Moving L-CDI Cambodia

Hi all,

Sufficient donations have been pledged to allow LCDI to move to a new location. These donations have come largely from the Christadelphian Brothers and Sisters of the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Valuable donations of money and rice have also been received from Khmer supporters in France and other regular donors in Malaysia and elsewhere.

The new site is about 30 minutes by tuktuk further out of Phnom Penh. This new site is much larger, much cheaper and has lots of options for growing vegetables, raising chickens, fish and pigs and harvesting fruit.

The next month will see various organisational changes, plans to develop the curriculum, changes to regional centres and the development of the new Phnom Penh site.

Lots of work needs to be done to make the site habitable and your prayers are needed to make this re-location a success. At this time, we are still looking for donors to cover the $2500 shortfall that exists for Feb 2010-Jan 2011. If you are willing and able to contribute, please contact the Director, Kunthea

What's the current situation?

Unfortunately, a long term stay at the current location is not sustainable. To survive, LCDI needs;

• Cheaper accomodation
• Room for sustainability projects
• Funding

Cheaper accomodation is possible. LCDI management have found a site with the room for agricultural projects and at less than half the ongoing rental costs of the current location. The downside is that it costs a lot to move the school and the location is like a scene from the 'Jungle Book'. It will take a lot of work to transform the location into a new school.

We have some sustainability projects lined up, including raising chickens and pigs for eating and sale, renting and faming rice paddies and planting and harvesting large vegetable gardens to reduce food costs. All of these money saving strategies will require capital.

The first stage is to collect the capital to move and find the money to pay ongoing costs that keep the school runnning. Those targets were set at USD $25000 capital to move + USD $2000 a month to keep the school running. It won't be the Hilton hotel, but it will run and give the poor kids an education.

So far, we have pledges for $20 000 and $1500 of the ongoing costs, so we are nearly there. If you are interested in donating, please contact me on hewitt.michael@gmail.com and/or visit the facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/HPwinston?ref=profile#!/group.php?gid=293628907000&ref=mf

What has the Christadelphian involvement been?

Christadelphian involvement with LCDI began with Bro Raju Devis in 2004 when he visited the project. Between 2004 and now, various financial contributions have been made by Brothers and Sisters to particular elements of the school such as roofing, walls, pumps etc... Teaching involvement has been ongoing since 2006 with significant emotional and financial investment by a large number of people. Fieldworkers living in the BEC have taught English on Thursday mornings for the last two years. WCF involvement has been of significant value to LCDI during the last year and has vastly improved the facilities, especially in terms of health and comfort, with drainage, concreting and classroom development projects. LCDI facilities in Phnom Penh have reached a stage where the living standard is acceptable.

Although religious teaching is not part of the curriculum, students have the freedom of choice to study at BEC during pre-arranged times and on weekends. These students ride their bikes from the LCDI to the BEC in the hot sun to come and study twice to three times a week. Should the LCDI move, it will no longer be possible to bike the distance, but opportunities to study out of hours will be made available to those students who are interested.

Students/teachers from LCDI who have been baptised in the past include Sister Loy and Brother Kunthea. Some students that have completed LCDI and are now working come for monthly classes and several more students who bike are looking at baptism in the near future.

A Day in the Life of an LCDI student

This 'Day in the Life' was written by one of the LCDI students who now works at the BEC (She's probably not in this picture :) ).

Early morning we are woken up at 4:30am to do individual studies. At 5am, we sing the School Song. At 5:30 we do some exercise until 5:50 when we clean up the school. After this, we have a rest and take a bath (Boys and girls have separate bathing areas, and a “bath” consists of pouring cold water from a large trough over yourself). At 7am, we say prayers for 10 minutes and then start classes until 8:30 when we get breakfast. Breakfast is usually a savoury rice porridge called “bobor”. After this we start classes again and study until midday when we get lunch. Lunch is usually rice with soup. We then get to rest for 1 hour and at 1pm we start classes again and learn until 4pm. After this we clean up the school again and rest for 20 minutes and then take another bath before singing the School Song. Then we have “conversation practice” for English speaking in small groups of 3 or 4. This takes about an hour, then dinner is eaten around 6pm. Dinner is usually rice and soup. After dinner, we are given time for individual study (about 1 hour). Following this, we pray and listen to announcements and motivational talks by the teachers or sometimes have a question and answer session. Lights out is around 9:30pm, but those who wish to continue personal study are allowed to do this outside the dormitories.

Who are the Teachers?

LCDI uses a peer teaching program. Teachers are selected from former students who have finished their last 6 months as teachers in the province. Teachers are payed a small allowance and receive some part funding towards university degrees if the money is available. The teachers sacrifice a lot to give back to the youth of Cambodia what they have received themselves.

If the money was available, LCDI would put in place a stronger program to teach the teachers methodology and advanced skills.

How long is the LCDI program and what is the curriculum?

The most popular reason students choose to study at LCDI is to get a quick grasp of English. English skills open up a whole new world of job opportunities if one can learn it to a reasonable standard. The LCDI program uses immersion English. Students are expected to study, converse and engage in school life using English, which can be quite difficult at the beginning. But it is the fastest way to learn a language, short of having immersion with foreign speakers. One of the reasons that foreign speakers are valued as visiting teachers, is because students get an opportunity to engage a foreigner in their own language and build the confidence to communicate in a language not their own.

