Education progress is slow but nevertheless it is progress.

This month has been very busy with work projects. With my colleagues from 6 other provinces I have been to Phnom Penh to be trained how to teach English to grade 4 pupils. VSO will now deliver the training to 40 grade 4 teachers in Ratanakiri and they teach their students. It is a very simple but well written course devised by a  VSO volunteer (from the UK)  working in Phnom Penh at the Department of Curriculum Development. Of course delivering the training is easy for an old hand like me. Follow up in the schools is going to be the complicated issue plus the little detail that no teachers here can speak any English! I will keep you posted on the progress.

I am also working with another NGO CARE to help them deliver training on managing libraries in the communities.

Krola Village in O Chum District-the newly built Library.

Yesterday, when I went to visit the village I was expecting the library to be finished and ready for the fixtures and fittings. There is still work to be done on the floor and to make it rodent and bird safe.
At first I was concerned about the training but after meeting the community and seeing the library I realise very basic management techniques are required and most people from the developed world could do this.

We have had a problem in Cambodia with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease in many provinces and the government took action and closed all the schools two weeks early, this was against WHO advice. So many of my activities which needed to end the school year are not completed. This means extra work in September and October before I can begin the new year activities. There are many rumours going around the communities embellishing the problems of HFMD and many people are very, very worried. As there are no newspapers reaching Ratanakiri, and many people are illiterate people rely heavily on the television and the radio for news. Many of the communities do not have good access to electricity or to television and rumour is spread very quickly. The majority of the communites will have one television set which is usually in the Chief's house and this is run by a generator which of course costs money they do not have. So maybe an hour a night the television is on and all the families will gather in the one house to watch. Here it is also very easy to hire a camera man to film your occasion and have it on TV the next night for a grand sum of $25. I have used this many times for campaigns such as gender equality, school enrolment, etc. It is very strange to see yourself and others after the event.