down on Cambodian law," the Mekong Times Tuesday quoted the minister as saying.

"There is an Australian company which owns the (English-language) Phnom Penh Post, published a newspaper in Myanmar, so he wants to compete with the Phnom Penh Post," he said.

"Perhaps he wants to seek money from U.S.-based organizations which oppose the Myanmar government to guarantee his income," he added.

The Cambodian government used to adhere to the principle of freedom of expression, but publisher has to acquire permission from the Information Ministry, before starting to print any new newspaper.

Supplement of the Cambodia Daily confiscated by police

19 May 2008
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

The Burma Daily has no right to be published in the kingdom. The authorities justified its confiscation by claiming the lack of a license for this English publication which first appeared on Friday 16 May.

The 8-page newspaper was inserted inside The Cambodia Daily because Bernard Krisher, the editor of The Cambodia Daily, initiated the publication of this supplement. In a letter published on Friday 16 May in The Burma Daily, Bernard Krisher explained that he wanted to give “the Burmese people the possibility to express themselves, but also to have access to free and independent information.”

The Burma Daily prints articles about Burma distributed by the International news media. It is also using a network of reporters. This publication will be available on demand through email and in PDF format. Bernard Krisher also hoped to have it distributed in printed version for sale in Cambodia as well, but the Ministry of Information did not agree to that. Touch Naroth, the Phnom Penh police commissioner said: “The ministry (of Information) asked us to remove Burma Daily from sale because it did not receive a publishing license.” On Monday morning, police officers were going from one newspaper kiosk to another to confiscate the 8-page publication. Newspaper vendors explained that The Cambodia Daily was also affected by this operation: some police officers did not even bother to just confiscate the supplement, they took the entire newspaper, including The Cambodia Daily.

The Burma Daily appears at a time when Burma is affected by cyclone Nargis, which, up to today, saw 134,000 persons killed or disappeared. Bernard Krisher’s publication also comes out during a particular context for the English media in Cambodia: The Phnom Penh Post, one of The Cambodia Daily’s competitors, was bought out a few months back by Australian investors who also own a newspaper in Burma. The Phnom Penh Post which is currently published twice a month will become a daily newspaper this summer. Two of The Cambodia Daily reporters left to join The Phnom Penh Post in the last few weeks. It appears as if Bernard Krisher’s initiative was taken to compete with his ambitious rival. The founder of The Cambodia Daily cannot be reached to comment on the launch of The Burma Daily.

Hands-on help for Cambodia

School project offers education in caring, sharing

May 11, 2008
By Victoria Cheng
Boston Globe Correspondent (Massachusetts, USA)

Four letters may not be a lot, but it's enough to underpin a $20,000 fund-raising effort to build a school in rural Cambodia. Calling itself the Cambridge School for Cambodia (and Camb-Camb for short), the campaign brings together students, businesses, and several groups across the city, some with deep ties to Cambodia and some who have always called Cambridge home.

Rachael Harkavy, a fifth-grade student at the King Open School, started learning about Cambodia in January when she and her peers in the school's fifth through eighth grades joined the effort by hosting weekly penny drives. She reels off statistics about the country that highlight how Cambodia compares with the United States. "It's about the size of Oklahoma and has the population of Pennsylvania," she began.

Camb-Camb is raising money to send to American Assistance for Cambodia, a nonprofit organization run by former Newsweek journalist Bernie Krisher, that has built more than 400 schools across the country.

"We'll be the 405th school, but it's not enough," Harkavy added. "Massachusetts is about half the size of Cambodia and has about 1,000 schools, so that just brings into perspective how many schools Cambodia needs."

The planned Camb-Camb school will be 40 miles north of Phnom Penh and accommodate between 200 and 400 students. Krisher started the initiative in 1993 and negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the World Bank that called for it to match whatever money he raised for the project. The cost of a school, Krisher said, "is actually about $30,000, and the donor only pays about $13,000." By contributing an extra $7,000, the Cambridge School for Cambodia will be able to equip its school with an English teacher, solar panels for a computer, and Internet access, he said.

Longteine de Monteiro owns the Elephant Walk restaurants, which feature French and Cambodian cuisine at locations in Cambridge, Boston, and Waltham. The Cambodian native explained that outside assistance is sorely needed in the country, which was devastated first by the spillover effects of the Vietnam War and then by genocide during the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

"The government now doesn't really do much to help education," she said, "so all the foundations from outside of the country who go there and build whatever the country needs, especially schools and hospitals, are very important."

