BuildBonnie'sDream
Development Made in Cambodia
4th January 2013
Happy New Year
So much has happened at the school since December 2011. The two classrooms which were to be replaced by Build Bonnie’s Dream have been removed and are ready for the new classrooms to be built. The School was built beside Steung Mean Chey dumpsite, to provide education to vulnerable children who cannot afford to go to a government school. The children and their families lived next to the dumpsite and made a living from sorting through the rubbish at the site. In the last year the dumpsite which was previously beside the school has been moved to another district. Many of the children have moved there with their parents in order to work, however, there are still many children living in the surrounding area and attending classes at the school.
The full class sizes consist of about 50 children, so the school is still in need of more room for teaching. More space will allow the school to have two classes for the younger children and two classes for the older children based on their ability. Currently, children of a similar age are all learning together, however, their ability varies drastically which makes it difficult to teach.
Another problem which Bonnie always wanted to fix was to get the school a syllabus and having spoken to the head teacher, she wants this to be put in place. They have a copy of the syllabus which is implemented in government schools, but it is difficult to teach from and provides no lesson plans. We will be speaking to several private schools to see which program they use in order to find a syllabus which the teachers can understand.
We have visited the new dumpsite and it reflects how the school in Steung Mean Chey used to be. There has been talk about a school being built at the new dumpsite, or of starting a learning program for the children but as of yet, nothing is certain. The reason for this is that the land surrounding the new dumpsite is privately owned and very expensive, however, we have been able to take supplies for the children and their families who live there.
We have a couple of weeks left in Cambodia, and by the end of this trip the building contract will be written and ready for the project to start. We are using the same building plans as used for the previous classrooms, but the materials used will be altered so it is of better quality and more sustainable. The cost of the project has yet to be confirmed, however it is higher than we initially budgeted, this is due to the rise in cost of raw materials, labour and inflation.
We are awaiting approval from the board of directors at the school before the building can begin, however, the management team and head teacher have already shown a huge appreciation and cannot wait for the classrooms to be built. After we receive approval from the board, we will then apply for planning permission from the local authorities which can take up to one month. Once this is all in place the building contractors can begin Building Bonnie's Dream and we look forward to letting you know the date.