Other elements of the curriculum include computer studies, accounting and optional activities such as Tae Kwon Do, facilitated by a visiting South Korean expert. By far the most important element of this teaching are the leadership and character development studies, which aim to increase students self confidence and offer a moral code based around respect for others. The code has a thread of spirituality, but is not based on any particular religion, being a result of Bahai involvement at one point. Students are permitted however, to study religion outside curriculum hours or at pre arranged times, during which those who are interested become involved with the BEC through the BEC Biker program or Sunday School program.

When students start studying at LCDI, they begin in one of the provincial centres. This period lasts for approximately 3 months while they learn basic English skills. After this initial period, they move to the Phnom Penh centre for more advanced study and the inclusion of other elements of the curriculum. Students usually stay in Phnom Penh to study for 1 year to 18 months depending on the student. After completing examinations, those who pass get sent back out to the provincial centres to be teachers for 6 months after which they have completed their certificate.

Once they have completed their certificate (and sometimes earlier), LCDI students start looking for jobs. Many prefer to look for work in Phnom Penh than go back to the province. LCDI students have a reputation for speaking reasonably good English and many get jobs in the hospitality industry. Those who have completed high school often try to get scholarships to study at University. Others get jobs teaching in local schools.

What is the current LCDI premises like?

The current Phnom Penh LCDI campus is located 20 minutes from central Phnom Penh. The school is on a medium sized block of land. The buildings were all constructed by the students. Classrooms have a dirt floor, with walls made of woven coconut leaves. The roofs are corrugated iron, which helps to reduce the amount of water coming in during the rainy season. Each classroom has basic wooden desks and seats. There is one old whiteboard per classroom. Recent years has seen the development of a computer room with kind donation of some computers.
The boys and girls have separate dormitories. The dormitories are built on two levels, the bottom level has a concrete floor, while the upper level has a bamboo floor. Dorms are very open-plan with no walls separating sleeping areas. Students sleep on bamboo mats or thin mattresses directly on the floor. Often students share a large mosquito net between 2 or 3 people. There is no additional furniture in the dorms, and personal belongings are just kept on the floor next to each sleeping mat.
Boys and girls have separate bathing areas. A large trough of water on a concrete floor provides the water for washing. Students simply scoop water over themselves to bathe. Toilets are asian-style squat toilets, connected to a student-built sewerage system. Clothes are washed by hand once a week in the toilet block.
There is a separate dormitory and bathing area for the teachers. The teachers are lucky to be provided with a couple of western-style toilets, but otherwise accommodation is the same as the students.
Food is cooked in an outdoor kitchen. Huge pots are heated on a fire to cook the large quantities of rice eaten every day. There is one wooden bench which serves as a food preparation table. Students take it in turns to be on kitchen duty on a daily basis.

Rationale from LCDI proposal documentation

The combination of a lack of role models and a perceived lack of employment opportunities tends to devalue education in the eyes of many poor families. This is particularly the case with regard to daughters, who may be seen to have even fewer employment options than sons do, and to be likely to marry early thereby “wasting” resources devoted to their education. Low levels of self-esteem and self-confidence, which detract from the benefits of education through reducing the ability to participate in learning activities, concentrate on schoolwork, and remember lessons. Where parents do send children to school, the costs of keeping them enrolled (not only fees, and books but also the loss of the student’s earning potential) can be a major challenge. Children from poor families who do finish school often find it difficult to find jobs because their lack of self-esteem and confidence mean that they do not perform well in interviews. The low levels of self-discipline, sound ethical values, and inter-personal skills often mean that poor youth are not able to keep jobs, or to gain promotions. Students from poor families, and particularly school dropouts, lack appropriate networks that could assist them in finding work or in moving on to better jobs. Even where youths from poor backgrounds are able to gain technical skills (e.g. through NGOs offering training in fields such as motor mechanics, hairdressing, computing) they generally lack the confidence, self-discipline and business skills to run their own businesses. To fill the gap for these problems, L-CDI offers the following education program with the combination of soft skills, hard skills, and social consciousness.

What is LCDI?

The Leadership and Character Development Institute (LCDI) is a grassroots boarding school designed to motivate and prepare youth that have been ‘left behind’ for life. The program focuses on the poorest students, seeking to provide both vocational training and life skills for high school dropouts, former gangsters and those who never had opportunities for education.

“The goal of the program is to provide occupational training skills, on-the-job-experience as well as basic educational services, and leadership development counselling.”

Using peer education, a strict discipline and tested curriculum, LCDI has successfully provided many students with opportunities in the workforce and provided a constructive future for many students who might have otherwise become gangsters or remained in poverty.

Welcome to L-CDI Cambodia

If you are coming here, you probably know about our fundraising efforts for the Leadership and Character Development Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I've had more than one request for a web site that people could look at for information. Unfortunately, the website that L-CDI used to run is now very out of date and no longer accessible, so I've quickly put together this blogsite to give everyone a general idea of what LCDI involves.