When Camb-Camb contacted de Monteiro to explore opportunities for collaboration, she agreed to host a benefit dinner at her North Cambridge restaurant early last month.

"We served the meal that we usually serve on New Year's Day in Cambodia," which is April 15, de Monteiro said. "We did chicken curry, Salade Cambodgienne, and beef short ribs with green coconut juice."

The event raised enough money to bump Camb-Camb's funds to the $13,300 mark and also gave attendees like East Boston resident Selena Sang, whose family is Cambodian, a chance to revive memories of childhood traditions.

"My parents live in California," she said, adding that she had not eaten a traditional Cambodian New Year meal since moving here. The event also gave de Monteiro an opportunity to showcase a prominent part of Cambodian culture - its cuisine - and the desire to teach Cantabrigians about this small country perched on the southeastern peninsula of Asia.

At the King Open School, Rachael and fellow fifth-grader Eliza Klein have made it their goal to involve younger students in the project. "In the library we have a display with recipes and books and how to make origami elephants," Klein explained. "We don't want to be collecting money from people and having them say, 'Oh, we're sending it across the world to do blah blah blah.' We want them to really understand it, so that then they'll feel closer."

Before classes one day earlier this month, the girls helped set up an origami table at the school entrance, along with an empty water jug inviting donations of spare change. Sixth-grader Brianna Lavelle patiently guided the younger students through the steps of folding a colorful square of paper into the shape of a crane.

"See all these points here?" she said, indicating the triangular sections where the corners met. "Point it down and fold it like this," she instructed, pressing the edge of a flap against the table.

Eventually, the students managed to fold their pieces of paper into diamond-shaped creations that they then bent to create long necks and pointed tails.

"What is this for?" asked 6-year-old Bianca Byfield, as she handed over her crane to be placed on a large branch of a tree that will eventually hold 400.

"Every crane represents one child who will go to school in Cambodia," said Lavelle's mother, Risa. "And all of Cambridge is helping raise money."

The Cambodia Daily versus Radio Free Asia

Cambodian newspaper sues Radio Free Asia

October 3, 2007
By Cajsa Collin
The Washington Times (USA)

A small Cambodian newspaper has sued Radio Free Asia for purported copyright violations, charging that the station routinely copied and distributed issues to its staff in Washington and Bangkok and posted some of the paper's work without permission on the Internet.

"I don't object to being quoted or paraphrased in other media," said Bernard Krisher, owner and publisher of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodia Daily. "I do object, however, to the wholesale scanning or transmitting the full content of the Cambodia Daily electronically without requesting permission."

Officials at Radio Free Asia (RFA), a private, nonprofit broadcaster funded by the U.S. government, said they are aware of the lawsuit, but "vigorously reject" the charges in the filing and are prepared to "decisively refute [them] in court."

The Cambodia Daily, also a nonprofit operation, was set up in 1993 and publishes six days a week. In an attempt to reduce the risk of other press outlets using its material, the paper only posts a few selected feature pieces online.

Mr. Krisher, a former Asian correspondent for Newsweek magazine, said his paper writes for the people in Cambodia and sees no need to post its stories on the Internet.

The paper hires both Cambodian and foreign reporters but, because it is a nonprofit, the pay is very low.

"All our reporters are allowed to sell their stories after publication to supplement their income, but they can't do that if the stories are already online," Mr. Krisher said.

Deborah Krisher Steele, Mr. Krisher's daughter and a former manager of RFA's Asian offices, testified that she saw an RFA employee in Thailand copying articles from an edition of the Cambodia Daily back in 1999. The copy had been faxed from RFA's Phnom Penh office.

Mr. Krisher told Cambodian prosecutors last month that he contacted Kem Sos, director of the RFA's Khmer-language service.

Mr. Krisher said RFA agreed that it was in violation of the copyright law and had told its Phnom Penh office to stop the practice. RFA initially offered a small fee — $5,000, according to Mr. Krisher — for the use of the paper as a source.

RFA officials deny using the newspaper's work without attribution, and say they considered the citation of excerpts from Cambodian Daily articles covered under the legal concept of "fair use."

An RFA spokeswoman in Washington said the settlement money was offered "in the interest of resuming our former good relationship with the Cambodia Daily, and because RFA thought it best to offer a reasonable sum rather than encouraging the extensive costs of a lawsuit."

Mr. Krisher countered with "an amount we thought excessive," she said.

"No one has been ripping off the Cambodia Daily. We treat them as we do any other media outlet and if we use their stuff we attribute it to them," the RFA spokeswoman said.

