Schools in Cambodia
Orifarm has contributed to the establishment of seven schools in the rural provinces of Cambodia through the Rural Schools Program.
The first school, The Little Mermaid School, was completed in October 2006 and since then 6 other schools have been built with financial support from Orifarm under the name 'Hans Christian Andersen Schools'.
About the project
The basis for the school foundation is the two non-profit organisations: “American Assistance for Cambodia” and “Japan Relief for Cambodia”, which raises money from private investors in the United States and Japan, where the creator of the project Bernard Krisher is settled.
The Asian Development Bank contributes with US $ 12.000 when private donors contribute with US $ 15.800. For this amount they can build a new school, buy teaching resources, and establish solar panels to generate enough power for a computer, to give the students access to the Internet. They also need to hire teachers to teach English and to invest in information technology.
When the school has been established, it will be run as a regular Cambodian state school under the Cambodian ministry of education.
Cambodia
Cambodia is still suffering from four years of the Khmer Rouge regime in the years of 1974-1979. More than 2 million of the 8 million inhabitants died as a consequence of the total relocation of the urban inhabitants to the countryside, executions or division of families. Diseases and hunger also contributed to the annihilation.
The educated elite disappeared completely and today the country is still struggling to fill out the educational vacuum. More than 65 % of the population are illiterate – 78 % of all women. More than 40 % of the population are below 14 years of age (approx. 6 million).
This puts a lot of pressure on the government to ensure education, as almost all of the country’s intellectuals, educated people, artists and teachers were annihilated during the four years of Pol Pot. The consequence of this annihilation is a total lack of educational tradition – in other words; they have to start all over again.
Today there are more than 3.000 villages in Cambodia without any kind of school, where children do not receive any education or where they are forced to sit on an open field without any kind of protection against the sun or rain.
Supporting the Rural Schools Program and the future development of Cambodia has therefore been an important contribution for Orifarm.