New Village Kindergarten Gives Children Education And Balanced Life

Posted: 1st November 2007

KDOL LEU (UCAN) -- A newly opened Church-run kindergarten in a largely Catholic village offers preschool children not only basic education but also two meals a day and two hours of "rest time."

The two-classroom kindergarten, opened on Sept. 15, is the first in Kdol Leu, one of Cambodia's oldest existing Catholic communities, which also has a Church-initiated primary school.

The 28 children, aged 5-6, who attend the kindergarten from 7.30 a.m. to 12 noon get breakfast and lunch, according to Moum Vanna, one of the two teachers. But the noon meal does not end the program, she said, because the children then get to sleep for two hours.

"If we allow the children to go home at noon, they will not take a nap, because their parents will ask them to do chores at home," explained Vanna, 24, wearing a "Save the Children" T-shirt.

"I am very happy to have the kindergarten here because it helps the children grow in knowledge before they enter primary school," she remarked. Before Vanna became a teacher here, she learned about early childhood education by taking a one-month training program offered by an NGO and then did a two-week internship in Phnom Penh at the Don Bosco Vocational School for girls.

Kdol Leu village in Kompong Cham province, about 150 kilometers northeast of the capital, has about 20 Catholic families. Most depend on farming for their livelihood.

Parents pay 300 riel (less than US$0.08) a day for their child to attend the kindergarten. This small contribution helps to pay for the children's food.

A farmer who has one child in the kindergarten said he appreciates the kindergarten's contribution by "protecting the children, because now they will not be running around and playing everywhere, which is dangerous."

Veck, 30, who also has three other children, told UCA News that children today can learn to read and write, and have a better future, "unlike my generation, who didn't have anything but only farmed."

"I really thank the priest and the Church committee that built the kindergarten," he said.

According to Father Ivan Campana, parish priest in Kdol Leu, "One reason for building this kindergarten is because the parents in our village don't have time to look after their children, especially during the rice-planting season."

The Ecuadorian missioner of the Colombia-based Yarumal mission society told UCA News discussions were held between local Church committee members and village parents before starting on the project. "They supported it," he said, adding that he received US$5,000 from friends and an NGO to start the project.

The priest plans to invite all parents every three months to talk about how their children are doing. "We plan to educate the parents as well. We will teach them about hygiene and how to clean and prepare food," he said.

"Many families from other villages have come to ask us to accept their children into the kindergarten," Father Campana noted, but he does not see this as possible now. "We have not accepted their children so far because this is the first time that we have had this kindergarten in our village. We want to see how it goes first, and if it is successful, we will think about their proposals," he explained.

Another local farmer, Chrep, who has a son in the kindergarten, told UCA News that now she is not worried while working in the rice field, "because I know he is safe and has someone to look after him."

While breast-feeding another of her children on a hammock, the 30-year-old mother said the kindergarten will keep children from "running around everywhere, especially in the bamboo forest, where there are lots of harmful snakes and insects."

Article Source: UCAN