Uniforms for Cambodia
We are delighted to be working with The Ponheary Ly Foundation and Elgar Rotary Club to raise funds to supply children in Cambodia with School Uniforms.
The Ponheary Ly Foundation was founded by Ponheary Ly who served as a teacher and later tour guide in Cambodia. She had a passion for education. Living a portion of her life in poverty, Ponheary knew the struggles that children in rural Cambodia faced when trying to attend school. Starting with just one student, Ponheary began what has grown into the Ponheary Ly Foundation, sponsoring 2,800 students in four primary schools and five secondary schools through rural northwestern Cambodia.
The Ponheary Ly Foundation is a US-registered 501(c)3 non-profit organisation. Their mission is to promote access to quality education for children and young people in Siem Reap and Preah Vihear provinces in northern Cambodia. Guided by a UN human rights based approach, their work stems from the basic premise that access to schooling is fundamental to rebuilding the country’s civil society after the genocide of the 1970s.
Education plays a central role in the development of future democratic leaders, the eradication of poverty, the promotion of gender equality, and improving the overall health and well-being of rural and urban communities.
Recognising that educational access is interlinked with a number of social issues, the holistic scope of their work addresses nutritional standards, transportation, basic health care, housing, and infrastructure projects focused on providing electricity and clean water. They believe that in order for children to learn, they must have food security, a stable place to live, a mode of transit to get to school, and the access to medical care when required – the same everyday supports that should be afforded to children throughout the world.
Providing uniforms and school supplies lies at the heart of the organisation’s mission to be responsive to immediate challenges facing families and local communities. Providing Uniforms seeks to remove one of the greatest obstacles to attending public school: students must have uniforms and their own supplies. The cost of a students uniform (approximately £5 for junior school and £6 for senior school) is out of reach for most families engaged in subsistence farming with too many children at home. Many families must choose just one child to attend school and hope that one can come home and teach the rest. By supplying these children with the things they need for school, we are able to get all the village children in school, not just some.
At the end of October every year, open enrolment begins, and the Ponheary Ly Foundation team compiles rosters of students new and old to receive uniforms, books, and supplies. Through alliances with village elders, teachers and administrators in individual schools, they organise an Opening Day at each of the schools they support in early November to distribute the necessary supplies for students to attend school.
We would really like to provide uniforms for as many children as possible so anything you are able to give will be donated to the Ponheary Ly Foundation through our Elgar Rotary Club based here in Herefordshire, which is part of Rotary International, and will ensure that ALL money donated goes directly to the Ponheary Ly Foundation.
We have included a donation option in checkout so customers can easily choose to add an optional donation (£2, £5 or £6) while ordering. Thank you for your support.
