Satellite Schools

If the word ‘school’ brings to mind pictures of corridors and crowds, bells and benches, dismiss them all – except the benches. Make those benches wooden and solid, with space for five or six students each. Instead of corridors, think concrete floors. Our Satellite Schools may be rustic – two of them are open-air structures with tin roofs – but what matters to the children who come there is the opportunity to study.

Begun as a pilot program in 2007, Cambodian Children’s Fund Satellite Schools offer free education to over 150 Steung Meanchey youth who lack the means to attend public school, who work full-time or have full-time family commitments. Anyone over the age of six is welcome to participate in the free English, Math, Khmer and Social Studies classes that are conducted six days per week. CCF covers the cost of all school supplies and textbooks, and also offers food assistance as performance and attendance incentives.

To stand in the dim light and warm air of one of the Satellite School classrooms and watch these children reaching to the sky and shouting their answers is a joy. To hear them announce, ‘I am studying’ in a soft voice strung with pride and new hope is a humbling delight.