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Cambodian Village Builds Their Own Rotary School

By Rotarian John Mann, Rotary Club of Beaudesert, D9640, Australia

The poorest villages in the poorest province of Cambodia, now have their first ever school. It’s the Rotary Club of Beaudesert School built in the village of Chuor Ph'av, pronounced ‘Joo Pow’, in the Kamchay Mear District of Prey Veng Province. You won’t find it on a map unless you have a US military map from the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, by referring to a modern-day atlas, the provincial township of Prey Veng can readily be located. Prey Veng is located due east of Cambodia’ capital, Phnom Penh. By traveling another 90 minutes on dirt roads and tracks from Prey Veng, the village of Chour Pha’y is reached; ‘as the crow flies’, Chour Pha’y is just 18 kilometers from the Vietnam border ENE of Phnom Penh.

John Mann from the Rotary Club of Beaudesert discovered Chour Pha’y on his travels five years ago and was the first non-Asian traveler in at least 80 years to have been to the district, and yet some 200,000 people live in this small subsistence rice growing area. Although close to the Vietnam border, it might just as well be ‘a million miles from anywhere’....no one visits this district....no temples...no attractions....just very poor, uneducated amazingly optimistic beautiful people.

For reasons ranging from the maladministration of the Khmer Rouge to malnutrition, from almost no health care to any social services, about 60% of the population in this district is of the age of less than 15 years.

Nearly one year ago, John Mann returned from a visit where he'd been helping individual families - with a big request....could Rotary build a school? The idea was well planned. All Cambodian cooperation agreements were signed and sealed, with the villagers agreeing to make almost all building materials themselves. With local builders in charge almost every man, woman and child ready to help...it was up to ROTARY...the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh Metro was keen to be the local club to help oversee funds with the Rotary Club of Beaudesert as the international partner club. In summary, the project aim was to build a three big room school for 400 children with no administrative costs, and with John as project coordinator and overseer of the construction work.

The Rotary Club of Beaudesert in south-east Queensland, Australia was founded 52 years ago and has a membership of 25. Beaudesert is a country town of 6000 people, an hour south of the city of Brisbane and an hour west, of the Gold Coast. The country area is cattle grazing and tourism being bounded on three sides by World Heritage National Park.

The school was fully constructed and operational by December last year, and on 15^th January this year, 10 Beaudesert Rotarians made the long and arduous trek for the official opening.

There are now close to 500 children in those three classrooms and incredibly the three....yes THREE teachers weren't complaining. The Rotary Club of Beaudesert is now urgently fund raising for a total of US$29,000 to build a second set of class rooms. The first and existing school will teach 5 year olds to 12 year olds and the new school will be what we in the west would call a middle or junior high school. (There is a high school a weekly journey away but up to now the Village children couldn’t ever hope to attend through lack of a primary education).

Incredibly a three year trained teacher in Cambodia earns about one Au$1 per day from the Cambodian Government. The project provides financial support that doubles this salary and also provides books and stationery. Therefore because there is an ongoing need for some support -.in the near future there will be many opportunities for people to visit and help with some volunteer teaching. Presently the children are being taught to read and write in Cambodian, being taught basic mathematics and some social studies. John Mann can always do with more support. John can be contacted at email: fromjohnmann@hotmail.com for more details.

John has loved and cared deeply about Cambodia since that first visit and have visited and helped personally many times since. He remembers well the moment when a villager said to him, "John, can you make us a school?”. He explained gently that he is just a teacher, to which the villager replied, "Could you ask your friends please?” It was a magical question...asked just one year ago. It’s a conversation he repeats every time he talks to people about the project... “On my own” NO, but with Rotary ‘YES!” Make dreams real!

John Mann is a teacher by profession. From 1997 to 2004, he was an elected Councillor (local government) in his area of Beaudesert. He hadn't had a holiday for those 7 years and decided to visit poor places he'd not seen. He toured as a backpacker through India and Cuba, and discovered the village of Chuor Ph'av in Cambodia.