The Steve Sinnott Foundation Response to COVID-19 Crises in Phnom Penh
Nicola Palairet is the Partnership Development Director for Flame and
has been working in Phnom Penh for more than five years now.
Life for the marginalised families living in Phnom Penh’s slum
communities is tenuous at the best of times. Flame staff identify
families whose children are unable to attend school because of
financial pressure. We give these children the opportunity to go to
school. For many it’s not just a chance for education, it’s a radical
change in their life’s trajectory. Without it, these children would
be unable to break out of the cycle of poverty. SSF and Flame are
partnering to make a difference in their lives.
While official cases of COVID have been remarkably low in Cambodia,
closing borders and the overall shrinking of the economy has led to
massive losses in the tourism and hospitality sectors. COVID-19 has
increased stress and financial hardship significantly. For some, there
has been the threat of homelessness; for others, a decrease in daily
wages has impacted the ability to put food on the table. Incomes
for those ‘at risk’ is so low that hunger was already a serious issue
pre-COVID. So, even when a family recognises the importance of
education, food is the first priority – and school takes second place.
Many children have a deep desire to learn in school but are prohibited
by the financial strain on their families. We have sought to address this.
Children who in the past have had to work to support their families
or provide care for younger siblings are now regulars in school and
attend the Flame After School Centres daily where they laugh and
learn, as well as get a nutritious snack and have their own toothbrush!
There are computer classes for the older kids and daily literacy and
numeracy lessons for each child. The centres are clean and bright, and
the teachers who have also come from hard backgrounds, appreciate
the challenges of education for these young kids. They know exactly
what it’s like to face huge obstacles and overcome them. This is what
we call ‘The Full Circle’.
As a young child, one of the children in our program, Sokea, walked
the streets with a huge plastic sack of recycled bottles on his back.
His recycling work to support his family left him no time for school. At
home, his dad was on a small daily wage as a motorbike taxi-driver and
his mother was bedridden. When we first met him at 9 years old, he
told us that he would love to attend school. He had previously been in
school but had to drop out to support his family.
We visited his parents
and asked permission for Sokea to attend public school and our After
School Centre. We said we would supplement the family for the loss of
Sokea’s income and they agreed. When finances were tight, however,
his family continued to send him out to collect plastic, but this is
often part of the transition from working to education. The family and
Sokea understood the importance of regular school attendance but
making school a daily priority was hard.
Sokea has now enrolled at the University of Management to study law. He works part time for Flame
and is a kind and conscientious guy who actively comes alongside
other kids and encourages them to stay in school.
You can read more
about Sokea on the Flame website:
www.flamecambodia.org/blog/sokea-from-collecting-plasticbottles-
to-university21/1/2021.
The Steve Sinnott Foundation has partnered with Flame to support
children of the urban poor in Phnom Penh who struggle to access
education. SSF has provided school supplies for 250 children.
From Engage edition 22.
Nicola Palairet • July 12, 2021
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us.
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.