David Moore, a patent lawyer for the Washington-based Staas & Halsey LLP, said that the newspaper could have a case if the material in question had been changed from print to electronic copies and also if the paper has been widely distributed among RFA employees.

"Many confuse copyright with plagiarism, but [it] has far more depth," Mr. Moore said. "... Changing a medium from print to electronic would be in violation of copyright laws."

The Cambodia Daily sue RFA for $20,000

September 07, 2007
RFA sued in Cambodia for copyright infringement

Local English-language newspaper The Cambodia Daily, is suing U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) for violation of copyright laws, demanding compensation of tens of thousands of dollars from the non-profit broadcasting corporation, according to a press release received here on Friday.

Lawyer Suy Chhunhak, representing The Cambodia Daily Publisher Bernard Krisher, submitted the lawsuit on Sept. 4 to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court with a number of causes and legal aspects forming the basis of accusations against the RFA, said the release from the newspaper.

According to the lawsuit, Bernard Krisher discovered last year that the RFA has been copying, faxing and e-mailing all articles published on the newspaper to its Bangkok office in Thailand and its headquarters in Washington DC.

He then wrote to RFA Khmer service director Kem Sos, who agreed that the deed was a violation, advising staff at the RFA office in Phnom Penh to stop the activity.

Krisher has asked RFA to pay 3,000 U.S. dollars a year for the past five consecutive years it claims the radio station has violated copyright laws.

The RFA has offered to pay 5,000 U.S. dollars in all to end the dispute.

Krisher has rejected the offer and is now suing the radio corporation for 20,000 U.S. dollars in compensation.

Local staff of RFA declined to comment and referred all questions to RFA headquarters in the U.S.

The Cambodia Daily has also recently sued local news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse for similar offenses.

The Cambodia Daily is the only English-language newspaper published six days a week in Cambodia. It is renowned for exclusive stories and wide-ranging affiliation with the mainstream newspapers and publications of the United States.

RFA is the one of the branches of the United States' overseas radio service funded by its government.

Source: Xinhua

His goal: to build 300 schools

Thursday, May 24, 2007
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii, USA)

Retired American journalist Bernard Krisher, who is devoting his retirement to raising money to build more than 300 small schools in rural Cambodia, will give two public talks in Hawai'i about his efforts.

He will speak at 6 p.m. May 31 at Temple Emanu-El, and at 10 a.m. June 2 at Central Union Church's Adult Education Committee. The public is welcome at both events.

Krisher, a former Asia bureau chief for Newsweek based in Tokyo, raises private funds that are matched or doubled by the World Bank or Asia Development Bank to build small wooden schools throughout the Cambodian countryside.

In 1993, he formed American Assistance for Cambodia and Japan Relief for Cambodia, both independent nonprofit organizations that accept private donations to fund schools.

Eight schools — four in operation and four under construction — have been made possible by Hawai'i donors, including Vanny and Jerry Clay who have become informal spokespeople for Krisher in Hawai'i.

"We just formed a 'donors club,' which meets once every three months," said Vanny Clay, in an e-mail message.

Clay, a teacher at Punahou, and her attorney husband, visited Cambodia in 2002 and saw the high level of illiteracy among children there. Clay, who is from Cambodia, heard about Krisher's work two years later, and the couple got involved. That year they visited him in Cambodia and saw five of his schools.

"We were totally amazed by the success of his program and convinced this is the way to help children," she said. "We donated funds to build a school in a very remote area in the northeastern part of the country. Our dream of providing basic education to impoverished children is now a reality."

The Clays visited the school they helped fund in 2005 and again last year to meet with students and teachers.

"We know that children are the future of the country," Clay said. "We wanted to help these children."

A school can be built for as little as $13,000 from a private donor, which is then matched by about $20,000 by one of the two international aid organizations. Schools built on land donated by a village include three to six classrooms, desks and chairs. Fully constructed schools are given to the village.

The Clays named the school they funded Mr. and Mrs. Sak Nhep School after Vanny Clay's parents.

In addition to teachers provided by the government, the Clays have hired an extra teacher to provide English and computer instruction to the children.

"We keep doing a little bit by a little bit," said Clay. "Some children walk one hour to get to school, so we want to try and buy some bicycles next year."

The school has four classrooms, 277 students ages 5 to 17, and teaches in two shifts, 7 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. Before starting a school day, children work in a garden, watering and caring for the vegetables that are harvested for hot meals at the school. "We want them to know about responsibility," Clay said.

To learn more about Krisher's project, visit www.cambodiaschools.com or call Jerry Clay at 535-8469.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.