Vocational Training Team Cambodia

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”

— H. Jackson Brown

As I sit here a wonderful group of Australian educators are on their way to Cambodia to work with teachers from remote village schools in Kampong Speu and Siem Reap. This trip is the second such adventure that is fully funded through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant although previous trips have been funded privately and supported by a District Grant. The idea of this initiative really occurred as a result of people being involved in a World of Difference Humanitarian Tour. That experience enabled us all to see the immediate need for children to have the opportunity to increase literacy skills in both their language and the English language. It was obvious that, with the limited training that teachers have, help and support is needed to increase the development of the skills needed for children particularly in remote village schools to be able to have opportunities for future meaningful work that stop the poverty cycle.

So what exactly will this experience look like?

Well having experienced this myself last year, it will be delivered in schools that have very basic facilities namely four walls and a roof, windows that allow for some ventilation in very hot and dusty conditions.

No running water, very basic toilet facilities, literally a hole in the ground! Forget about the air conditioning! Our teachers will bring all their own resources as the teachers in the remote schools do not much at all and place great value on any donated pencils, paper and chalk The Team will deliver four half day workshops to approximately one hundred teachers and then go back, debrief and plan for the next day. This regime happens at a remote village school about two hours from Phnom Peng and then a few days later in a similar venue forty five minutes out of Siem Reap.

So far the feedback from the participating teachers notes statistics such as 100% believed the workshops were useful and relevant, 98% believed the content of the program was well presented and engaging and 99% believed that the materials used, demonstrated and received was useful their work.

We do have big plans for the future and hope to further develop a partnership with a teacher training institute in Kampong Speu. The aim is to support the local people training the future teachers and humbly offer some ideas and teaching strategies that are seen as successful in our local schools in Victoria.

The Vocational Training Team of teachers are truly making a difference in the name of Rotary and with funds from The Rotary Foundation.